Hi friends!

May is the most beautiful month in Sweden. The lilacs are in full bloom and the birds are singing their hearts out (starting at 4am with dawn in the far North!) I hope spring is treating you kindly.

We have a new paper out TODAY on three questions for climate action; I want to share the scents of solastalgia, which transported me back to a cloudberry-covered hill from 2019; and I’ve got tips for a climate movie night that is both fun, and three high-impact climate actions in one!

Facts: Systems are made of people. Here’s how to change them. 🕸️🧑‍🤝‍🧑

Our research shows that the most effective approach to climate action is for people to make change within societal systems, not just as consumers. After all, what are systems made of if not people? Harnessing this agency to shape institutions, norms and networks will unlock broader social and structural changes.

Booyah! That’s Charlotte Kukowski and me, writing in The Conversation about our new article (together with six wonderful coauthors) published today in Nature Climate Change.

We’ve developed a way to help you find your highest-impact actions, based on who you already are and what you can realistically do. It starts with three questions.

1. Which roles do you already occupy?
   → Your Top 5 Climate Superpowers, We Can Fix It October 2021

2. Within those roles, which actions carry the most climate weight?
   → SHIFT, the Super High-Impact Initiative for Fixing Tomorrow 

3. And what’s holding you, or others, back from taking them?

→ If you have leverage, use it, and reduce barriers to help others join you!

Consider…a hospital procurement officer: by shifting institutional catering towards plant-based options or selecting renewable energy providers, they shape the choices available to dozens or hundreds of colleagues, influencing supply chains and shifting perceptions of what’s normal and doable along the way. And someone who discovers their pension is funding fossil fuels can push their employer to offer ethical options to all staff, not just those who are in a position to ask.

The framework works at every level of influence, from a community member to a CEO. Those in high-leverage roles have multiplier effects. This happens when an action they take, such as implementing climate into school curricula, can extend well beyond their own choices, in this case by enabling children to have conversations about climate with their friends and at home.

-Charlotte Kukowski and Kimberly Nicholas, The Conversation, May 27, 2026

I hope this paper can help move past the tiresome system “versus” behavior change “debate”. After all:

Climate paralysis often comes from feeling powerless in the face of vast systems. But perhaps the most important insight from our work is this: systems are made of people, and people have roles, choices and influence that extend well beyond their shopping habits.

-Charlotte Kukowski and Kimberly Nicholas, The Conversation, May 27, 2026

Read the full popular science piece in The Conversation, and the paper in Nature Climate Change.

Feelings: Scents of Solastalgia 🫙🕯️🕯️

At the Swedish Climate Symposium last week, I went to a cool talk by Dr. Tarsh Bates, a postdoc at Umeå University who studies how people and animals use their sense of smell to “understand and manage ecological distress and welcome or imagine novel ecologies.”

Tarsh’s Scents of Solastalgia project explores how the sense of smell contributes to “experiences of place and of environmental change and loss.”

Solastalgia is “the distress caused by environmental change” or “a form of homesickness one gets when one is still at home, but the environment has been altered and feels unfamiliar.” (It’s derived from the Latin solacium (comfort) and Ancient Greek algia (pain, as in nostalgia)).

Tarsh passed around small vials of scents distilled from Arctic landscapes facing climate change: cloudberries, which may struggle to grow in drying permafrost; lichen, which reindeer in Sámi territories once smelled through snow, but now struggle to find as warming causes melt and refreeze cycles that seal it beneath ice.

Smelling the cloudberry vial in a Lund conference room last week transported me back to a summer evening in 2019, when Simon and I took our first sailing trip in Lofoten, Norway. We anchored in a peaceful bay and rowed a little dinghy ashore to find a hillside covered with cloudberries, some of which we picked and shared.

If you’d like to reflect on the scent of your sense of place, Tarsh offers the following prompt in an online talk:

What smell of place comes to mind for you? I’d love to hear where your favorite scent takes you.

Leave a comment

Action: Host a Climate Movie Night

I’m an avid reader of climate fiction, but a halfhearted watcher of films. It took me almost five years to get around to watching Don’t Look Up, which everyone said was great, and it was!

But film and TV (or whatever we’re supposed to call streamed medium-length visual creations nowadays) play a huge role in shaping culture. And changing culture is one of the biggest levers for changing systems (to return to the theme of our new paper above!)

Paradigms and mental models are THE most powerful leverage points for system change, according to the famous framework from Donella Meadows. And arts and culture powerfully shape and reflect mindsets and paradigms, in everything from social norms to what people aspire towards and believe is possible.

So hosting a climate movie night is a great climate action: you’re building climate community, creating climate conversations, and cultivating a cultural shift around climate, three of the high-impact actions you can take as a role model.

To find your film, check out the new Green Title Database, which pulls together films and TV shows with a climate or environmental theme. Right now there are 350 titles included.

The database goes way beyond the obvious climate documentaries (though those are there too!) to include everything from the 2023 film adaptation of Andreas Malm’s How to Blow Up a Pipeline to Love is Blind (featuring a clean energy consultant) to a Queer Eye episode featuring a makeover for a climate activist.

You can filter by genre and budget range, and more intriguingly, by:

• Narrative framing: everything from Catastrophe, to Humor, to Nonhuman/Nature Perspective, to Coming of Age Through an Eco Lens

• Cause of climate change: A big one is Corporate Misbehavior (97 titles), Overconsumption (42), Toxic Individualism (36), and Fossil fuels (18).

• Climate solutions: Including Activism/protests (121); Clean Energy (36); Politics and Policy (34); Land back/Indigenous solutions (29).

If the database is missing your favorite climate flick, you can submit a title.

What climate movie do you recommend, or did you find from Green Titles? Let me know in the comments or by hitting reply!

(A caveat: I’m not entirely convinced by all the materials from Green Titles creator Sustainable Entertainment Alliance. For example, their separate Green Production Guide focuses on low-impact actions, like using organic makeup, with nary a mention of fossil fuels in sight. But other linked resources, like this guide from Albert for telling climate stories, look great.)

Parting Tidbits

Recent media:

Every flight avoided is a high-impact climate action. If you’re going to fly, go economy class, direct, & pack light. My interview (in great company!) for Wirecutter.

That wraps up this month’s newsletter. You’ll see me back in your inbox in August. I’ll be taking a break in July to spend time with loved ones + nature; I hope you can do some of the same!

xo,
Kim

Hi friends!

I’m having coffee in the sunshine on a ferry home from Oslo, where I advised colleagues on the FLYWELL project, studying reducing flying while maintaining wellbeing. I can actually feel the warmth of the sun on my face—a feeling I forget how much I’ve missed every long Scandi winter until it returns.

This month, I’ve got a garden of climate solutions, Climate Wayfinding, and building a coalition of the willing for you— let’s dive in!

Facts: A Garden of Climate Solutions

A new paper in Science presents 36 strategies to solve climate change. If we implement 20 of them and keep up current climate policies, we can limit warming to 1.5°C. BOOM!

This study shows how much climate pollution each solution avoids, enabling apples-to-apples comparisons using “climate wedges”. One wedge reduces global emissions 4% by 2050.

Current policies represent 17 wedges; fully implemented, they get us about halfway to 1.5°C. (I find it heartening to know our pretty half-assed global efforts are working!)

The goal is to identify solutions that are both effective (the wedges add up to the emissions reductions needed) and socially supported (accounting for co-benefits, risks, and political preferences, not just costs).

The 36 climate solution wedges include:

• 12 from nature (e.g., protecting tropical forests, eating less meat);

• 8 from electricity (solar, wind);

• 7 from transport (replacing car trips with walking or biking, flying less);

• 6 from industry (decarbonizing cement and steel);

• 3 from buildings (heat pumps, clean cookstoves).

Some wedges can be repeated: 6.6% of global electricity is one wedge, so 13.2% of new solar capacity is two. Nature, followed by industry and electricity, have the greatest potential emissions reductions.

The analysis shows these options have equivalent global climate benefits:

Reduce flying 70% =

Replace 17% of fossil cars with electric vehicles =

Replace 73% of current cookstoves with clean ones =

Install heat pumps in 38% of global buildings =

Reduce meat consumption 31% in over-consuming regions

Less than half the wedges (17/36) appear in the IPCC database, which favors tech and power sector solutions, while under-representing solutions involving behavior change, nature, and degrowth (reduced production and consumption).

The Johnson and Staffell analysis provides support for effective nature-based and behavioral solutions that current models overlook.

P.S. Remember, global emission calculations don’t translate to the most effective household or business decisions. Make sure you choose climate actions based on what’s most effective for your context. Cool? Cool.

Feelings: Grounded by Climate Wayfinding

If there’s an antidote to doomscrolling, it’s the feeling of grounded calm and clarity I got from ’s new book Climate Wayfinding: Healing Ourselves and the Planet We Call Home. Reading it feels like having a wise, earnest friend by your side, encouraging you to trust yourself and connect with others and the Earth.

Through essays, poems, playlists, and prompts for meditation, journaling, and gathering, Climate Wayfinding offers a gentle invitation to create space for All the Climate Feels, and to listen inward for your own role in healing the climate crisis, rooted in love for people and nature.

Katharine lifts up the voices and stories of others, showing what the community she advocates building can look like. This book is a guide for walking the climate path for the long haul by focusing on the journey, not the destination.

Action: Build a Coalition of the Willing

One way to get action going is to build a coalition of the willing. That’s exactly what 54 world governments, led by Colombia and The Netherlands, just wrapped up with the First Conference on Transitioning Away from Fossil Fuels (just writing that gives me chills!!).

Participating governments, including EU member states, the UK, Australia, Mexico, Brazil, and Canada, among others, represent about 20% of global fossil fuel production and a third of fossil fuel demand.

Why a separate conference?

The main international climate forum, the annual Conference of the Parties (COP), relies on consensus from every country, including the handful who deny climate science or whose choices to depend on fossil fuels lead them to block their necessary phaseout.

Although governments agreed to “transition away from fossil fuels” at the COP in 2023, petro-state lobbying keeps strong language out of agreement texts. At the 2025 COP, 80 countries demanded a roadmap to phase out fossil fuels, but this didn’t happen.

The Transition conference was born as a space to explicitly pursue the needed transition away from fossil fuels:

“[T]his is not a space for us to fight about whether we are going to do [the transition away from fossil fuels]. This is a space for those who are ready to move forward.” – NPR interview with Daniela Durán, from Colombia’s Ministry of Environment

Guiding principles

The guiding principles for the conference are music to my ears:

1) Participation by those ready for action

2) Focus on action, not problem diagnosis

3) Focus on solutions that make a fast and fair transition away from fossil fuels.

Conference results

The conference announced its Takeaways in three main Pillars:

1. Reduce economic dependence on fossil fuels.

2. Transform supply and demand away from fossil fuels.

3. Advance international cooperation and climate diplomacy.

The idea of “Fossil Free Zones” is also gaining traction, where fossil extraction is forbidden in critical natural areas like the Amazon and Indonesian rainforest.

Next steps

Conference Takeaways also promised work will continue in three main areas for “frontrunner cooperation”:

1. Help countries develop fossil-free roadmaps, with the help of the new Scientific Panel for the Global Energy Transition (SPGET, nicknamed “Spaghetti”).

2. Finance the transition, including addressing incentives and subsidies and unlocking investment.

3. Make a people-centered, territorially-grounded transition away from producing and consuming fossil fuels.

Conference lessons to inspire our own action

1. Name the problem: fossil fuels cause over 75% of climate pollution.

2. Focus on solutions that eliminate the problem at its roots.

3. Emphasize benefits like fairness, security, and jobs.

4. Build coalitions of the willing. Don’t wait for someone else to go first.

5. Those most affected should lead. The Second Conference will be hosted by Tuvalu; their hosting video gave me chills. “If we save the Pacific, we most definitely will save the world.”

Parting Tidbits

Upcoming talks, come see me here:

I’ll talk about using our SHIFT guide for teaching evidence-based, high-impact climate action at the Swedish Climate Symposium at 13:00 on May 21 (Session “Impact: S2.8”).

I’ll attend the PhD defense of my mentee Lina Lefstad on May 13 at 10:00 at LUCSUS in Lund. Come hear Lina on “Reimagining Carbon Capture and Storage for Just Climate Change Mitigation”.

Thanks to Sara Nilsson Lööv for interviewing me on her podcast with Frida Hylander (interview in English, discussion in Swedish):

Book Recommendation

Climate Wayfinding: Healing Ourselves and the Planet We Call Home, by Katharine K. Wilkinson. The perfect read for a season of new beginnings— see above!

xo,
Kim

Hi friends,

The first signs of spring are here in Sweden, and they are SO welcome after the long dark winter. Hope that sunshine and spring flowers are reaching your corner of the world too!

Alongside joy at spring flowers, I’ve had despair on my mind lately. I know despair has been on many of your minds and hearts, too. So this month, I’ll explore a feeling we never talk about, but that connects us. And I’ll share our new paper on how to communicate climate action, and my good news on going solar— lots to unpack!

Feelings: Despair, Together 🕳️🫱🏽‍🫲🏻

If you’re feeling despair, you’re not alone.

Some of you have reached out to me directly to share this heavy feeling. In your words:

“I admit to being in despair about our species much of the time… how out of touch with reality our leaders and populace are and how far we are from where we need to be with environmental solutions…”

“…sinking into AI-related despair… end is nigh stuff…”

—We Can Fix It readers

I’ve had plenty of my own dark nights of the soul. I’ve contemplated the worst possible outcomes. I’ve felt like we’re in the dumbest and darkest timeline. I’ve Googled “climate change when to give up” when I felt like nothing I do matters; maybe nothing can avert the train wrecks of global geopolitics and climate. I’ve seen how avoidance can tip into doom and despair, if we don’t find ways to navigate All the Climate Feels.

So I went searching for wisdom on despair. Turns out to be a deep well to explore.

The one-woman force behind The Marginalian, has lots of her own wisdom on despair in this series of articles. Her usual excellent curation highlights writers and poets who have plumbed the darkest corners of the human experience.

I particularly loved this one:

“Just as there are transitional times in the life of the world — dark periods of disorientation between two world systems, periods in which humanity loses the ability to comprehend itself and collapses into chaos in order to rebuild itself around a new organizing principle — there are such times in every human life, times when the entire system seems to cave in and curl up into a catatonia of anguish and confusion, difficult yet necessary for our growth.

In such times, the most courageous thing we can do is surrender to the process that is the pause, trust the still dark place to kindle the torchlight for a new path and vitalize our forward motion toward a new system of being.”

—Maria Popova, “The Art of the Sacred Pause and Despair as a Catalyst of Regeneration,” The Marginalian

The philosopher Mara van der Lugt argues in Hopeful Pessimism that we must distinguish pessimism (the entirely understandable view that the future looks bleak) with fatalism (the belief that the future is set in stone, and there is nothing we can do to change it). She argues we should avoid fatalism, but “pessimism and activism are perfectly compatible— indeed, in some cases they have proven to be an especially powerful combination.”

van der Lugt advocates for what she calls “blue hope”— a hope rooted in the uncertainty of the future, based on doing what is right and worth doing, even without certainty of success. Blue hope is “hope that knows it can always be defeated, but as it does not depend on outcomes it won’t disintegrate on this.”

The idea of “a hope that can and often does go hand in hand with despair” resonated for me, as did Cornel West’s claim “Those who have never despaired have neither lived nor loved.”

Despair is such hard terrain to navigate, but it is a place we will all spend time. Despair doesn’t have to be lonely. Let’s make space to acknowledge it.

Leave a comment

Please take good care, friends. If you are struggling, please draw on support. Check out the excellent offerings at the Unthinkable Resource Hub from Dr. .

P.S. Wendell Berry’s “The Peace of Wild Things” always grounds me “when despair for the world grows in me”.

Facts: Treat Climate Comms Like Science 🗣️👩🏽‍🔬

In a new paper led by Manuel Suter, we argue that climate communication should look a lot different than it does today. Specifically, we suggest:

1. Target the global top 10% (that’s likely you, dear reader!)

2. Advocate for specific, evidence-based, high-impact climate actions, like those found in the SHIFT guide! To maintain trust and credibility, be clear the communication aims to not just provide info, but also spark action.

