Climate Change External Resources

Climate Resources

Books

The Future We Choose:  Surviving the Climate Crisis, by Christiana Figueres and Tom Rivett-Carnac, architects of the 2015 Paris Agreement. A quick, easy, cautionary but optimistic read for climate change newcomers.  Find events, a podcast and other information at the authors’ website, Global Optimism.  

Drawdown: The Most Comprehensive Plan Ever Proposed to Reverse Global Warming,” was compiled from experts around the world by longtime environmentalist, entrepreneur, author and activist, Paul Hawken.  Communities across the country and around the world are using this resource and guide to climate change solutions in their own communities.  There is a comprehensive website, including a video series, Climate Solutions 101.

The Uninhabitable Earth:  Life After Warming, by David Wallace-Wells, columnist and deputy editor at New York magazine.  A sobering preview of climate change impacts.

Government

Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) provides regular assessments of the scientific basis of climate change, its impacts and future risks, and options for adaptation and mitigation. Created in 1988 by the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) and the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), its reports are a key contribution to international climate change negotiations.

U.S. Global Change Research Program

The U.S. Global Change Research Program (USGCRP) coordinates federal research and investments in understanding global changes and their impacts on society across its 13 federal member agencies and publishes a National Climate Assessment every four years.

Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy, Office of Climate and Energy

The Office of Climate and Energy coordinates the state’s efforts to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050 through development and implementation of the MI Healthy Climate Plan as ordered in Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s Executive Order 2020-182 and Executive Directive 2020-10. It will serve as Michigan’s action plan for reducing greenhouse gas emissions and transitioning toward carbon neutrality throughout the economy.  It supports the state’s move to increased clean energy production and works with stakeholders to educate the public on the benefits of renewable energy sources as well as energy efficiency practices.

Training

Climate Change: The Science and Global Impact, a free online course taught by Dr. Michael E. Mann, an American climatologist and geophysicist and contributor to the IPCC.   He is the director of the Earth System Science Center at Pennsylvania State University and author of numerous climate change articles and books, including his most recent, The New Climate War, published in 2021.

Organizations

Yale Climate Connections

Yale Climate Connections is a nonpartisan, multimedia service providing daily broadcast radio programming and original web-based reporting, commentary, and analysis on the issue of climate change.

The Climate Mobilization

A national organization that has catalyzed the U.S. climate emergency declaration movement, described in founder Margaret Klein Salamon’s book, Facing the Climate Emergency.

The Climate Reality Project

Founded by former U.S. Vice-President Al Gore, the national organization trains activists for the Climate Reality Leadership Corps.