Tackling the Climate Crisis

We at Tidelines Institute strive to empower our students, and our broader community, with real tools to take action on the climate crisis.

Question: WHAT CAN I DO as an individual to tackle the climate crisis?

Answer: BECOME LESS OF AN INDIVIDUAL!

Join the climate movement, which has pioneered collective tools for making systemic change.

Here are a few tools the climate movement is using to disempower the fossil fuel industry and build a cleaner, brighter future:

Stop the Money Pipeline

Our financial system is underwriting climate destruction, with the big banks and asset managers investing billions in fossil fuel expansion.

Move your money somewhere climate friendly
See Marilyn Waite’s guide to Sustainable Banking and Investing, so that your money will be out in the world building wind turbines, not dirty pipelines.
Divest
Our schools, churches, and pension funds must align their investments with their values. See the more than 1500 organizations that already have. If you’re a high schooler, get involved here!

Build (the Right Stuff)

Clean up our electric grid
We must clean up our electric grid by building massive amounts of solar, wind, and other clean power. Don’t be a clean energy NIMBY (Not in My Back Yard) – let your local leaders know you want clean energy NOW.
Electrify Everything
Go electric in your household and your life! The Inflation Reduction Act provides big incentives for you to replace your dirty gas stove with magnetic induction, replace your gas-guzzling car with an EV, and more.

These guides from Rewiring America and the US Department of Energy will help you Save money while electrifying your life.

Make Your Job a Climate Job

Why should we ignore humanity’s greatest crisis for ⅓ of our lives, only taking action in our extremely limited spare hours? Don’t leave climate action to your company’s tiny sustainability team! Nearly everyone can push their employer to be stronger on climate.

Check out Project Drawdown’s publication CLIMATE SOLUTIONS AT WORK.

Get Political

At all levels of government, we must elect climate champions instead of climate deniers. Yet for too many of us, our political lives, which is to say our citizenship, consists of ingesting vast amounts of political news while doing nothing to actually build political power, save perhaps casting our one vote for president every four years.

You can be a far bigger and more effective political force – especially in nearby elections for city council, school board, and public utility commission where big climate decisions are made daily.

Climate Cabinet will point you to the key climate candidates you can support around the country.

Join

Don’t try to save the world all by yourself! You’ll be far more effective and find more joy working with a team of friends. FIND YOUR CLIMATE COMMUNITY!

There are hundreds of climate action organizations out there, and they want you. Here are a couple:

If you’re over 60, join TH!RD ACT.

Join your local climate organization. There are far too many to list here.

For more on real, practical, effective citizen tools to tackle the climate crisis, read The Big Fix by Hal Harvey and Justin Gillis.

It’s a quick, entertaining, empowering read, full of inspirational stories of people just like you making real change.

Let’s make change together!