3. Go beyond consumer actions to include actions as citizens, professionals, investors, and role models.

4. Use field experiments, like messaging on social media, to test and refine effective messages.

5. Study the effects of variables like type and content of message, platform, and messenger.

6. Collaborate between researchers and communicators like NGOs or influencers.

We believe this approach can help make climate communication more effective and evidence-based, drive climate action through effective messaging, make good use of existing knowledge and resources to leverage impact relatively easily, and help researchers feel they’re doing work that matters.

If you’re doing climate comms and want to collaborate on this approach, please get in touch! Or if you know someone workin in communications, please share this post with them to encourage them to try out our approach.

Action: I went solar! ☀️🔋

I got solar panels and battery storage for my house in California! Whoohoo!

Show me the money

I paid $19,300 for the panels (minus 30% incentive from Federal Investment Tax Credit, so net $13,510). Additionally, I paid $16,000 for battery storage. (I did have to reroof the house first, which was overdue, and cost about $18,000.) The estimated payback time for my solar is less than 6 years, with almost $50,000 lifetime savings.

For a contractor, I went with Andrew from Element Electric, who was recommended by the Electrify My Home folks who installed my heat pump a few years ago. Andrew was easy to work with, took care of permits, and provided all the info I needed. The installation itself only took a couple days.

I got a solar loan at 7.99% from my credit union that lets me spread out the payments over five years. (I compared solar loans through the GoGreen website from the State of California.)

Emissions savings

In the US, transportation + housing contribute the majority of household carbon footprint (about two-thirds for low-income households, and 53% for high-income, according to this 2019 study). In the housing domain, the most effective actions to reduce your household climate pollution include refurbishment and renovation (efficiency upgrades), heat pumps, and producing your own renewable energy, according to this meta-analysis led by Diana Ivanova.

Social benefits galore

Distributed tech like solar panels has lots of advantages. Compared with huge “lumpy” infrastructure like massive nuclear or carbon capture plants, “tiny tech” like solar features “faster diffusion, lower investment risk, faster learning, more opportunities to escape lock-in, more equitable access, more job creation, and higher social returns on innovation investment. In combination, these advantages enable rapid change,” writes my friend Charlie Wilson with colleagues in a 2020 Science article. Good stuff!

You can help spread the decarbonization love (and flex your role model climate superpower) by going solar. Research shows that rooftop solar is contagious. If your neighbors (within about 200 meters) have solar panels, you are much more likely to have them too, according to a 2021 study.

Options if rooftop solar isn’t for you

A great alternative to adding your own rooftop solar: community solar, where you “subscribe to a local solar farm,” preferably within about 15 miles/ 25 kilometers so it’s helping decarbonize your local grid. In the US, the nonprofit Solar United Neighbors has a great overview of community solar, links to available programs, and tips on advocating for more solar near you to make community solar more widely available.

In Europe, check out REScoop, a network of 2 million citizens running 2,500 energy cooperatives, which are citizen-owned renewable energy communities. Contact one near you, or get help to start your own. Their website is inspiring!

Parting Tidbits

Upcoming talks, come see me here:

April 13, 15:00-17:00: “Individual climate action with impact.” Come join me at Copenhagen Business School for a lecture followed by mingling over drinks + snacks!

I’ll be in Oslo April 27-28 for the FLYWELL project + CICERO Day. Get in touch if you want to book a talk or have coffee!

Book Recommendation

The Deluge, by Stephen Markley. Wow I lost a lot of sleep staying up late and waking up early to finish this book. I am gobsmacked by what the author pulled off. Fierce, bone-chillingly terrifying, filled with dread, all the best and worst of humanity, characters I cared deeply about, twists that surprised me. Political violence, ethical dilemmas, betrayal, selfishness, cynicism, and hope anyway. Nuanced debates on AI, international policy, identity politics. Plus wonky climate policy. I can get annoyed at very long books, wondering if I got as much out of one long-ass book as three normal ones. In this case, yes. The scope and ambition delivers. If you read one book this year, make it this one.

xo,
Kim

Hi friends,

I hope your 2026 has been off to a more peaceful start than mine! I’m happy to report that my dad is now doing well in a lovely senior living community, but it was an extremely stressful January. Lots of love and strength to all of you with aging parents.

This month, we’ll reveal some unsung climate heroes, and I’ll share my favorite new game, which happens to be about solving climate change. Here goes!

Facts: Unsung Climate Heroes🏞️

Did you know that wetlands store more carbon per hectare than tropical forests? I didn’t, and I did my master’s degree in ecosystem carbon cycling!

I learned this nifty fact from the new Carbon Garden at the wonderful Kew Gardens, a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Ecosystems vary a lot in how much carbon they store aboveground in trees and grasses, vs. how much carbon builds up in soil from the leaves, stems and roots of those plants when they die.

In cold and waterlogged ecosystems, like boreal forests and wetlands, microbes can’t break down much of the soil carbon, so it accumulates. Globally, there’s more than twice as much carbon in nature (soil + vegetation) as in the atmosphere. (DG Environment from the European Commission has a good overview.)

The IPCC ranks natural climate solutions like protecting and restoring ecosystems among the most effective measures available to fight climate change. (We’ll also need to build lots of wind and solar energy to replace fossil fuels.) One more reason to save and restore nature!

Action: Play Climate Games 🎲

Climate change is serious business, but what if solving it could be … fun?

I’m a big board game geek (relative to the general population; among true board game geeks, I’m considered a mere enthusiast). I’ve played climate-themed games before, which were… educational… but honestly, not something I’d do in my free time.

So I was super happy to play a new board game that was fun enough to play two nights in a row, with the added bonus that it’s about solving climate change!

Daybreak has clever strategy like Terraforming Mars, beautiful design like Wingspan, and feisty collaboration like Pandemic. [Fun fact, Simon and I got engaged playing Pandemic Legacy 🤓].

In Daybreak, you play the role of the EU, US, China, or the Majority World, trying to replace your fossil fuels with clean energy and eliminate high-emitting cars, agriculture, and buildings. If you remove fossil fuels too aggressively, energy supply may not meet demand, and rioting communities slow you down and distract your resources. So you have to stay focused, plan carefully, and build resilience to withstand social and biophysical shocks. This 11-minute video explains how to play.

Why are games climate action?

What will we need to solve climate change? Well, creativity, collaboration, experimentation, daring to try, learning as we go, learning from failure, and an expansive sense of possibility will all come in handy. Games are wonderful ways to tap into these ways of being and working. Plus, they help bring out silliness and laughter, which is just good for the soul and makes us want to keep at it. I love how puts it: “Play is the opposite of survival mode.”

Games can spark conversations and insights that can translate to real-world understanding and action. Plus, games are a great way to maximize fun while minimizing carbon. One of my favorite studies, on “High Subjective Wellbeing, Low-Carbon Leisure,” identified “games and hobbies,” along with reading, music, and sleep and rest, as activities to live better and happier while consuming and emitting less.

Do you have any climate games you love? Let me know in the comments below!

Leave a comment

Parting Tidbits

Upcoming talks, come see me here:

March 2, 15:15: High-impact climate action for academics, Sölvegatan 18B, Lund

Book Recommendation

What We Can Know, by Ian McEwan. Gorgeously written, haunting and provocative. Really made me think about what we owe future generations, and how they’ll judge us. I love that climate fiction is being taken up by amazing novelists who make you care about the characters and conflicts and not just carbon.

xo,
Kim

P.S. Still working on improving my sleep!! It’s getting better. Thanks so much to readers for your tips. Latest trick is Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for Insomnia which has good evidence for success; check out this podcast (thanks Meg!)

Hi friends,

It’s been a minute! This fall has been jam-packed for me with back-to-back teaching (I still have to finish grading 19 papers aaaah!) and other work. In September, together with Project Drawdown, I launched the Super High-Impact Initiative for Fixing Tomorrow (the SHIFT guide to climate action). It’s been inspiring to see people making waves of climate action happen! Look for a guide to teaching SHIFT in 2026.

Then a few weeks ago, I joined the first meeting kicking off a three-year process helping lead the Second Global Assessment for Nature for the United Nations Biodiversity Panel, IPBES. I was nominated by the Swedish government to serve as one of 117 authors from over 60 countries. Our task is to synthesize knowledge to help countries meet the 2050 vision of living in harmony with nature (and meet international climate, biodiversity, and sustainability goals along the way). It was inspiring, overwhelming, and kept having “jump and the net will appear” vibes. Really grateful to be on this journey of “science and policy for people and nature”!

But first, let me tell you some very exciting news, read on!

Feelings: Joy, Anyway

The most unexpected delight of 2025 is that Simon joined Copenhagen’s funkiest brass band, the mighty Pølse Horns!! They play pop songs (think Billie Eilish, Eurythmics, Daft Punk) on a bunch of instruments you can probably name, and several you probably can’t, with such infectious energy and joy!

Simon’s new gig came to pass through a series of events involving the good fortune to grow up in a musical family and with a public school with a band, then not playing a brass instrument for 25 years; buying a euphonium (=tiny tuba) from an elderly man on the internet in a pandemic, for a custom-arranged inauguration song that never came to pass; the sad closure of our favorite brewery in Sweden, Brekkeriet, leading us to a chance encounter with the Pølse Horns at a beer festival; the universe sending a sign that it was time for Simon to audition for a band of mostly DTU students and graduates (we joke that he’s putting the “plus” in the description of the group as “mostly age 25-35+”); and his triumphant acceptance after audition!

The Pølse Horns, Nov ‘25. Look at that handsome euphonium player in green! 😍 Video by me

I’m so proud of Simon for jumping into something new with both feet, and it was such a joy to join his first gig last month. Imagine a crowd of people so moved by dancing and singing along to music they love that they think nothing of standing outdoors in dreary Scandi winter for an hour. It was a powerful reminder of how good it feels to move and make music together.

Things can be dark, and there is still room for pure joy. I hope you find some joy, or help create some, over the holidays.

P.S. Next time you’re in Copenhagen, be sure to catch the Pølse Horns live! Their next gig is January 23 at Drop Inn.

Facts: Trading the Earth for Stuff

People need nature for our survival, as well as meaning.

But currently, we are trading the Earth for stuff. 😢

This was a major conclusion of the first IPBES Global Assessment Report on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services, which came out in 2019.

Only three of the 27 indicators across 18 categories of Nature’s contributions to people are improving over the last 50 years.

Basically, we are trading farmland for food, feed, and fuel for everything else: clean air and water, habitat for the 8 million+ species we share the planet with, climate, the learning, inspiration, and identity people derive from nature…. it’s pretty grim.

In 2028, when my colleagues and I release our update on this report, we’ll share some ideas about how we could do better!

Action: Chill

This month, your high-impact climate action is to… do less. We all need rest, and the end of the year is a good time to reflect and renew. A few ideas:

Maybe you can try to journal about the highs and lows of the last year? I have a tradition of writing down the main memories, activities, books, events of the past year over 2 pages in my journal. It’s really nice to reflect on!

Spend some time outside. Bad weather looks worse through a window. :)

Get good sleep! Thank you SO much to the readers who sent sleeping tips, especially this podcast really helped! I’m still working on the meditation— will report back.

Hope you all can be kind to yourself about all the good you gave to the world in 2025, and give yourself some grace to take a real break to go into 2026 with renewed energy. See you there!

P.S Check out my tips for Real Rest from December 2023!

Parting Tidbits

Upcoming talks, come see me here:

Join me, Claire Elise Thompson, and the lovely readers of Grist to chat about Under the Sky We Make in their online book club on January 14! Register here.

xo,
Kim

Hi friends,

Thanks for being here! On a dreary rainy day, it’s cheering to know you’re out there, doing Good Climate Things. This week I’m finishing teaching my new Climate Science and Politics course. It’s been a joy to see my students use the SHIFT guide to take and share meaningful climate action. 💚

I’ve found some research on effective climate action, and effective stress reduction, I want to share with you. So without further ado, on to the facts, feelings, and action!

Facts: Individual Action Supports System Change

The backlash against individual action

You, dear reader of We Can Fix It, know what it will take to stop climate change. Humans must stop burning fossil fuels, and stop destroying nature. (More details.)

To achieve real zero emissions in the real world, we will need both government-led system changes (taxes, regulation, infrastructure investments…), AND behavior change to reduce overconsumption by high emitters.

For decades, research focused almost entirely on system levers for addressing climate change. (Especially carbon taxes. Economists LOVE studying a good carbon tax.)

It was only in 2022, 32 years after its first report, that the IPCC climate panel finally went beyond sectors like “industry” to include “demand-side” measures (changing what and how much people consume, via changes in tech, behaviors, and infrastructures). And hey, they found demand-side measures could reduce global greenhouse gas emissions 40-70%. Better late than never!

So behavior change is an important part of climate action. But recent disillusionment among behavioral scientists has prompted a backlash against individual action. Some worry focusing on individual action may “crowd out” support for system change. Some earlier studies have found support for this concern. For example, a non-peer-reviewed preprint calls individual action a “costly distraction,” and found that showing people only individual climate solutions made them more likely to suggest individual solutions when asked to come up with actions. ♻️

New study: Individual AND system action

A new study tested the relationship between individual and systemic climate action in Australia and Iran. The key finding:

“There’s no need to pit the individual against the system, when we know from research that climate campaigns can be most effective when they both work hand in hand. The success of systemic policies often depends on individual behavior. Our evidence points to a synergistic relationship.”

- lead author Omid Ghasemi, University of New South Wales

Specifically, regardless of their exposure to individual climate solutions, participants in both countries “expressed moderately high support for climate policies, rated them as effective, and perceived them as necessary.” Study participants consistently:

• supported systemic policies and changes

• attributed greater responsibility to the government

• perceived minimal conflict between systemic and individual approaches

• rated systemic policies as more effective than individual ones.

Critically, people more willing to engage in high-impact climate action themselves, and who believed these actions to be more effective, showed more support for systemic solutions and a stronger perceived need for structural change. (They sound like We Can Fix It readers!)

(At the same time, people more committed to taking personal action shifted more responsibility to individuals over governments, and perceived systemic solutions as slightly less effective. However, this didn’t translate to reduced climate policy support overall.)

I have thoughts on how to use these findings to promote effective climate action… keep reading!

Feelings: How to Stress Less

Whooooo boy trying to stop climate breakdown can be stressful, amiright?? Excessive stress is bad for our precious physical and mental health.

The importance of stress hit home for me recently when a dear, recently cancer-free friend shared that her doctor’s advice for staying cancer-free was to reduce stress as much as possible. Yikes.

So I started looking into how to measure stress, and what works to improve it. (In my case, I’m particularly keen on improving sleep quality; I’d love to get more deep sleep, and wake up less during the night. I already work hard on sleep hygiene, but I welcome your tips on better sleep!)

The most helpful study I found was this meta-analysis of 58 randomized controlled trials (the gold standard of scientific studies), which measured the stress hormone cortisol before and after various interventions.

The meta-analysis found the largest effects for reducing cortisol were from mindfulness or meditation, and relaxation (like yoga).

Two exercises to lower stress

Okay, so meditation and relaxation help reduce stress. But what specifically should I do to reduce stress?

I dug into one of the studies cited in this meta-analysis, a mindfulness intervention called the ReSource Project.

Interestingly, the researchers found the most effective intervention to lower cortisol was

“care-based training of gratitude, lovingkindness, (self)-compassion, prosocial motivation, and dealing with difficult emotions.”

-Engert, Hoehne, & Singer, 2023, Mindfulness

Specifically, this successful stress-reducing training involved two parts: a lovingkindness meditation, and a deep listening partner exercise.

1. Lovingkindness Meditation

Revisit my January post for details, but in essence, you picture someone in your mind and silently wish them well:

May you be happy.

May you be safe.

May you be healthy.

May you live with ease.

There are lots of free tools online, like this Loving-Kindness Meditation for Skeptics by .

You can also find lovingkindness meditations on subscription apps like Headspace or Waking Up, both of which I use and appreciate.

2. A deep listening partner exercise

“[S]peaker and listener take turns describing feelings and bodily sensations during [1] a difficult situation and [2] a gratitude-eliciting situation experienced during the last day.

The listener does not respond, either verbally or nonverbally, instead focusing on active, empathic listening.”

-Kok & Singer, 2017, JAMA Psychiatry

Putting it into practice

I’ve been trying out these two practices for the last week: 5 minutes of meditation before bed (after promising my friend Jessika to try it, accountability!), and a few minutes of the non-judgmental listening exercise with Simon over morning coffee on the balcony. I quite like the partner exercise, and have learned new things.

My practice is less intense than the intervention studied. The authors recommended 20 minutes meditation and 10 minutes partner listening per day, 5 days per week, over 3 months.

But the most effective stress-reducing exercise is the one you actually do! I have struggled to maintain a meditation practice lately; for me, 5 minutes a day feels doable.

Why does this work?

The research team measured cortisol upon awakening, which is related to anticipated stress in the day ahead. While Engert et al. found the partner listening exercise “may have ‘immunized’ participants against the stress of negative social judgement,” the lovingkindness meditation helped through “activation of the care system owing to the cultivation of gratitude, self-compassion, and the ability to deal with difficult emotions through acceptance… [which] may be key to reducing the anticipated stress load at the beginning of a new day.”

In this study, mindfulness alone (e.g., paying attention to mental thoughts and bodily sensations) actually increased cortisol. The authors speculate that just being more aware of internal stress signals might amplify stress response. What helped reduce stress in this study was cultivating empathy and emotional regulation through the lovingkindness meditation and partner listening. These skills may have created “an ethical or socio-affective ‘anchor’” that helped people handle the increased awareness of stress.

Any success stories to share (or frustrations to vent) about reducing stress, or sleeping better? Please drop them in the comments below. 🙏

Leave a comment

Action: 5 Steps to talk effectively about climate solutions

Talking about climate action is important to break the false perception that others don’t care, to build community, and to inspire others.

So how do we avoid falling into the zero-sum-thinking trap of framing climate action as EITHER individual or systemic? Here’s some quick advice on how to talk about both together. Try it out this month and let me know how it goes!

1. Acknowledge power and accountability

• Climate responsibility scales with power. Of COURSE governments must be held accountable to deliver their climate pledges. Most of their policies are currently insufficient, to say the least. (Check out your country’s performance on Climate Action Tracker, and engage with a climate group or contact your rep directly to push for better.)

• Hold corporations accountable, including the fossil fuel industry’s history of denial, delay, and obstruction. Call out powerful interests using an individual frame (like oil producers claiming they are “just meeting demand”) to avoid their systemic responsibility. Take action at work and as an investor to stop supporting fossil fuel companies.

2. Present solutions together

• Talk about individual and systemic solutions together, not in isolation. Show their complementary roles, rather than treating them as alternatives. As Omid Ghasemi and colleagues write, making a false dichotomy reinforces the “mistaken belief that one kind of policy is sufficient, whereas the success of systemic solutions often hinges on individual trust, support, and behavior.”

3. Focus on high-impact actions!!

• Prioritize effective climate actions! (No mention of recycling allowed.) Research shows people are really bad at identifying effective actions. There’s also too much focus on consumer actions.

• Increase people’s sense of efficacy; provide evidence and direct experience of high-impact actions making a difference.

• Use the SHIFT guide to prioritize actions, and link personal to system action through the roles of citizen, professional, investor, consumer, and role model.

4. Take accountability for what you can change

• Holding titans of industry and politicians accountable doesn’t fully let you off the hook. If you’re a high emitter (quick test, if you flew on a plane in the last year), you have work to do too!

Personal changes from high emitters (not marginalized low emitters) are also needed; it’s both/ and, not either/ or.

The argument that the only changes needed are political and not individual is one way of denying responsibility. I fully agree that those with low incomes are constrained in their ability to make lifestyle changes— but they don’t need to; these are the individuals who already produce the lowest emissions. I’m less sympathetic to relatively well-off carbon overconsumers arguing they’ll change if and only if everyone else is forced to change too.

Responsibility scales with power. Certainly, there are people with much more power and responsibility than I have: deceptive oil executives; politicians who have kicked the climate can down the road for election cycle after election cycle. But that doesn’t let me off the hook for being accountable for doing what I can to help prevent climate breakdown now, starting with where I am.

-Kimberly Nicholas, Under the Sky We Make

5. Connect to values

• Link actions with personal values. Research shows “reflecting on behaviors in connection to one’s values or identity actually increases climate policy support, and leads people to feel that policies like a carbon tax, even if personally costly, reflect their values and identity.”

There you have it folks, the final word on the mutually reinforcing relationship between personal and collective action! That should settle this debate for good… or at least until the next social media post making this false dichotomy pops up. 🫠 Feel free to share this post in response!

Parting Tidbits

In the news

I was so psyched yesterday to come across this video by awesome science communicator Simon Clark (@simonoxfphys) in my Instagram feed! In 84 seconds, he gives a fantastic tour of our SHIFT climate action guide. As he says, “Not sponsored, just cool!” 😁 Thank you Simon, please check out his video!

Upcoming talks, come see me here

November 11, 12:00-13:15 CET, online talk: Social media for researchers

November 22: I’ll give a virtual keynote for the Climate Psychology 2025 conference.

Book Recommendation

The Long Heat: Climate Politics When It’s Too Late, by Wim Carton and Andreas Malm. I got to join the discussion this week for the launch of my Lund colleagues’ new book. It’s a beautifully written, disturbing and infuriating indictment of the hubris of geoengineering; an urgent reminder to keep laser focus on shutting down fossil fuels; and an ambitious reflection on the nature of the physical and social worlds.

xo,
Kim

Hi friends,

Tough day. I woke up to grim headlines, after finishing a heartbreaking book between 4-5am when I couldn’t sleep (see book recommendation below, though recommendation may be too positive a word!) But: Simon and I heard five birds from our balcony this morning, and we have each other. Hang in there, take care, and keep taking climate action. This month is pretty important, democracy is at stake… read on for how to help.

Facts: Fight Democratic Backsliding

Democratic backsliding, when “the executive branch amasses power and undermines democratic processes and institutions,” is accelerating globally.

According to the V-DEM project, only 12% of people live in liberal democracies today, and 45 countries are losing indicators of democracy, like freedom of expression.

A new study led by Christoph M. Abels identifies processes that undermine and strengthen democracy.

The researchers draw lessons from six “democratic near-misses” (like 1930s UK, and South Korea 2017), where the slide to autocracy was reversed by judicial, electoral, civil society, political, and/or regulatory action. (That’s good news, reversal is possible!)

Abels and colleagues find an underlying trigger for democratic backsliding is political leaders violating norms. 😬

Pathways to autocracy

Abels and colleagues highlight four pathways to autocracy:

1. Voter disenchantment drives inequality and weakens elections.

2. Right-wing populism undermines checks and balances that protect rights.

3. Misinformation and conspiracy theories drive cynicism and mistrust, weakening participation.

4. Polarization destroys deliberative dialogue and splits society along party lines, where the other side is considered a threat to the nation.

Counter-measures to strengthen democracy

Some counter-measures require political leaders to act, like regulating online media with oversight for algorithms, and effectively sanctioning anti-democratic leaders. (So we gotta elect better leaders, stat! Here’s how to elect bold climate leaders).

But many countermeasures to protect democracy Abels and colleagues identify can be sparked by citizens and civil society groups.

For example, building local coalitions can counter right-wing populism. Building information literacy and supporting reliable media can help counter misinformation. Joining local face-to-face groups where you socialize with diverse people helps counter polarization.

Overall, protecting democracy requires defending democratic institutions, and also everyday engagement in civic life.

Which of these actions are you already doing? Which could you step up? Let me know in the comments.

Leave a comment

Action: Protect Democracy

I’m very worried about democratic backsliding.

Democracy isn’t perfect. I’m reminded of the quote attributed to Churchill, “Democracy is the worst form of government, except all those other forms that have been tried.”

But I believe democracy is worth protecting and defending. I certainly do not want to live in a state where there are no free and fair elections; where individual and minority rights are not protected; or where citizens cannot participate in the process of governance.

Plus, democracy is good for people, and for climate. According to the Greater Good Science Center, people who live in democracies are happier and healthier, and their countries are more peaceful and better governed. A study of 72 studies found that democracies tend to produce better climate policies (though current climate policies still fall far short of what’s needed).

So your actions this month: support democracy.

Support democratic processes

• Elect climate leaders in every election (here’s how).

• Join your local climate group pushing for strong climate policy (here’s how). As we saw above, diverse local coalitions counter populism and polarization.

• Support groups like the Environmental Voter Project, turning climate-concerned people into consistent voters.

Support organizations cultivating democracy

International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance (International IDEA). An intergovernmental organization advancing democracy, with programs to support independent and resilient elections worldwide, and on climate change and democracy to build effective, inclusive political responses to the climate crisis. (Some of my favorite researchers and leaders are on their expert advisory group!)

Union of Concerned Scientists has worked on climate for over 30 years, including fossil fuel accountability, fighting disinformation, and promoting solutions. They offer resource guides for federal scientists, and evidence-based ways to strengthen democracy.

Be a part of everyday democracy

The historian has powerful advice on how to fight for democracy in practice. Some of my favorites:

Choose an institution you care about — a court, a newspaper, a law, a labor union— and take its side.

Take responsibility for the face of the world. Notice the swastikas and the other signs of hate. Remove them yourself and set an example for others to do so.

Make eye contact and small talk. It is part of being a citizen and a responsible member of society.

—Timothy Snyder, excerpted from On Tyranny

It is well worth 10 minutes of your time to watch John Lithgow read Synder’s Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century.

Thinking about...

Twenty Lessons, read by John Lithgow

Here is my best guidance for action, rendered beautifully by the great John Lithgow. I first published these lessons more than eight years ago, in late 2016. They open the twenty chapters of On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century. Millions of you, around the world, have put these lessons to good use; it has been humbling to learn how fr…

Listen now

a year ago · 17815 likes · 112 comments · Timothy Snyder

Feelings: New Resource Hub for All the Climate Feels

I’m a big fan of Dr. Britt Wray’s work at Unthinkable. Britt and team have put together an amazing new guide to help navigate climate emotions, connect with others, and get support.

I took a 1 minute quiz and chose the intentions that applied to me (including “I’ve survived a climate disaster,” “I’m so angry at the state of the world,” and “I’m an educator.”)

Then I got a link to resources, curated by Britt, to help navigate my personal challenges.

Some I’ve already known about and appreciated, like Climate Wayfinding by , 10 Steps to Climate Resilience from , and amazing resources from the Network. Plus lots of new recommendations I’m excited to dive into.

You can take the 1-minute quiz and get your very own personalized care package, or check out the resources Unthinkable suggested for me.

Parting Tidbits

Upcoming talks, come see me here

October 15, 18:00-20:00, Grand Malmö: I’ll discuss climate journalism for Publicistklubben Södra with Alexandra Urisman Otto, Karin Arbsjö, and Kersti Forsberg (in Swedish).

October 27, 10:00-12:00, Lund: I’ll join the panel for the book launch of The Long Heat: Climate Politics When It’s Too Late, by Wim Carton and Andreas Malm.

November 22: I’ll give a virtual keynote for the Climate Psychology 2025 conference.

In the news

We had over 1,300 people registered for the Drawdown webinar where we launched the SHIFT climate action guide! Thanks for taking high-impact climate action! You can catch up here:

And check out this fantastic deep dive on SHIFT by Jocelyn Timperley for the BBC!

Book Recommendation

Bewilderment, by Richard Powers. An absolutely gutting, grim, un-put-downable novel about science, grief, democracy, philosophy, the miraculous life we share this planet with, human stupidity and cowardice, and how fragile it all is. A world that feels just enough worse than our own to kick you in the heart, and hopefully towards action to fight for what’s worth saving. I can’t say I enjoyed reading, but I don’t think I’ll soon forget it either.

xo,
Kim

I’m interrupting my usual monthly publishing schedule for some VERY EXCITING BREAKING NEWS I just couldn’t wait to tell you!

Today, in partnership with the amazing team at Project Drawdown, I’m launching a personalized, research-backed guide to meaningful climate action that really makes a difference.

The Super High-Impact Initiative for Fixing Tomorrow (SHIFT) guide starts from where YOU are, and identifies your unique climate superpowers.

SHIFT distills the evidence down to specific actions you can take as a citizen, professional, investor, consumer, and role model (represented by these adorable little ambassadors below). Then we’ll give you the tools you need to take these actions in your real life. (And of course, linked references for my fellow nerds to nerd out over! 🤓)

Loyal readers may remember a beta version of this guide I launched in this newsletter last year. Thanks so much to those who gave feedback. 💚

Take me to the SHIFT guide now!

We’ve taken your feedback to heart and used it to redesign and improve the guide throughout. Including adding the most-requested feature: a downloadable PDF checklist you can come back to, share, post on your fridge and cross off items one by one with a great feeling of satisfaction… you get the idea!

I’m so happy I got the chance to work with the fabulous team of scientists, strategists, communicators, and project managers at Drawdown, and a wonderful creative team at Leap who brought SHIFT to life. We’ve poured a lot of love, brainstorming, strategy, research, writing, editing, fact-checking, testing, and revising into SHIFT.

Now please — go to jointheshift.earth to check it out, make it your own, and most importantly, take the recommended high-impact climate actions where you can make the biggest difference!

Then, please share SHIFT with a friend, colleague, neighbor... Or three.

I’m excited to see how you #MakeSHIFThappen in the world! Please share in the comments here, or using that hashtag on social media.

Happy climate action!
xo,

Kim

I'm ready to SHIFT climate action!

P.S. I’d love to see you at the webinar next week where I’ll chat with Dr. Elizabeth Bagley from Project Drawdown on the behind-the-scenes creation of SHIFT, and how you can use this guide to find and start flexing your climate superpowers. Register here!

Hi friends,

Back to school vibes! The students arrive this week, and I start teaching my new course, Climate Science and Politics, next week. It’s a rocket start after a beautiful summer. Installing the electric motor (and 90kg of batteries) on our 50-year-old sailboat was WAY more work than I expected. But we figured it out! It works great! And Simon and I loved living on the boat for 10 days, circumnavigating the Öresund. Building up to that dream of the Atlantic crossing one step at a time…

This month, I have some Good Climate News for you! Plus, making room for the sadness (and All the Climate Feels), and encouragement to join a beautiful revolution near you.

Facts: Countries legally responsible for climate harm

Did you catch this huge piece of good climate news over the summer?

A landmark, unanimous advisory opinion by the International Court of Justice found states are legally obligated to cut climate pollution, and may be held legally liable if they fail to do so.

This was a HUGE victory for the campaign started in 2019 by 27 law students from Pacific Island countries. 👏👏👏 Amazing work! 👏👏👏

Yay science!

The court built heavily on science, especially the reports from the Big Bad Mothership of Climate Facts, or the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) (refresher on who they are). As Carbon Brief reported, judges in the case also arranged a meeting with IPCC scientists.

Thank you, scientists, for writing and compiling scientific papers, and for the flood of written and oral statements that were submitted to the court to inform their opinion!

2 big findings from the legal opinion

1. States have “binding obligations to ensure the protection of the climate system”

The courts found “states have a duty to prevent significant harm to the environment”, requiring them to act with “due diligence” and use “all means at their disposal” to prevent climate harm. As Carbon Brief reported,

The court sets out the “appropriate measures” that would demonstrate due diligence, including “regulatory mechanisms…designed to achieve deep, rapid and sustained reductions” in emissions. This repeats language from the IPCC, but attaches it to countries’ legal obligations.

I love to see an IPCC quote I use on my slides in teaching show up in court! But that’s not all…

2. If states harm the climate or environment, they can be held accountable

If states do cause significant climate harm, from too-weak international climate pledges or national regulations, the court says it’s feasible to hold specific states responsible for climate damages on a case-by-case basis.

“Failure of a State to take appropriate action to protect the climate system from greenhouse gas emissions — including through fossil fuel production, fossil fuel consumption, the granting of fossil fuel exploration licences or the provision of fossil fuel subsidies — may constitute an internationally wrongful act which is attributable to that State.”

-International Court of Justice, July 2025

Got that?? States may be held liable for their excessive fossil fuel production, consumption, and subsidies!!

A court might order a country to make a climate pledge in line with its Paris obligations, or allow nations and “injured individuals” to seek “reparations” for climate damage.

The takeaway

Mega-polluting countries have long feared having to pay for the harms their climate pollution has caused. This opinion is a powerful new tool to hold governments accountable. I’m excited to see where it will lead!

Feelings: “Make room for the sadness”

My family in Sonoma, California evacuated from wildfire in 2017. I was afraid we’d have to in 2020, when I was home on an emergency visit when my hospitalized father got Covid in that scary first summer of the pandemic.

Thankfully my family was safe. But since I experienced the shattering disorientation of a grey sky and an orange sun, I don’t take blue-sky summers for granted.

As more and more of us experience the terror and grief of warming-worsened wildfires, this post from the wise Dr. Elizabeth Sawin stopped me in my tracks. With her permission, I’m sharing it with you:

I’m grateful for people like Beth who are naming and making space for All the Climate Feels. It’s good to know we are walking this tough path in company, don’t you think?

Leave a comment

Action: Join a Beautiful Revolution

Last weekend, I joined hundreds of people singing, dancing, knitting, sharing poetry and children’s books, speaking, sitting, sleeping, marching, and peacefully demonstrating for a safe climate together, through rain and shine.

The Rebellmammorna (Rebel Mammas) led 24 beautiful hours of climate action in a busy central square in Malmö, Sweden.

It was a delight to be part of. As soon as I showed up, I was offered a cookie!

Grandmas were sitting in cozy armchairs, knitting away (part of the Knitting for Climate movement).

I gave a talk thanking the demonstrators for being out on the streets, and why it makes a difference:

My first climate protest

If you’ve never been to a climate protest before, I get it. It feels like a big step to take. I was in your shoes, as I wrote about in Under the Sky We Make, pondering joining my first protest in 2014:

“I’m a scientist, not an activist,” I thought to myself. I had never been to a protest or marched in the streets for anything, and it sounded a bit . . . weird? Silly? Vulnerable?

Then I read an article that changed my mind. (I’ve looked for it and can’t find it, so that author will never know they inspired me!) Basically, it said, what if this was the thing that made the difference? There’s no way to know beforehand, and you’ll probably never know afterward either, but what if this is the start of the tipping point? “Okay,” I thought. “I’ll go.”

I sat at my kitchen table with a piece of poster board and colorful markers and pondered what to put on my sign. I ended up making a footnoted protest sign summarizing the science, with references: It’s warming. It’s us. We’re sure. It’s bad. We can fix it.

Protests work!

Now it’s your turn. Climate demonstrations are fun and energizing, they build joy and community, and they work.

If you’re among the lucky 12% of people globally who live in a liberal democracy, according to the Varieties of Democracies Project, then your most powerful climate superpower is your actions as a citizen. And peaceful protests are among your most effective citizen actions.

Peaceful protests have been shown to increase climate support, including favorable shifts in climate media coverage and public opinion. One study found increased climate protests were associated with declines in emissions in US states. Plus, joining demonstrations is a great way to meet people with the same goals as you.

How to get involved

Your high-impact action this month is to find a local group you can join and support in climate demonstrations.

It's most effective to start with an existing organization. There is one near you that would love your support!

Find the next meeting of your group, put it in your calendar, and show up! Bonus points if you bring a friend.

Your talents are needed – whether it's designing materials, building coalitions, showing up for the big day of action, updating websites, providing childcare, accounting... movements need it all!

A great place to start, with tons of chapters globally and lots of great resources for becoming a more savvy activist, is 350.org.

Actions in September 2025

350.org is co-organizing a week of action during the United Nations General Assembly, where world leaders gather in New York City.

Their Draw the Line campaign demands an equitable and just transition to phase out fossil fuels, build renewables, and shift to sustainable food.

You can find a local action for Draw the Line in cities like New York, Edmonton, Vancouver, Berlin, London, Paris, Wellington, Melbourne, Belém, Johannesburg, Dhaka, Tokyo, and more… or get support to organize your own.

In Sweden, there are climate demonstrations being organized in Stockholm for September 9 (when parliament re-opens), and Gothenburg on September 13 (one year before our next national election).

Join one of these actions, or find one near you!

Parting Tidbits

Upcoming talks, come see me here

Wednesday, September 17, 10am Pacific/1pm Eastern/19h Sweden: Drawdown Ignite webinar: Individual Climate Action with Impact: Five Climate Superpowers to SHIFT the System. I’m VERY excited to share the launch of The Super High-Impact Initiative for Fixing Tomorrow (SHIFT). I’ve been working on this for four years, and in the last year collaborating with an amazing team at Project Drawdown who has brought it to life beyond my dreams. Right here is the first public announcement — join us for the guide that helps people understand their power, and then prioritize climate actions that punch above their weight.

Friday, September 26, 13:15-17:00, Lund, Sweden: Celebrating 25 years with LUCSUS. Come hear about the past, present, and future of sustainability science research and teaching. I’ll moderate the panel, and I promise it will be lively!

Book Recommendation

The Serviceberry: Abundance and Reciprocity in the Natural World, by Robin Wall Kimmerer. This short book, more like an extended essay, is a quiet and lovely meditation on the world that’s possible if we can learn to live in peace with nature. Kimmerer writes about embracing reciprocity as a way of “keeping nature’s gifts in motion,” taking care of the gift so it can keep on giving. “Recognizing ‘enoughness’ is a radical act in an economy that is always urging us to consume more.” You can see my highlights on Goodreads.

Thanks for reading!
xo,
Kim

P.S. I’d love to hear your climate dilemmas and triumphs, please feel free to send me a voice note!

Hi friends,

It’s summer! That time of year when Swedes try to absorb a whole year’s worth of sunshine in a few weeks. Simon and I will soon be joining them, taking off on our sailboat for parts unknown as soon as our New Electric Motor arrives from Germany! That means you won’t hear from me here in July, but if you want to follow our adventures, you can check out .

But I’m getting ahead of myself— first, let’s talk about building effective collective action, resting in the grace of the world, and banning fossil advertising.

Facts: How to build effective collective climate action

The Psychology of Collective Climate Action has excellent insights for building and sustaining effective, resilient collective climate action.

I’ll share some highlights below; I highly recommend reading this new book!

What is collective climate action?

The authors start with a clear definition, which always warms my heart:

“Collective climate action is when individuals act as members of a group with the aim of changing socio-political structures in the face of the climate crisis.”

- Karen Hamann, Eva Junge, Paula Blumenschein, Sophia Dasch, Alex Wernke and Julian Bleh, 2025, The Psychology of Collective Climate Action: Building Climate Courage

Collective action goes beyond the private sphere. It can be volunteering for an environmental group, attending protests, writing your local government officials, or pushing for change at work or school.

How does collective action happen?

The book builds on the Social Identity Model of Collective Action, from a meta-analysis that found injustice, identity, and efficacy (the belief you can reach your intended goals) drove people to collective action.

How to increase effective collective climate action?

To strengthen collective climate action, strengthen its component pieces in the social identity model.

Specifically, Hamman et al. recommend:

Social identification:

• Build a shared understanding of what the group stands for

• Cultivate solidarity

• Have experiences together

• Create situations where many people join climate action

• Have fun!

Moral beliefs:

• Reflect on values

• Draw attention to injustices

• Talk about outrage

• Consider a radical flank.

Efficacy beliefs:

• Highlight success

• Share in credit for success

• Set a small number of diverse goals

• Support each other in developing and using skills

• Give appreciative feedback to others

• “Design collective climate actions that inspire people and make them feel enthusiastic, hopeful, proud, and moved.”

To make climate action resilient and effective:

Collective action:

• Pick your battles

• Participate in collective climate action, which can foster motivation.

Psychological effects:

• Actively maintain personal and group resilience to avoid burnout.

• Ensure belonging

• Celebrate success

• Cultivate efficacy

• Establish a process to handle conflict and infighting

• Make time for fun

• Spread tasks and trust others

• Take breaks.

Makes a lot of sense, right?? How can you apply these tips to climate groups you’re already a part of? Let me know in the comments below. And keep reading for a fantastic way to put these insights to use in a high-impact local campaign!

Leave a comment

Feelings: “Rest in the grace of the world”

My sister recently sent me this Wendell Berry poem.

I’d read and loved it before, but it really struck me this time.

I am someone prone to “tax my life with the forethought of grief.” This poem was such a beautiful reminder to find and appreciate the peace of wild things and places, even amidst despair for the world. <3

P.S. Watch this lovely <2 minute poetry film by Charlotte Ager & Katy Wang, while Wendell Barry reads his poem for you, from the .

Action: Lobby Your City to Ban Fossil Ads

Ready to put your collective climate action to work?

Well, how would you like to do something that, according to a recent Nature Climate Change comment:

• Counteracts decades of disinformation, denial, and delay from the fossil fuel industry, and weakens their moral license

• Fights greenwashing

• Shows that bold climate policies are possible, and legislators have a mandate to enact them

• Can succeed even in places ruled by powerful corporate interests and seats of right-wing populist power

• Enjoys twice as much support as opposition across 13 EU countries, suggesting limited potential backlash, and does not restrain consumer “freedom”

• Help unlock the climate transformation we need, by weakening the dominant, unsustainable system and creating space for sustainable alternatives

• Creates, supports, and normalizes a low-carbon culture, which can break carbon lock-in

• Reduces the cognitive dissonance of living in a world where high-carbon business as usual goes on amidst a climate emergency 🫠

Sounds pretty good, right?? Then your action this month is to….

Join or start a group to lobby your city to ban fossil fuel ads in public spaces

The Hague, city of over half a million people in The Netherlands, has already done it. In January 2025, the city became the world’s first to implement a law that prohibits advertisements for fossil fuel products and services in public spaces. No more ads for gasoline (petrol), diesel, flying, cars with internal combustion engines, contracts for fossil-based electricity, or cruises.

And they managed to enact this ban in a city that’s a major corporate base for that non-friend of climate action, Shell, and seat of national government where the anti-climate, right-wing populist party got the most votes in the last election.

AND they’ve recently won a court case, upholding the ban!

How did The Hague ban fossil ads?

1. They followed science. In 2023, a group of Dutch academics issued a government report “A Ban on Fossil Advertising: Essential but More is Needed.” Thijs Bouman and coauthors wrote about the process and what it means in a Nature Climate Change comment, which is how I heard about it.

2. They followed growing political support, including from United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres, who said in a 2024 speech:

   “Many in the fossil fuel industry have shamelessly greenwashed, even as they have sought to delay climate action – with lobbying, legal threats, and massive ad campaigns.

   Many governments restrict or prohibit advertising for products that harm human health – like tobacco.

   Some are now doing the same with fossil fuels.

   I urge every country to ban advertising from fossil fuel companies.

   And I urge news media and tech companies to stop taking fossil fuel advertising.”

   —United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres

3. They organized support from local groups to ban fossil fuel advertising and coalitions of academics, creatives, finance, politics and activists to create a social tipping point towards a sustainable new normal.

How can YOU ban fossil ads?

Lucky for us, World Without Fossil Ads has a step by step toolkit for what to do! Huge shout-out to the group Fossil Free Advertising that developed this guide and helped support the win in The Hague. See their great overview below and check out their resources to put a fossil ad ban in motion in your town!

You can also:

• Check the World Without Fossil Ads database of over 250 initiatives to ban fossil advertising. You can be inspired by recent wins like Zurich removing digital ad screens in public and see campaigns involving doctors, schools, banks, and more.

• Read up on the research providing evidence that fossil advertising helps sustain high emissions, summarized in 2 pages (+18 pages of footnotes, <3) for municipal or national ad bans.

At your next climate group meeting, suggest you take up this campaign— or invite some friends over for a backyard BBQ and get them fired up to join you!

Parting Tidbits

Upcoming talks, come see me here:

Speaking of collective action from effective climate groups— I’ll be joining the Rebel Mammas at their 24 hour climate protest in Gustav Adolfs Torg, Malmö. I’ll be there from 08:00-noon on Saturday, August 23, and giving a speech around 11. Please join us!

Book Recommendation

The Psychology of Collective Climate Action - Building Climate Courage. By Karen Hamann, Eva Junge, Paula Blumenschein, Sophia Dasch, Alex Wernke, and Julian Bleh. Clear, accessible, short but well-referenced chapters full of practical advice for creating and sustaining effective and resilient climate groups that can make real change happen. Read it at your next climate group meeting, or use it as the basis to start your own group!

Podcast Recommendation

Funny and kickass podcast w/ Kate Marvel on her new book Human Nature: Nine Ways to Feel About Our Changing Planet. Hooray for climate scientists embracing All the Climate Feels!

Thanks for reading!
xo,
Kim

P.S. Thank you SOOO MUCH to those of you who left me a voicemail about your climate questions, successes and dilemmas. I LOVED hearing from you! I will get back to you after summer as I put the podcast together— please stay tuned!

And I’d love to hear from more of you, please feel free to send me a voice note!

Hi friends,

Greetings from the train to Paris! I have work there next week, and on the way, Simon and I are taking advantage of the Swedish holiday weekend to see where my parents lived in Heidelberg when they were first married, and try their all-time favorite restaurant (no pressure!!).

This month, we’ll look at ways to grow better through struggling with crisis; and I’ll ask you to send me your burning climate questions by voice note, so I can answer them on my new podcast!

Action: Send Me Your Climate Dilemma

(& you might end up on my new podcast!)

This month, your high-impact climate action is to send me a voice note. 💚

Specifically, a voice note asking for advice on a climate dilemma you’re facing. I’ll try my best to answer your question on a new podcast I’m working on.

The first podcast season will focus on the highest-impact actions within your Five Climate Superpowers:

1. Citizen: Elect climate champions

Fed up with climate laggards in office in your town/region/country? Or have a success story to share about getting a climate champion elected?

2. Professional: Cut workplace emissions in half by 2030

Does your workplace have climate goals in line with science? More importantly, are they following them? How would you even know what’s legit??

3. Investor: Switch to a fossil-free bank

Have you managed to move your money out of the big bad banks? Or have inertia, bureaucracy, and logistics gotten in the way?

4. Consumer: Let go of frequent flying

People find this one of the hardest actions. Where are you at with flying less (or going flight-free)? Ready to try to get started? Or were you surprised by anything when you skipped a flight?

5. Role model: Build a strong climate community

Are you feeling alone in the climate crisis, or do you have a strong, fun group of Climate People around you? Have questions on finding your peeps, or tips on what worked?

In your voice memo about one of the above areas, please let me know:

• Where are you eager to take climate action but feel stuck? Tell me why.

• Where have you tried to take climate action and ran into roadblocks? What happened?

• What climate action success stories can you share to help others?

Share your question with me by clicking here:

Thanks so much for sharing, I’m excited to hear from you!!

Facts + Feelings: Better after Crisis?

What if things could be better on the other side of major crisis? Not just “bouncing back” to the same old baseline, but “bouncing forward” to a new and more meaningful way of being?

This is the idea of posttraumatic growth. It’s been around psychology for decades, and I think it offers important lessons in the climate crisis.

Growth can result from “the potentially transformative power of suffering” if:

1. A major crisis breaks your core beliefs.

2. In response, you can ruminate, cope, or struggle.

3. Through struggle, especially with support, you can achieve positive transformation.

4. Posttraumatic growth can help you function better than you did before, with more focus on what really matters.

It starts with crisis

The process of posttraumatic growth involves a “seismic event,” a crisis big enough to disrupt core beliefs and “shatter the individual’s understanding of the world and [their] place in it,” as psychologists Richard Tedeschi and Lawrence Calhoun wrote.

Core beliefs help us understand the way the world works, guide our decisions, and provide meaning and purpose. Cracking them is deeply distressing.

Response to crisis

From this shattered foundation, there are three options:

1. Anxious, repetitive thoughts: a natural response to the crisis, but can be paralyzing and lead to a decline in function (the opposite of growth).

2. Coping: using strategies to “bounce back” to the previous baseline. This is sometimes called resilience. It implies recovery, but no growth.

3. Struggle, which can lead to posttraumatic growth.

Note that growth is not inevitable, but it is possible in response to crisis. Tedeschi and Calhoun speculate perhaps people with the highest coping capacity might experience little growth, because they don’t struggle enough!

Paths to support growth

More recently, Tedeschi wrote in Harvard Business Review about five ways leaders can help others achieve growth following crisis. Slightly reworded, they are:

1. Learn: face the truth of the trauma and rethink identity, worldviews, and future plans.

2. Share: make sense of the trauma by talking about what’s happened, its effects, and your struggles and concerns.

3. Service: “people do better in the aftermath of trauma if they find work that benefits others”.

4. Regulate emotions: tolerate uncertainty, observe and acknowledge difficult emotions, and use practices like movement and mindfulness to increase agency.

5. Create narrative: Develop an authentic story that lets you accept the trauma, see new priorities and possibilities, and meaningfully craft future chapters.

Dimensions of posttraumatic growth

As you struggle, and especially if you have the supports above, you might experience the benefits of posttraumatic growth:

1. Personal strength: self reliance, ability to handle difficulties, acceptance, “I’m stronger than I thought.”

2. New possibilities: new opportunities, interests, and life paths; “I can do better things with my life,” “I can make a change.”

3. Improved relationships: closer to others, more able to count on and accept needing others; more compassion; prioritizing relationships; express emotions, “I learned a great deal about how wonderful people are.”

4. Appreciation: for the value of life and each day, and prioritizing what’s really important, thanks to noticing what might have been taken for granted before.

5. Spiritual growth: better understanding of and engagement with existential matters or faith from reflecting on life’s big questions of values and ethics.

In sum— there’s the possibility that our struggles in the climate crisis can lead us to positive transformation. Hang in there, friends!

P.S. Don’t forget to please ask your climate questions and….

Send Kim a voice note here!

Parting Tidbits

Recent news

I spoke to NPR about high-impact climate actions, as part of a Short Wave episode on the Climate-Kid Question:

Book Recommendation

Blue Skies, by TC Boyle. Painfully dark and painfully funny climate fiction about the clueless Americans ignoring nature, each other, and their own agency as climate disasters become their daily life, and the shrill, myopic, and ineffective scientists who try to stop them.

xo,
Kim

Hi friends,

I’m at the Napa RISE wine conference this week, feeling nostalgic for my PhD on wine and climate change. So I’ll share some highlights from that research, plus a reminder to enjoy what we have, and how personal stories of what’s at risk can spark political action. Let’s dive in!

Facts: Warmer climate = worse wine

Climate change is bad for the planet, and bad for your palate. :(

This was the takeaway from my five years of PhD research, which I wrote about for Scientific American.

Winegrapes are especially sensitive to climate. The best wines come from an ideal balance between sugar and acid, with just the right amount of color and flavor.

Under optimal ripening conditions, grapes steadily accumulate sugar and lose acid. At the same time, they’re gently building to peak color and flavor potential.

In warmer weather, grapes ripen too fast. Sugar spikes before flavor and color compounds catch up, leading to higher-alcohol wines that taste hotter and more bitter.

Meanwhile acids, which provide a sharp, refreshing taste (think of a Granny Smith apple), drop too quickly. Excessive heat also reduces pigments that give red wines their color, and tannins, which help wine compliment food and give them texture, like“chewy”.

Most of what we call taste is actually smell, and climate is changing the aroma compounds in wine as well. Over 1,000 aroma compounds have been identified in wine, and many develop late in ripening and are sensitive to heat. Rotundone, the black pepper note in Syrah, builds best in cooler conditions. So hotter vintages mean blander Syrahs.

At Napa RISE this week, I’m hearing creative strategies to adapt to a warming climate: cover crops, solar panels for vineyard shade (vitivoltaics!), and letting vines sprawl to shade the fruit. There’s also a shift away from the big, jammy wines produced by long “hang time,” towards earlier harvests with a fresher wine style. It’s encouraging to be around people working hard to take care of this beautiful place, and keep great wines on our tables.

Feelings: Enjoy What You Have

The climate crisis demands a lot from us to meet this moment in history as the last stewards of humanity’s forever carbon budget.

And! We’ve gotta enjoy this one life we get.

To continue to draw strength for doing the climate work, I’m increasingly focused on enjoying the many good moments, while continuing to face hard truths unflinchingly.

On a walk yesterday, I listened to Vicki Robin narrate Your Money or Your Life. In a section called “The Pleasures of Frugality,” she writes:

Frugality means enjoying what we have.

Waste lies not in the number of possessions but in the failure to enjoy them.

To be frugal means to have a high joy-to-stuff ratio. If you get one unit of joy for each material possession, that’s frugal. But if you need ten possessions to even begin registering on the joy meter, you’re missing the point of being alive.

There’s a word in Spanish that encompasses all this: aprovechar. It means to use something wisely, be it a sunny day at the beach, or leftovers made into a delicious new meal. It means getting full value from life, enjoying all the good that each moment and each thing has to offer. You can aprovecha a simple meal, a bowl of ripe strawberries, or a cruise in the Bahamas. There’s nothing miserly about aprovechar; it’s a succulent word, full of sunlight and flavor.

- Vicki Robin, Your Money or Your Life, Chapter 6

What are you making the most of these days? Let me know in the comments.

Leave a comment

Action: Write Your Local Paper

Is it just me, or has the world gone completely fucking bananas in the last 100 days?

One powerful way to push back to zoom way in. Tell your story of how budget cuts or global geopolitical chaos is affecting YOU or someone you love.

Personal stories shift public opinion, influence leaders, and help change hearts, minds, norms, and culture. In a white paper on the Science of Generosity from the University of California, Berkeley, Summer Allen explains:

“[P]eople are much more likely to help an identified, specific person rather than an abstract or anonymous individual, and they’re more likely to help individuals than groups.”

A study in the United States found more media coverage directly increased public concern for climate change. And elected officials pay close attention to op-eds!

Two effective actions to create media attention:

1. Write an op-ed.

Tell your story to your local paper, focusing on why it matters for your community and the climate.

I’ve heard from friends who are facing laying off one of six employees at their small nonprofit, or had approved projects and halfway-completed research trials cancelled. These stories matter. Sharing them builds political pressure for better decisions.

For tips on writing an op-ed, check out this guide from Protect Our Winters for how to write a climate op-ed. A couple highlights:

Keep the everyday reader in mind.

Direct ties to the community in which you are submitting your op-ed are essential.

Come out swinging with clear statements of your opinion and your authority, credibility, or personal experience that supports your opinion.

Remember to argue for "who should do what, when" in your op-ed. (Thanks to David Malakoff, the International News Editor at Science, for this advice!)

A great step-by-step resource for writing and pitching op-eds is the book Youth to Power by Jamie Margolin.

2. Short on time? Write a Letter to the Editor.

Write 150 words, directly responding to a recent article published by the paper, connecting it to your perspective and a climate angle.

It would really encourage me to read your op-eds. Please share them with me! You can reply directly to this email to reach me, or share in the comments below.

P.S. Don’t forget to subscribe to your local paper. We need local journalism, and journalism needs us.

Parting Tidbits

Upcoming talks:

Tomorrow, May 1: In case you’re in/near Napa right now, come to my talk and panel, “Is Regenerative Ag Our Future?”

I’ll join two in-person events for Lund University Sustainability Week next week:

May 7: A climate movement through bodies in movement, workshop with Nanna Nore at 11:00 at LUCSUS (in Swedish).

May 8: 2040 Starts Now, lecture and film screening, 14:00 at Kalmar Nation.

May 19: Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences Planetary Health Symposium (Invite-only, but get in touch if you’re in Stockholm!)

Recent news

“Don’t let perfect be the enemy of good.”

-my advice to the New York Times on “The Best Thing I Can Do For the Planet.”

Book Recommendation

Wild Dark Shore, by Charlotte McConaghy. I devoured this novel in a couple of days. It’s a tense, compelling story about family, love, trust, ethics, and obligation, and the writing is so beautiful. Asks important questions about the role of people in keeping wild places wild, and how we relate to nature as it gets more volatile. And made me laugh out loud with surprise. SO GOOD!

xo,
Kim

From system transformation to existential crisis to frogs and nuts— we’re covering a lot of ground today!

This newsletter is free thanks to support from 107 wonderful paid subscribers- thank you! Your support keeps me going. (If you’d like to join them, scroll to the end.)

Facts: Three Phases of Transformation

In unsettled times, it’s helpful to understand how deep change unfolds.

Top scientists, including the IPCC and IPBES, agree that avoiding climate and ecological breakdown requires not tweaks, but transformational change: “fundamental, system-wide shifts in views, structures and practices.”

Fortunately, there’s science on how to accelerate sustainability transformations. According to the Global Sustainable Development Report,

Transformation happens in three phases, on two tracks at once:

1. Phasing out the harmful (like fossil fuels and industrial agriculture)

2. Scaling up the sustainable (like renewables and regenerative farming)

These tracks are mirror images. The new can only rise as the old is dismantled. That’s why it feels like chaos— because it is!

🌱 Phase 1: Destabilization + Emergence

In the first phase, cracks appear in dominant systems, sometimes triggered by crises. Innovative ideas, tech, and practices begin to emerge on the margins.

Change agents can help tip the balance by using positive levers of change, like:

• Governments making smart long-term policy

• Investors funding the real economy

• Researchers and creatives developing social and technical innovations

• People rethinking how we live and what’s possible.

But there are also impediments blocking transformation, like weak policies, lobbying from vested interests, or entrenched practices and behaviors.

It’s a bumpy road, but when levers outweigh impediments, the system can reach a tipping point.

For social change, around 25% of a population can be enough to tip the whole society.

🚀 Phase 2: Breakdown + Acceleration

In this phase, green alternatives gain momentum. Sustainable technology, institutions, behaviors and norms accelerate and are widely shared and adopted.

Government actions like targets, public infrastructure, standards and regulations, and policies that leave no one behind are often critical.

Meanwhile, harmful systems are breaking down.

Conflicts, tension, and political struggles are common.

The transformation can still fail, from lock-in, backlash, or even system breakdown.

💎 Phase 3: Stabilization

If green systems gain the upper hand, transformation enters the final phase.

Sustainable tech and practices become the new normal in daily life.

Meanwhile, deliberate policies and social shifts continue phasing out the bad stuff.

Yay!

Why this matters for you

This model shows transformation is not only about building something new.

Real change means unbuilding the harmful while nurturing the good.

You can be useful in transformation by supporting emergence (building shared visions, funding or testing a new solution, or shifting your own practice) or by destabilizing the dominant system (like combining carrots and sticks to reduce car use, or supporting the Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty).

Transitions aren’t linear. Opposing forces clash at the same time. Knowing how systems transform can help us apply positive levers for change. 💪

Feelings: Solution to Existential Crisis 🖤

Transformation is personal, too. March 9 marked ten years since the death of one of my best friends from college. We threw a heart-filling party to remember and celebrate him. Keep Pubby Weird!!

I went back and read my journal from when he died, and found something I’d written about how he faced his mortality. It still resonated for me:

The solution to existential crisis is to face the truth head on, bravely and unflinchingly, and find a way to keep going. To know all the gory details, and still see what is beautiful amidst all that is not. To not lose hope.

P.S. You can read Pubby’s writing here and here.

Action: Garden for Frogs 🐸 & Nuts 🌰

Getting spring gardening fever? Me too!

Here are two things underway in my garden right now that might inspire yours- and help support biodiversity and yummy climate-friendly food in the process.

1. Build a garden pond 🐸

Water is life. And life on earth is in trouble, though we do know how to save it globally.

One humble, local contribution is garden ponds. Studies show backyard ponds can play an important role for urban wildlife, including frogs, birds, insects, and more. As our recent study showed, people need wildlife!

We’re installing a garden pond. I will be very excited if frogs show up!

How to build a simple wildlife pond:

• Use whatever space you have. Even a small tub or old sink can help. Bigger ponds will attract even more wildlife.

• Place it in a mostly sunny spot for maximum biodiversity.

• Create depth variety to attract different species.

• Use sloped sides, rocks, and entry ramps or logs so critters can safely get in and out. (Fun facts: dragonflies and birds use polarized light, while amphibians use scent!)

• Use rainwater, not tap water, which has chemicals sensitive critters don’t like, and nutrients that feed algae growth. We’re currently waiting for more rain to fill our rain barrels!

• Let it rewild on its own, if you can. Freshwater Habitats Trust notes this provides distinctive and valuable “young pond” habitat, and is most likely to end up with ecologically suitable species.

• If you do want to add plants, stick to native wetland species from your region (within 20km; get landowner permission for collection). (If you just can’t stand waiting for nature to take its course, the Royal Horticultural Society has plant recommendations.)

• Don’t add fish. They eat the critters you’re trying to attract, and their eggs!

The Wildlife Trusts has a good guide for building a backyard wildlife pond.

2. Plant or graft a nut tree

A few weeks ago, a stranger shared a crunchy snack in a bar, and I was hooked.

Fast forward a few weeks, and Göran was in my garden, grafting edible hazelnuts onto the rootstock of our ornamental hazelnut tree. Fingers crossed for homemade Nutella soon!

Why nuts?

• Nuts are yummy, healthy, and long-storing.

• They’re a plant-based protein, which is a high-impact climate action as they basically always beat animal-based options for climate, land, and water impacts.

• According to the EAT-Lancet Planetary Health Diet, Europeans should eat 15x more nuts (along with 77% less red meat) for our own health, and that of the planet.

Although people in Sweden have been eating hazelnuts for at least 6,000 years (!!), we don’t grow many locally. Göran and Marijke Christiansson are on a mission to change that, promoting nut cultivation and knowledge from their nursery in Laholm.

Did you know those curly ornamental hazelnuts (which this Purdue University report calls “Contorted Filbert: A Gnarly Problem Plant,” haha) are often rooted on edible hazelnuts? Göran suggested grafting edible shoots onto the existing rootstock. To our knowledge, no one has done this before in Sweden. If it works, we’ll transform our hazelnut into a productive tree!

People have been grafting plant shoots onto the roots of other species to improve crops since at least 300 BC!

If you have garden space:

• Plant or graft a nut tree - it’s a delicious, healthy, climate-friendly investment.

• Look into hazelnuts, walnuts, almonds, or others, depending on your region.

No garden? You can still choose more plant-based protein, grow more food yourself, and support local growers.

Parting Tidbits

Upcoming talks, come see me here:

April 3, Stockholm Resilience Centre

April 8, Royal Scottish Geographical Society, online, personalized climate action

May 1, Napa RISE, regenerative ag

May 7, Lund University, En klimatrörelse genom kroppar i rörelse

May 8, Lund University, 2040 Starts Now

Book Recommendation

The Living Sea of Waking Dreams, by Richard Flanagan. Unsettling, beautiful, and tragic, I inhabited a different world while reading this novel. It’s a bit of magical realism, a healthy portion of unhealthy family dynamics and distraction from what matters, and a lot of love for the natural world.

xo,
Kim

Hi friends,

Did any of you start working less after my January post? I did! I’m now at 80% time, and enjoying my time off! I do feel more crunched during the work week, and I’ve dropped a few balls (ugh). But I also feel more focused on what matters. On Sunday night, I feel ready to go back to work.

How’s working less going for you? Let me know in the comments!

Leave a comment

And now, without further ado: let’s talk about why people need wildlife, not just nature; the feeling of in-person community; and activating locally.

Action: Localize!

Whooo boy! Global news is a big fat downer right now, huh??

Local action is a powerful antidote to overwhelm. Start where you are.

The nonprofit Local Futures offers a fabulous Localization Action Guide, with 137 practical actions that can:

🫂 Bring communities together

🍎 Improve human health

🌍 Reduce environmental impact

🤑 Reduce inequality

🗳️ Strengthen democracy

🌱 Connect us with others and the earth.

What is localization?

Localization means creating economic structures for communities to meet more of their needs locally. It’s not about isolation or ending trade, but about collaboration.

Take action to localize!

The Localization Action Guide is packed with practical actions. Here are some I love, especially those that build solidarity. (I had to cut some personal faves, like shipping by sailboat— close to my heart as Simon and I learn sailing from scratch!)

You can sort actions by five groups: individuals, community groups, governments, businesses, and institutions.

Each of six themes has detailed actions, resource links, and case studies where these actions are already working!

Consumption

Meet real needs, reduce unnecessary consumption.

• Practice simple living: Live more on less, celebrate holidays without consumerism, downshift (work less!).

• Be part of a gift economy: Participate in a Buy Nothing Group or Really Really Free Markets.

• Join a neighborhood sharing network: Borrow and lend tools and resources.

Energy

Reduce energy use, ditch fossil fuels, shift to local renewables.

• Build community-owned renewable energy: Establish a cooperative “solar garden” for affordable energy for renters and low-income neighbors, or bring locally-owned renewable energy to your community.

• Promote car-free towns and cities: Advocate for actions and policies to make your local streets more human-friendly.

Finance

Make the money we save, borrow, and spend serve local communities.

• Bank locally: Move your money to a credit union or community bank. (Here’s my breakup letter to my old mega-bank.)

• Start a local investing group: Fund community businesses using crowdfunding and local stock exchanges.

Community

Increase sense of belonging, support community spaces and local media, engage in local democracy to strengthen bonds with friends, family, and neighbors.

• Implement participatory budgeting: Let local residents propose and vote on public investments for local benefit.

• Organize a citizens’ assembly: Support local Climate Assemblies for bold action.

• Create a neighborhood climate group: Collectively transition away from fossil fuels towards resilient communities.

Business

Support local businesses instead of global monopolies, spend money to build stronger local economies, resist corporate globalization.

• Shift subsidies from global to local: Push for public funds to support public benefits, including small and local. (You can cite our research showing 40% of EU farm subsidies, over €26 billion a year, are misspent!)

• Resist corporate concentration: Join campaigns to fight global corporations, monopolies and big box retail, and strengthen local businesses.

Food

Produce healthy food, provide equitable livelihoods, and support diversity.

• Support community land trusts: Preserve farmland and open spaces for generations to come. (Shoutout to my hometown Sonoma Land Trust!)

• Start a yard sharing program: Connect homeowners with unused yards to neighbors eager to grow food. You can scale this up to your whole community.

Can these actions really make a difference?

I love how Local Futures answers this question:

We think so. Although they are often small and localized, taken together they are vital to recapturing economic democracy from global monopolies. They provide venues for connecting with like-minded others and strengthening the bonds of mutual interdependence. They provide opportunities to reject the monocultural ideas and practices that destroy the beauty and diversity of our planet. And they create "lifeboats" – living hubs of social health, human and ecological wellbeing, and economic resilience – to carry us through the turbulence of the coming decades.

I hope this gets you started! I highly recommend you dive in to the full Localization Action Guide.

Thanks to Local Futures for this incredible resource, and to We Can Fix It reader Elizabeth for sharing it with me!

Facts: People need wild animals

The Problem: Animal Benefits Are Invisible

When you close your eyes and picture “nature,” what do you see?

For many, including myself, it’s landscapes: mountains, beaches, forests. Plants, not animals.

The invisible benefits of animals are a problem for international conservation policies, which focus on protecting habitats while overlooking who lives there.

Wildlife isn’t just a cute addition to nature. Animals are essential for ecosystem health and the benefits people rely on.

With wildlife populations in decline, conserving “empty forests” won’t sustain the nature we need.

Our study: Wildlife’s Contribution to People

A lunch chat about whale poop sparked our new study, published in Nature Reviews Biodiversity. Led by my friend of 25+ years Becky Chaplin-Kramer, our research analyzed how wildlife supports human well-being.

Using the “nature’s contributions to people” framework — widely used in biodiversity science and policy, and for decision-making in business, investment, and development— we categorized benefits as material (medicines, food), nonmaterial (culture, recreation), and regulating (clean air, healthy soils). Each of these also helps maintain options for future generations.

From a synthesis of scientific reviews, we found wildlife directly supports two-thirds of nature’s contributions to people. We also argue that wildlife support the remaining contributions indirectly, through shaping the ecosystems that provide these contributions.

For example, wildlife benefit people:

• materially through food from hunting and fishing and the livelihoods they support.

• nonmaterially through art, music, biomimicry, the inspiration of birdwatching, and supporting identities and traditions like catching the first trout of the season.

• by regulating healthy ecosystems, like grazers keeping grasslands open and diverse, beavers building dams that can regulate and clean water, and birds eating crop pests.

Takeaways

People need wild animals. Scientists need to study them, and policies need to conserve them. The accompanying report by WWF, Nature’s Technicians, concludes:

• Wild animals play irreplaceable roles.

• Protect remaining wildlife.

• Rebuild wild animal populations, especially species that support ecosystem services.

Feelings: In-Person Community

I spent an evening in a theater packed with people who care about climate action, then had a beer with some of them, and it was life-affirming and lovely!

It was fun and irreverent (yes, a goose puppet named Camelilla bragged, “Why own a car when you can just call a limo?”), but also real and vulnerable, like Nina’s powerful essay on grief. Moments of interaction turned to real conversation and made the stranger next to you feel like a friend.

I joined my first climate protest in 2014 and watched them grow in size and power. In 2019 in Stockholm, the crowd was so massive it took half an hour just to start moving. Goosebumps. But since the pandemic, and increasing restrictions on peaceful protest, I’ve missed the same level of in-person climate energy.

This evening filled my cup and reminded me: nothing replaces meeting people face-to-face. It feels amazing to be surrounded by lots of real people who care. Huge thanks to Maria Wolrath Söderberg, Nina Wormbs, and Isabelle McAllister for making this magical evening happen!

Parting Tidbits

Upcoming talks, come see me here

I’ll be online with the Royal Scottish Geographical Society talking personalized climate action April 8, and in-person at Napa RISE on regenerative ag on May 1. Join us!

Let me know if you want to collaborate on something for SF Climate Week!

Book Recommendation

What If We Get It Right? by Ayana Elizabeth Johnson. I loved hearing the voices of deep thinkers and doers in the interviews, who had new ideas on how to bring the climate revolution to the red-state countryside (Brian Donahue), turn extractive fishermen into regenerative ocean farmers (Bren Smith), and offered insights from the youth climate movement (Xiye Bastida). A good counterbalance to the perspectives making headlines right now.

xo,
Kim

Hi friends, I hope you had peaceful holidays. For me it was a tough end to a tough year. My husband Simon’s dad died unexpectedly two weeks before Christmas. I am grateful for the time we got to spend with family and friends, and now glad to be back home in Sweden. <3

On my mind lately: carbon removal done right, turning worry to compassion, and working less.

Facts: Carbon removal done right

I've long cautioned carbon removal is a limited and risky climate tool. It’s often used today to justify continued pollution and delay the necessary phaseout of fossil fuels. Current offsetting schemes often avoid necessary real reductions. The priority must remain stopping emissions at their source.

So why did I coauthor this new paper on carbon removal?

To be clear, at least 90% of our efforts, funding, and attention must be on eliminating emissions at their source. As we wrote in our paper led by Jan Mertens, “Carbon dioxide removal technologies should be considered once efforts have already achieved a >90% reduction in emissions.”

However, carbon removal will likely play *some* role to stabilize the climate. To stop warming, humans have to stop adding CO₂ to the atmosphere. To achieve this, any remaining hardest-to-cut, last <10% emissions will have to be removed.

And we’ll need to take carbon out of the atmosphere if we want to return to a safer climate, from today’s already-dangerous 425 parts per million CO₂ and rising, to reach a goal like 350 ppm.

This means targeted carbon removal must be done right.

Assessing risks and benefits of carbon removal

In our new study, we evaluated 16 carbon dioxide removal strategies, from natural solutions like planting forests to building machines to suck carbon out of the air. While many studies focus on technical effectiveness, neglecting risks and social implications, we assessed these strategies on four dimensions:

1. Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) score

• The author team rated each strategy on:

  1. Environmental benefits (e.g., improved soil quality, biodiversity protection)

  2. Environmental integrity (e.g., risk of ecosystem disturbance, biodiversity risk)

  3. Social acceptance (e.g., greenwashing risks, fairness in project siting)

  4. Governance preparedness (alignment with existing policies and regulations)

2. Time scale of carbon storage

• Because carbon is forever, any useful attempt to neutralize fossil carbon has to last essentially forever.

• We categorized carbon removal strategies into three durability levels:

  1. Short-term (<100 years): Forests, soils and ocean ecosystems. These can help neutralize short-lived methane and land-use emissions, but don't provide lasting storage for fossil fuel emissions.

  2. Medium-term (100-1,000 years): Biochar and some ocean-based technologies.

  3. Long-term (>1,000 years): Geological, “permanent” carbon dioxide removal and storage, like from direct air carbon capture and storage (DACCS). Long-term strategies are the only ones that credibly neutralize fossil CO₂ emissions. Less durable storage still leads to warming, as this recent paper showed; see ’s excellent post from Climate Brink.
     

  We combined ESG and durability into a Quality score (see X-axis below).

3. Technical potential

• How much CO₂ (gigatonnes per year) could each approach remove by 2050?

• Our estimates are based on existing scientific literature.

Shown on the Y-axis below.

4. Technology readiness levels (TRL)

• We assigned a score from 1 to 9 for each technology’s maturity:

  • 1: Basic principles observed.

  • 9: Actual system proven in operation today.

  Shown by colors from red (low) to high (green) in the graph below.

Rating carbon removal quality

Our findings highlight direct air capture (DACCS) as one of the highest-quality carbon removal options, with high ESG ratings, long-term durability, and fairly high technical potential. Other promising but shorter-term strategies include reforestation, building with wood materials, biochar, and soil carbon storage. In contrast, ocean-based approaches were rated of lower quality due to high uncertainties and risks to ocean ecosystems.

Feelings: Turn Worry to Compassion

A few weeks ago, I was on a beautiful walk but stuck in a loop of worry— rehashing an unhelpful conversation with one of my dad’s doctors. I suddenly realized I was missing out on the sunlight and birdsong around me, trapped in thoughts that weren’t useful.

That’s when two ideas from 10% Happier by Dan Harris popped into my head.

1. Ask “Is this useful?”

Harris suggests this question to distinguish between productive thinking, planning, and problem-solving, vs. repetitive, draining worry. My ruminations were not helping. I’d already helped take the next steps needed for my dad’s care. There was nothing more I could do in that moment.

2. Wish people well

I realized my un-useful worry was rooted in something important, namely my love and care for my dad. Instead of spiraling in my worry, I directed that energy towards another practice from 10% Happier (which Dan Harris classified as “Things I Will Definitely Hate” the first time he tried it).

Picture someone in your mind and silently wish them well:

May you be happy.

May you be safe.

May you be healthy.

May you live with ease.

Thinking these positive thoughts for my dad felt SO much better than taking one more run down the well-worn ski tracks of what-ifs in my mind.

Encouraged, I followed Dan’s advice to think of other people and send them the same well-wishes.

First I thought of “a neutral person, someone you see regularly, but tend to overlook. Your barista, a janitor in your building, a neighbor who doesn’t provoke much of an emotional charge,” as Harris wrote.

It was easy for me to generate good vibes for the smiley desk clerk at the gym whose name I don’t know.

Then, a bigger challenge: a difficult person. As I brought to mind people I struggle with and wished them well, I realized how far they were from happy, healthy, and living with ease. This made me feel more compassion for what they were going through, instead of focusing on my own annoyance.

Why This Works

The well-wishing practice is a form of loving-kindness meditation (metta) from Buddhism. I like what Dan Harris writes about it:

“This practice can seem forced and treacly, but the research suggests it can have significant physiological, psychological, and even behavior benefits. The upshot is radical: just as happiness is a skill, so is love.”

Next time you find yourself stuck in a loop of worry, try asking, “Is this useful?” If not, instead of spinning in circles, direct that energy to compassion for someone in the worrying situation - including yourself.

Leave a comment

Action: Work Less

Rethinking Time

In my beloved Politics & Philosophy book club, we just read “How Much Is Enough? Money and the Good Life.” It sparked a discussion about working less.

My relationship with time is changing. I used to focus on optimizing time, squeezing maximum productivity out of every minute. But that approach started to feel relentless, even joyless.

Now, I see time as something I experience, not just spend. I want to enjoy that experience (namely, the moments that add up to being my actual life!).

There’s a lot I enjoy and find meaningful in my work — helping students, contributing to climate solutions. But there’s also a lot outside of work that matters. Increasingly, time feels more precious to me than money.

The Case for Working Less

Several of my friends have already chosen to work 80% time. Their motivations vary: health, family, volunteering, hobbies. They all love it.

And there are substantial climate benefits to working less:

• A systematic review led by Miklós Antal found consistent evidence that reducing paid work time reduced greenhouse gas emissions.

• Martin Pullinger’s research found policies that reduced work hours 20% or enabled 3 month career breaks would reduce national emissions by 3-4.5%.

• A Swedish study found working 1% less led to an 0.8% drop in greenhouse gas emissions (higher reductions for wealthier households). They recommended gradual reduction to a 30 hour work week.

The main reason working less helps the climate is that earning less money lowers consumption (rather than more time for leisure activities). Higher incomes drive higher-carbon lifestyles.

Of course, not everyone can afford to work less. But those of us in the top 10% globally are the ones who need to shrink our footprints anyway! Low-income folks emit very little already.

An inspiring auto-reply

My friend Diana Ivanova, a lecturer at Leeds University, has the best email auto-reply. She generously gave me permission to share it with you here (I’ve modified and embedded the links):

Hi there,

I am working four days a week and will get back to you next week. The reason for that is that working less has various social and environmental benefits* that are worth exploring more.

I definitely recommend you try it out if you have the possibility!

*Some references on how working less may help:

• Reduce greenhouse gas emissions and energy use

• Reduce income inequality and gender imbalances in the distribution of paid work, and sustain employment

• Improve health and reduce overconsumption of food [by replacing work with sleep!]

• Contribute to personal, family and community well-being and decrease the importance of materialistic values

Best wishes,

Diana

How to work less

Not all reduced work schedules have the same climate benefits. A UK study found:

✅ Best option: Three-day weekends—closing offices on Fridays saved the most emissions.
✅ Good options: Free Wednesdays or coordinated work reductions (e.g., hot desking) also helped reduce emissions.
❌ Worst options: Shorter workdays (same commuting + offices stay open, same energy use) and increased paid vacation time (more climate-intensive air travel).

The more people work less, the greater the climate benefits, especially if employers coordinate their resources efficiently.

Maybe your next water cooler chat with colleagues (or your boss!) should be about working less? I’m going to give it a try!

P.S. Recommended reading that influenced my thinking about valuing time: Four Thousand Weeks, Your Money or Your Life, Momo, Die with Zero.

Parting Tidbits

Upcoming talks

I’ll join the wonderful Maria Wolrath Söderberg and Nina Wormbs at Palladium in Malmö on February 11 at 19h for Omställningsont: Bråkshow om att vara människa i klimatkrisens tid (in Swedish). Tickets here.

Recent news

I talked with the BBC about the lowest carbon alcohol.

Book Recommendation

10% Happier, by Dan Harris. A refreshingly snarky, honest page-turner that doesn’t take itself too seriously. Harris is quite convincing in his claim that meditation can make you 10% happier. The book doesn’t directly tackle climate, but I found many of the lessons incredibly relevant (like striving for wisely ambitious goals, without being too attached to outcomes out of your control).

xo,
Kim

Hi friends, this month I’m sharing our new rural report card for European agriculture, feeling resolute in a global leadership vacuum, and questioning my relationship with social media.

Facts: Food vs. people and planet?

To achieve a climate-safe and sustainable world, we must measure and incentivize sustainability outcomes, like reducing greenhouse gas emissions and protecting high-nature value farmland.

Measuring outcomes is essential because it tracks progress and holds policymakers accountable. But too often, analyses focus on actions (like applying fertilizer), without examining their effects. (That’s why I focus on high-impact climate actions!)

In my research, I aim to connect policies and practices with measurable outcomes that assess their effectiveness.

In our new open-access study, Murray Scown and I identified rural regions in Europe that contribute positively to sustainability goals (“brightspots”), and those hindering progress (“dragspots”).

We used hotspot analysis of 24 social and environmental indicators, drawn from the overlap of the EU Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP)— the EU’s €59 billion farm subsidy program and largest budget item.

Here’s what we found:

1. The EU pays a high price to support unsustainable land systems.

• Dragspots, regions with poor social and environmental outcomes, often receive high subsidy support. This means public money is paying for “bads” like social inequities and environmental harm.

• Some good news: environmental subsidies do work. High-performing environmental regions benefitted from this targeted support.

2. Tradeoff between food production and sustainable outcomes :(

The least sustainable regions were doing one thing right: producing a high fraction of food for people. This highlights a major tradeoff in European agriculture: high food production currently comes at high environmental cost. We can do better.

Globally, only 55% of food directly feeds people; the rest is used inefficiently for animal feed (36%) or biofuels and industry (9%).

3. Brightspots: Nordics and Central Europe

Two brightspot regions stood out for their contributions to social and environmental sustainability goals: the Nordics (Sweden + Finland) and Central Europe (Germany, Austria, eastern Switzerland). These areas benefit from less intensive farming practices, including organic agriculture, low energy use in farming, supported by robust agricultural training, providing high farm employment and income.

We found five dragspots where rural land use is hindering progress towards the SDGs: the Lowlands, Northern Italy, Southern Italy and Malta, Southern Spain, and the Balkans. Dragspots were characterized by intensive agriculture with high inputs of irrigation, pesticides and fertilizers, as well as very large, industrial animal agriculture such as in the Lowlands and Northern Italy.

The path forward

Our research suggests the following steps to transition to sustainable food systems:

• Measure sustainability using social and environmental outcomes tied to policy goals.

• Shift subsidies to reward positive social and environmental outcomes.

• Support low-input, sustainable farming for its multiple benefits.

• Explore case studies where generous food production is balanced with good sustainability outcomes.

Read the study here, if you like.

Feelings: Resolute

I’ve been feeling… kind of a lack of feeling… about some pretty monumental events this fall: the American elections, the United Nations conferences on climate and biodiversity. These are important moments, things are not going great, and yet my response is… meh? 🤷‍♀️

Right now, I don’t feel panic or despair. I know climate work is still needed and it still matters. This will continue to be true for the rest of my life.

In what I hope is being resolute and clear-eyed and constructive, but may also be tinged with cynicism, I increasingly accept in my bones that no one is coming to save us. As I wrote in Under the Sky We Make,

We as humanity, a groundswell of people alive today around the world, have to save ourselves, through what we think and feel and ultimately what we do. This means we need people with the courage and compassion and imagination to transform themselves, and society, in the ways that science tells us are necessary to maintain conditions for life on Earth to be able to thrive. Each of us can become that sort of person; more and more are every day.

Real leadership - climate and otherwise- may not emerge from the top. In the past, I’ve felt shattered by global circumstances going in the wrong direction. Right now, I just feel resolute to keep doing what I can, where I can. Thanks for being on Team Climate.

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Action: Reassess Social Media

Ah, social media, that double-edged sword.

On the positive side, social media can shape cultural norms and help set policy agendas, including for climate action. But social media can also spread climate misinformation (unintentionally incorrect) or disinformation (deliberately misleading), contribute to increasing polarization, and disproportionately amplify negative messages.

As a very active user of social media professionally, I’ve gained valuable connections, ideas, and community. But over the last couple of years, especially now that Climate Twitter has become, as Katharine Hayhoe told Science last week, a “ghost town,” I’ve been reconsidering how and when I use social media.

Instead of hot takes, I crave deeper, slower, more thoughtful and nuanced analysis and reflection. Reading more longform journalism and books, and spending more time in the real world (connecting with people, going for walks, paying attention while cooking) feels better for me right now.

I want to save the precious, limited bandwidth of my mind and attention for what matters and where I can make a contribution. Five years later, I’m still haunted by the hour-long yoga class I ruined by ruminating over a comment from A Stranger on the Internet Who Was Wrong.

I’m also increasingly uncomfortable with the idea of donating my unpaid labor - writing original material, as well as clicking on platforms - to further enrich billionaires with dubious motives.

My evolving strategy is to spend more time writing original longer “content” (cringe) here on Substack, sharing excerpts on social platforms, and slowly keep working on a new book.

I appreciate that you, dear reader, have chosen to join We Can Fix It and to share your email with me, so we can stay connected regardless of what happens to these platforms. So thanks for being here. <3

For your climate action this month, I encourage you to consider your relationship with social media.

Some options to consider, to whatever extent works for you right now:

• Remove social media apps from your phone.

• Try a social media fast (a week? a month?).

• Set time limits for apps using tools like Screen Time for iPhone or Digital Wellbeing for Android.

• Follow those who spark your curiosity and energy. Block those who don’t.

• Choose when and how you engage, and the kinds of conversations you want to contribute to.

• Charge your phone outside your bedroom to avoid late-night distractions. (This has helped me sleep better and double the number of books I read!)

What will you do with the time and energy you free up? That’s up to you! A few suggestions:

• Take high-impact climate action with the Choose Your Own Climate Adventure Guide.

• Enjoy time in nearby nature, and take care of your local patch.

• Find your climate peeps — people you have fun with, including while talking about and taking climate action.

• Join and support local climate action groups- here’s how to get started.

• Read more books and in-depth journalism, like my recommended climate media.

Parting Tidbits

Upcoming talks:

Join in person or online on December 12 for a seminar and workshop on sustainable agriculture in a changing climate, hosted by Université Laval in Quebec City.

Book Recommendation

Limitarianism: The Case Against Extreme Wealth, by Ingrid Robeyns. I really enjoyed reading this clearly argued book, making the philosophical case for setting an upper limit on wealth for the sake of people and climate. Definitely a thought-provoking holiday gift!

Take care friends, have safe and peaceful holidays. I’ll be back here in January, look forward to seeing you then!

xo,
Kim

P.S. I met my goal of 1,000 hours outside for 2024! Actually I’m ahead of schedule, I’m now at 1,125 and counting! I really enjoyed finding more ways to be outside, and hope to continue. Highly recommend for 2025!

This month, we’ll explore the safe and just space for humans on Earth; how to turn a gnawing rat of avoidance into a fluffy white sheep of possibility; and democratic principles for doing the work to build the world we want.

Facts: We’re 87.5% screwed

We’re in trouble: humanity has crossed seven out of eight global thresholds needed to keep Earth stable and provide a good life for all, according to the Earth Commission report. Eeek!

Climate, groundwater depletion, surface water overuse, nitrogen and phosphorous pollution, land for nature, and natural vegetation within human-dominated landscapes are all in the danger zone. Only particulate air pollution (aerosols) hasn’t crossed global limits, though it’s over the line in some regions.

This study builds on work dating back 15 years, including the inspiration for this gem:

Needs above the floor, pressure below the ceiling

Scientists created these “safe and just Earth System boundaries” by combining the planet’s biophysical limits (the ceiling) with meeting everyone’s basic needs (the floor).

The goal is the green zone, where all people have access to minimum needs for food, water, energy, and infrastructure, without putting too much pressure on Earth systems.

The just zone means sharing resources fairly among species (who all need a stable planet), across generations, and among today’s communities.

Solutions: Reduce and redistribute; align the economy with justice; expand sustainable tech

To get to the safe and just space, the Earth Commission suggests three main solutions:

1. Reduce and reallocate consumption: cut waste and set limits on harmful overuse, while ensuring everyone has what they need.

2. Transform the economy: Align markets with sustainability and justice by factoring in environmental costs, and stopping harmful subsidies and investments.

3. Expand sustainable tech: Make efficient, affordable tech available worldwide to create a circular, low-impact economy.

P.S. I’m working on solutions that will get us to the Safe and Just space- stay tuned!

Feelings: “Befriend your gnawing rats”

You know the things you’re avoiding because they make you anxious to think about? Like the cluttered garage you never get around to cleaning… or the nagging health concern you keep putting off… or, you know, taking meaningful climate action??

The wise-but-not-treacly Oliver Burkeman, in Meditations for Mortals, has great advice for facing these stressors, borrowing a vivid metaphor from Paul Loomans, who calls them “gnawing rats.”

Instead of the usual advice to attack the problem head-on, or break tasks into smaller parts, Burkeman advises to start by accepting the rats’ existence.

It’s a gentler approach based on accepting reality as it already is, and turning towards the gnawing rats:

“[T]o befriend a rat is to defuse the anxiety you feel by transforming the kind of relationship you have with it… You turn it into an unobjectionable part of your reality. Whereupon a gnawing rat, in Looman’s terminology, becomes a ‘white sheep’— a harmless, docile, fluffy creature that follows you around until you decide to do something about it.”

—Oliver Burkeman, Meditations for Mortals

Some ways to befriend your gnawing rats, thanks to Burkeman:

• Take the easiest step forward: Find the least intimidating way to begin.

• Ask for help: Your gnawing rats may be someone else’s harmless white sheep- and they likely have some of their own rats you could help them with.

• Visualize getting started: Close your eyes and picture yourself taking action.

• “Just go to the shed”: Visit the space that’s making you anxious and guilty, have a look around, and let the first solutions reveal themselves.

• Do something you can actually do today: If an hour of work sounds overwhelming, could you tolerate half an hour? 15 minutes? 10?? (At my low point in writing my dissertation, I had to start with 10-minute writing sessions. It did eventually get written. I also like to set a 5 minute timer to start a task I don’t wanna do; usually I have enough momentum to continue from there once I’ve started.)

What small step could you take today to start befriending one of your gnawing rats?

Leave a comment

P.S. Remember the 5 Stages of Climate Feelings— avoidance is #2, and the way from Doom to Purpose is via All the Feels!

Action: How to Organize Democratically

There’s a lot of important and urgent work to do. How do we work well within teams and communities to make lasting progress?

Thankfully, nearly 30 years ago, environmental justice leaders developed the Jemez Principles for Democratic Organizing, which can help us organize in a fair, inclusive, and effective way. Here’s a brief summary:

Jemez Principles for Democratic Organizing

(This is a selected summary; full text here.)

1. Be inclusive.

Build inclusion into your movement, going beyond tokenism to include diversity throughout planning and action. It might take more time and effort, but it’s essential.

2. Emphasis on Bottom-Up Organizing

Reach out to new groups, and strengthen your existing base. Building a strong grassroots foundation gives your movement credibility, strategy, and “the energy for the work we must do daily.”

3. Let People Speak for Themselves

“We must be sure that relevant voices of people directly affected are heard.” Community spokespeople should be genuine representatives. Assure accountability.

4. Work Together in Solidarity and Mutuality

Collaborate with groups whose visions align with yours, and support each others’ work. Ultimately, integrate their goals and values in your own work. For example, a labor union including environmental goals in their own strategies, rather than just supporting environmental organizations.

5. Build Just Relationships Among Ourselves

Treat everyone with respect and fairness, within and across organizations. This includes being transparent about decisions, sharing resources, and ensuring equitable strategies.

6. Commitment to Self-Transformation

“We must ‘walk our talk.’ We must be the values that we say we’re struggling for.”

What parts of your work could benefit from these principles? Have you found other effective ays to run fair and inclusive processes? I’d love to hear your thoughts- feel free to share n the comments below, or by reply to this email!

Parting Tidbits

Upcoming talks, come see me here:

Extreme Wealth and Climate Inequality: If you’re in Lund, join us on November 20th at 18:00 for a lecture from philosophy professor Ingrid Robeyns and discussion panel on her new book “Limitarianism: The Case Against Extreme Wealth.”

Recent podcast:

I discussed what the US election means for global climate, and answer listener questions about China’s emissions and 1.5°C. Listen from 18:00-27:30:

Book Recommendation:

American Mermaid, by Julia Langbein. A wild and surreal novel about staying sane and principled in a world that increasingly isn’t. Felt pitch-perfect for this moment. I want to live in a world where fierce mermaids take on evil technocrats destroying the climate!

Thanks for reading. Take care, friends!

xo,
Kim

Hi friends!

This month, I have a new study for you on how inertia from the top locks in high-carbon lifestyles. We’ll embrace mixed climate emotions like feeling glad + sorry at the same time. Plus, learn how to get started with climate action by taking inspiration from penguins, not wolves.

Facts: Why leaders fail to lead by example

Despite public support for climate action, many politicians avoid leading by example. A study led by Steve Westlake, interviewing 19 UK Members of Parliament (MPs), found two main reasons:

(1) Support for high-carbon norms: MPs promote high-carbon lifestyles as the accepted social standard.

(2) Fear of moral judgments: MPs worry leading by example will be dismissed as hypocrisy or virtue signaling.

“MPs are part of a systemic resistance to transformative low-carbon behaviour, thus sustaining high-carbon norms and slowing the climate transition.”

—Steve Westlake, Twitter thread

Reinforcing high-carbon norms

MPs’ responses indicated:

• “Low-carbon behaviour can be derided and mocked… [while] high-carbon behaviour remains the socially acceptable norm.”

• They justify their own inaction by citing fairness concerns for low-income constituents [who already have low carbon footprints], but ignore the high-carbon lifestyles of the wealthy [who do need to reduce overconsumption].

While appealing to social justice sounds good, it ignores enormous differences in emissions based on wealth. MPs, who are wealthier and likely to lead high-carbon lifestyles, misleadingly focus on low emitters.

While MPs claim it would be unfair to demand change from the less privileged, interviews showed that “the consumption habits of the wealthy are not problematized or discussed in relation to climate change.”

MPs also framed low-carbon behavior as “extreme” or “radical”, and cited a lack of demand from constituents for their personal leadership. They preferred incremental change or hypothetical technological solutions that wouldn’t threaten high-carbon industries or require behavior change.

Fear of moral judgments

Many MPs view leading by example as risky, fearing attacks by rivals, the media, or social media. Only two MPs publicly shared their low-carbon actions, citing the importance of positive role modeling. Most worried their credibility would suffer and feared accusations of bragging, virtue signaling, hypocrisy, or seeming “too saintly”.

Thus MPs worried about “appearing too moral, rather than being perceived as having a lack of morality.”

Westlake et al. found that “morally laden language was not used by any MPs in relation to high-carbon behaviour, indicating that it is low- rather than high-carbon behaviour that risks moral transgression.”

In sum: MPs fear public reaction to their personal behavior more than they fear failing to address high-carbon lifestyles. But addressing the top 10% of emitters is crucial, because they cause 50% of household climate pollution globally.

Why norms and culture matter to system change

Breaking carbon lock-in will require addressing three key elements:

• Better infrastructure

• Policies that reward low-carbon living

• Social norms that make low-carbon action desirable.

If any element is missing, it hinders progress. This study reveals how leaders reinforce a high-carbon culture through upholding high-carbon norms.

But there is a way out. In a forthcoming study, Westlake shows that “leading by example increases public willingness to adopt low-carbon behaviors [and thus, to accept effective climate policies], and increases leader credibility and approval.” Stay tuned!

Feelings: Mixed emotions

Living in the climate crisis means tolerating mixed emotions. Life throws a lot at us, and we can feel torn, conflicted, or many feelings at once.

There can be strength in mixed emotions; behavioral science researchers discuss “the power of ambivalence” in authentic leadership.

One mixed climate feeling might be called glorry (glad + sorry)— glad we’re not alone in tough climate emotions, and sorry others are struggling too.

There’s power in knowing you’re not alone, even if you wouldn’t wish a difficult experience on anyone.

Remember, riding the waves of “all the climate feels” is the bridge from doom to purpose.

Jennifer Weiner perfectly captures mixed emotions:

“My mom died early on a Sunday morning — Mother’s Day, the day before my daughter’s 18th birthday. I bought a cake, and the birthday girl used frosting to divide it into thirds and write Happy Birthday/Happy Mother’s Day/Sorry for Your Loss. It felt like life: good and bad overlapping, everything, all at once.”

-Jennifer Weiner, “First, I Cried. Then, I Rode My Bike.”

P.S. A comment from We Can Fix It reader Divya inspired me to name this emotion. Thank you, Divya!

Leave a comment

Action: Be a climate penguin, not a wolf

Team Climate is growing, hooray! Every day, more people wake up to the urgency of the climate crisis. But many struggle to harness their energy effectively.

The best way to get involved is to join an existing local group. (Here’s how, from your personalized climate action guide!)

Smart people in your area have spent years building campaigns and relationships, and analyzing strategies. The best way you can have an impact and build skills is to join them.

Think of penguins huddling together, sharing responsibilities to survive harsh conditions. It’s cozier and more fun than going it alone.

Jamie Margolin’s guide for getting started includes six steps:

1. Find an organization, political campaign, or community group.

2. Get their contact info from their website or social media.

3. Write or call them, explaining you’d like to get involved and why.

4. Just take the leap and join a meeting, attend an event, and take it from there.

5. Be open to learning by doing.

6. Figure out your why.

   -Condensed from Jamie Margolin, Youth to Power: Your Voice and How to Use It

When you’re reaching out to new people, make it easy for them to say yes! Write short, tailored emails with specific requests. Focus on aligning with their goals rather than making it about you. Existing groups want to grow, so it’s a win-win.

Don’t be a Climate Lone Wolf

What doesn’t work: coming up with a solution alone and imposing it on others without building relationships or strategy. This is counterproductive, causing burnout and yielding no effective action.

I often get emails from lone climate wolfs like this:

“Hello, we’ve never met, and I don’t have climate experience, but I watched this YouTube video and decided nuclear power is the solution. I’ve written a letter I want you to sign/ developed a product I want you to endorse. I’ve contacted organizations I’m not part of, asking for support, but they haven’t responded.”

See the problem? The lone wolf hasn’t built trust or relationships, and hasn’t learned others’ goals. The focus is too much on them personally (the word “I” appears seven times).

Yes, we need fresh ideas and energy in the climate movement— but also humility and collaboration.

P.S. If you’ve already attended lots of local meetings, and still see a gap that needs filling, you just might be ready to start your own organization. Jamie Margolin’s guide to “Movement and organization building 101” is in Chapter 4 of Youth to Power.

Parting Tidbits

Recent podcasts: Climate disinformation

I joined the EcoLitACT podcast to discuss understanding and fighting climate disinformation (starting 34:40), my thoughts on carbon removal (56:14), and a turning point in my career (10:17). Have a listen:

Book Recommendation

Doughnut Economics, by Kate Raworth. This book lays the foundation for the modern view of sustainability: providing a good life for all within the planet’s limits. It’s an ambitious but accessible call to rethink almost everything to build a better life on Earth.

xo,
Kim

Hi friends!

I’m slowly adjusting to sitting in front of a keyboard again, after a glorious summer of sailing, paddling, swimming, reading, and talking to old friends around a campfire. Very happy to report I’m at 871 hours outside so far in 2024, which has done wonders for my soul. You can join the challenge to spend 1,000 hours in a year outside at any time, as my friend Emily just did!

I’m still finding my way amidst a tough year personally, but I’m grateful to report my health is much better, and I feel my cup is filled and I have some energy to give.

I hope you got to spend time with loved ones and with beautiful nature this summer!

As all the Swedish signs say, “Finally, back to the everyday,” so here comes your monthly dose of facts, feelings, and action for facing the climate crisis together with our lovely We Can Fix It community and me, your trusty climate scientist!

Facts: How to Save Life on Earth

I’m working on a new project I’m excited about. Here’s a sneak peek. I hope you enjoy!

Reading the news about precipitous declines in species and ecosystems feels overwhelming. Humans are rapidly wiping out life on Earth. Humanity has cleared almost 40% of forests globally. Only 15% of the original biomass of all wild land mammals remains.

But! The destructive trends don’t have to continue.

We know how to save biodiversity.

A study led by David Leclère found that we can stop worsening the ongoing trend of global biodiversity loss by doing three things:

1. Increase conservation with land protection and management;

2. Restore degraded land; and

3. Plan for conservation across landscapes to connect and increase ecosystem resilience.

These three strategies together will prevent about half of future biodiversity loss (yellow line below).

To actually reverse biodiversity loss (green line above), Leclère and colleagues found we’ll have to do three more things:

4. Cut food waste in half throughout the supply chain globally;

5. Eat more plant-based diets in areas where meat consumption is too high for health and environmental sustainability, like the US and Europe, where animal product consumption should be cut in half; and

6. Increase agricultural productivity per unit of land, and increase trade to get food from where it’s best produced to the people who need it.

Land conservation & plant-based diets are most effective

Of these six measures to restore life on Earth, by far the most effective was conservation. Better protecting and managing land (Measure #1) was about five times more effective for reversing biodiversity loss than the supply-side measures of increasing agricultural intensification plus trade (Measure #6).

News flash: Starting at the root to prevent problems is much more effective than treating their symptoms!

The typical focus is on increasing production, but demand-side solutions are far more effective. (In a study I coauthored analyzing over 12,000 studies on how to feed the world, we found three-quarters of the literature focused on increasing food production, while only a quarter focused on right-sizing demand per capita).

Combining demand-side solutions by halving food waste (#4) + halving animal consumption with more plant-based diets (#5) was twice as effective to reverse biodiversity loss as the supply-side solutions to increase yields + trade (#6).

Overall, reversing biodiversity loss and rebuilding the ecosystems and communities where plants and animals can thrive is possible- and essential.

More good news— we also know what land to protect, and it’s concentrated in a few areas. Maybe I’l write more about that soon. :)

Feelings: Embrace Half-Heartedness

I’ve been talking with friends about a new feeling I’m experiencing. Belinda calls it “mediocrity is the goal.” Denise calls it “not resisting a new chapter.” Rahul calls it “half-heartedness,” after the Edward Abbey quote below:

“Do not burn yourselves out. Be as I am - a reluctant enthusiast....a part-time crusader, a half-hearted fanatic. Save the other half of yourselves and your lives for pleasure and adventure. It is not enough to fight for the land; it is even more important to enjoy it. While you can. While it’s still here. So get out there and hunt and fish and mess around with your friends, ramble out yonder and explore the forests, climb the mountains, bag the peaks, run the rivers, breathe deep of that yet sweet and lucid air, sit quietly for a while and contemplate the precious stillness, the lovely, mysterious, and awesome space. Enjoy yourselves, keep your brain in your head and your head firmly attached to the body, the body active and alive, and I promise you this much; I promise you this one sweet victory over our enemies, over those desk-bound men and women with their hearts in a safe deposit box, and their eyes hypnotized by desk calculators. I promise you this; You will outlive the bastards.”

-Edward Abbey, Desert Solitaire

I have many friends currently in the depths of or slowly recovering from burnout. (I wrote about addressing the root causes of burnout a couple years ago). Working for climate is tough. At our work kickoff last week, our director said, “Our normal job can suck the life out of us.” We have to resist that life-sucking spiral.

This idea of setting limits on even urgent and important work, to have time and energy to prioritize health and relationships, pleasure and adventure, and ultimately stay in this work for the long haul is resonating with me right now.

What do you think?

Leave a comment

P.S. On the other hand, Derrick Jensen wrote that he “always kind of hated [this Abbey] quote.”

Action: Climate Citizens, Unite!

As you know from the Choose Your Own Adventure Climate Action Guide, if you live in a democracy, your most powerful climate superpowers are as a citizen.

And 2024 is a BIG year for climate citizens.

According to the United Nations Development Programme:

This is the biggest election year in human history. Half of the world’s population – some 3.7 billion people – will have the opportunity to go to the polls in 72 countries. 

Here are some of your top actions as a climate citizen. Please roll up your sleeves and get to work!

Your #1 climate action as a citizen is to vote for leaders who'll make and implement strong climate policies.

Your vote can have up to 3x the climate impact of your carbon footprint, based on the policies your elected officials enact.

There are important climate policy issues on every ballot, in national, regional, and local elections.

To vote for climate:

1. Make sure you're registered to vote in your next election. If not, sign up at a trusted government website (like this one, to Register to vote in the US) or from searching "register to vote" + "[name of my country]".

2. After you've registered to vote, note on your calendar the date of upcoming elections, and set a reminder to vote. Find upcoming elections in the US (the general election is November 5, 2024).

3. Be sure to vote in primaries and local elections as well as national elections.

How can you find politicians committed to real climate action?

1. Elect politicians with good climate voting scores from organizations like LCV in the US or the Climate Action Network in Europe.

2. If your candidate doesn't have a score--vote for candidates who have pledged not to take fossil fuel money.

3. Check who funds your candidate (hint: big fossil fuel companies are not great for ambitious climate policy).

4. And please, for lots of reasons including the climate, elect more women! A 2019 study showed more women in parliament resulted in lower national carbon emissions via stronger climate policies.

Give time and money to climate politics organizations

A study led by Seth Wynes on the climate impact of voting had some important tips:

If you have money to spend on climate action, don’t buy offsets. Donate it to politicians running on a strong climate platform, especially supporting scrappy challengers against incumbents with a bad climate voting record early in the election cycle in close races.

A good option for non-wonks who don’t follow every race is “giving to organizations who aim to elect climate-concerned legislators and relying on their expertise to allocate funding.”

Wherever you give, openly discussing your contributions is important, because research shows this type of giving is contagious.

-We Can Fix It, April 2021

Here are a few great climate-focused organizations that could really use your support to help elect climate champions:

• “The Environmental Voter Project identifies millions of non-voting environmentalists and turns them into consistent voters.” The group estimates that 13,000,000 environmentalists don’t vote in federal US elections. Mobilizing this group who already cares about climate to vote their values is incredibly powerful. (Every US Presidential election since 1984 has been decided by fewer votes than that.) They’re looking for volunteers to call potential voters, send postcards, or knock on doors to mobilize these inactive environmental voters.

• Climate Power’s communications are “localizing and personalizing the impacts of climate progress being made right now — from local hiring, to lowered energy bills, to cleaner air and water”. They have helpful resources for key swing states on how to talk to voters about the benefits of current climate policies, as well as how climate impacts are harming local people and places.

• Climate Cabinet helps “high impact leaders run, win, and legislate on climate change.” They score US state legislators for their climate and environmental justice records, and focus on the “500,000 state and local elected officials [who] control 75% of US emissions.” You can donate to support the “downballot races with the biggest climate impact.”

I’d love to hear about your favorite climate policy organizations and how you’ve been involved- especially those beyond the US. What organizations have you supported and why? Please let me know in the comments below!

Leave a comment

Parting Tidbits

Upcoming talks, come see me here:

I’ll be lecturing on effective personal climate action at Lomma Library at 18:30 on September 4. Welcome to join!

Recent podcast:

Just two Swedes chatting climate— here’s me in conversation with Tarzan (Alexander Skarsgård) on how to get beyond analysis paralysis and focus on what choices really matter for climate.

Book Recommendation

Into the Clear Blue Sky: The Path for Restoring our Atmosphere, by Rob Jackson. I heard Rob give an inspiring seminar at Stanford about his “crazy dream”— that humanity should not just stop climate getting worse, but actually restore it to its full pre-industrial splendor. In this book he shares his vision for moving from “climate despair to repair.”

Thanks for reading!

xo,
Kim

Hi friends!

I’m still working with limited capacity due to grief and some health issues. But I wanted to send this newsletter to share some news I hope you can use, and to say I’m grateful for the work you’re doing for climate, and for your kind support over these last months. Please hang in there and take care of each other!

Facts: Climate Accountability

Last month, I attended the Swedish Climate Symposium and heard an excellent talk by Prof. Åsa Persson, Chair of the Swedish Climate Policy Council. (That’s a group of scientists who evaluate how well our government is doing on meeting national climate goals.)

Åsa made many smart observations on the current climate policy landscape:

• We’re moving from the age of

  climate action (acknowledging the need to act) →

  to climate ambition (announcing targets) →
  to climate accountability (implementing policies and practices that deliver emissions reductions and meet targets).

• The initial focus after the Paris Agreement was adopted in 2015 was pledges, with the goal to bring actors onboard. It was a low threshold; any target was welcome.

• Now we’re in an era of scrutinizing government and corporate targets, and developing standards for what constitutes a good target.

• Targets are usually politically easier to adopt than policy instruments, because targets don’t assign responsibility, allocate costs, or have to be completed within the current term of office.

• Policy instruments (like taxes, subsidies, regulations, standards, information, public goods) usually assign responsibility and imply distribution of costs and benefits, which motivates actors to mobilize (including resistance).

• What will enforce the Paris Agreement are implementation plans. Countries should adopt redistributive climate policies to build social acceptance.

• The climate transition should be both

  • just (leaving no one behind, including fossil fuel workers and frontline communities) and

  • orderly (avoid delays from poor coordination, do things in the right order, follow a pace of change that balances costs and benefits over time and gives actors time to adapt).

To deliver climate targets in reality, Åsa proposed a climate “accountability ecosystem,” with important roles for evaluation, audit, and assessment of climate progress, as well as input from the public and civil society, scientists, and the media. I’d say you’re part of this ecosystem as a We Can Fix It reader, so thank you!

Feelings: Tikkun Olam

I recently learned of two concepts from the Talmud that really resonated for me, thanks to social justice advocate Sim Kern on Instagram:

1. Tikkun olam, action to repair the world.
   As Sim describes it, this is the view that our purpose is healing ourselves and the world.
   

2. “You are not obligated to complete the work, but neither are you free to abandon it.”
   As Sim points out, this means that you can focus your energies where you feel they make the most difference, because so many others are also working to heal different parts of the world.

To me, this combination is really powerful. We have an essential purpose that matters to ourselves and others. It acknowledges that the work can be hard, and it may not be done in our lifetimes, but it’s still worth doing.

You can watch Sim’s full video here:

Leave a comment

Action: Low-carbon summer adventure

Summer means longer days and perhaps time for vacation. It’s a great time to get outside. (I recently passed 500 hours outside so far in 2024, hopefully on my way to 1,000 hours outside for the year.) And it's a great time to enjoy some of the simple pleasures of life.

Your action this month is to enjoy some low-carbon fun, relaxation, and adventure. (This means reducing flying and driving as much as possible.)

Some ideas:

• Get a summer transit pass and explore your local area. You could pick a theme to visit like excellent hikes, breweries, or cardamom rolls (just to name a few faves!)

• Try a new activity that’s powered by your body (like biking or standup paddleboarding) or the wind (like sailing, which Simon and I are learning from scratch after we bought a 1976 Maxi 77 sailboat last year).

• Grow something you’ll enjoy to eat or to look at in your garden or windowsill. This summer I’m enjoying growing and arranging flowers in memory of my mom.

• Visit a local farmers’ market and collect treats to have at a picnic in the park.

• Go to a local beach, lake, or pool and take a dip.

• Keep it simple! As I wrote in Under the Sky We Make, “A lot of changing your life for the sake of the environment means trying way less hard, not more. British researchers identified activities to live better and happier while consuming and emitting less; they found the best win- win leisure choices are local outdoor activities, reading, hobbies and games, music, and— lowest emitting of all—“sleep and rest.” Science says: more naps!”

• For tips on how to connect with and care for nature nearby, see my April 2021 post “A hot date with Planet Earth.”

Parting Tidbits

I spoke with Josh Spodek about my flying less journey, and why cultural change is essential to climate action, on This Sustainable Life podcast:

Book Recommendation:

Not the End of the World, by Hannah Ritchie. I recently recommended this book to a high school science teacher for her science class. It’s a very good, accessible overview of not just environmental problems, but also where we’ve made progress and what more we can do.

I’ll be taking holiday in July, so I’ll see you back here in August. Thanks so much for reading.

xo,
Kim