/r/ClimateOffensive

Photograph via //r/ClimateOffensive

We're here to do something about climate change. We're not here to talk about why it's happening, how bad it is, or who to blame. We're here to brainstorm, organize, and act. Use this space to find resources, connect with others, and learn more about how you can make a difference. Join us for our sub-wide campaigns as we leverage the platform of Reddit to do some good for the climate.

Our Mission

We're here to do something about climate change. We're not here to talk about why it's happening, how bad it is, or who to blame. We're here to brainstorm, organize, and act. Use this space to find resources, connect with others, and learn more about how you can make a difference. Join us for our sub-wide campaigns as we leverage the platform of Reddit to do some good for the climate.


Submission and Comment Rules
  1. Must relate to direct climate action
  2. All posts must be flaired appropriately
  3. Respect other people and ideas
  4. No propaganda, science denial, or misinformation
  5. No inactivism
  6. No news posts
  7. Do not advocate for violence or death
  8. No spam or self-promotion
  9. No low-effort content

See full rules and flair guide here.


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/r/ClimateOffensive

70,102 Subscribers

1

What's the most you can do (for the environment) with $5,000? (Not soliciting, please read for details)

(This is just brainstorming, I'm not soliciting right now)

Hey all - I'm finally starting my personal social impact journey. My immediate goal is to empower 1 person who:

  • is working on something big
  • is going from 0 to 1 (they're at the beginning of their own journey - I'm not trying to contribute to a large, mature project at the moment)
  • Is based in the US (where I am for the next several months)

All I have for this is $5,000, and I'm trying to figure out if that's enough to accomplish something like this. What's the furthest this can go in the US? What's an initiative that can be kickstarted with an amount like this? Thanks so much

7 Comments
2024/03/13
01:53 UTC

9

How many trees would I need to plant to offset my lifetime carbon emmissions?

I would like to plant enough trees to offset the carbon I, an average citizen of a developed Western country, emmit in my lifetime in order to have an overall carbon neutral life. I don't want my time on Earth to produce a net increase in carbon in the atmosphere.

How many trees would I need to plant (and for which species and location)?

Would I need to keep planting trees every year, or does planting enough trees to offset my yearly carbon emmissions suffice, as those planted trees will presumably capture the same amount of carbon every year (ignoring tree deaths, or reduced efficiency close to the tree's end of life)?

12 Comments
2024/03/12
22:14 UTC

25

Call to Support Mass Transit to Cut Fossil Fuel Emissions

From the Union of Concerned Scientists: "A new bill would create dedicated funding for transit operations across the country. Call today and tell your member of Congress it's time to center people in our transportation future: support the Stronger Communities through Better Transit Act. https://secure.ucsusa.org/a/2024-call-for-transit "

2 Comments
2024/03/12
21:27 UTC

8

Clean Banking

I want to make sure I am banking with a company that does not fund fossil fuels. I currently have accounts with Truist, but cannot find any info on them or how they measure up in this regard. Does anyone have any info on Truist’s relation to fossil fuels?

1 Comment
2024/03/11
20:59 UTC

13

Write to CEOs of the Fossil Fuel Industry

Stop Fossil-Fueled Forest Fires: Send a letter to fossil fuel CEOs from this Union of Concerned Scientists website: https://secure.ucsusa.org/a/2023-stop-fossil-fueled-forest-fires

1 Comment
2024/03/08
16:08 UTC

1

Volunteer to GOTV with Environmental Voter Project

"The Environmental Voter Project is working every day using proven messaging to mobilize 4.8 million low propensity climate voters to vote for the very first time in 2024, but we need your help to make this happen." If you would like to join the volunteers phone banking, postcarding and canvasing, sign up here: https://www.environmentalvoter.org/get-involved

0 Comments
2024/03/06
18:01 UTC

10

The Citizens' Climate Lobby training is available on the CCL podcast -- just search "Citizens' Climate Lobby" on your podcast app

2 Comments
2024/03/05
13:45 UTC

8

Can we create a better carbon credit?

First reddit post. I have been getting frustrated by how useless carbon credits are, but cannot shake the feeling that the free-market system still has a lot of potential to drive society-wide positive climate action. So please consider and critique the following idea I have for a personal carbon credit system. If there is any merit to it, your criticisms will be useful to refine it:

On a global level, climate change is being driven primarily by the extraction of fossilized carbon, and injecting it into the environment. This not only includes the fossil fuel industry, but also petrochemicals, fertilizer manufacturing, etc. Thus, I propose a carbon credit with a twist. Instead of making carbon credits as a permit for each end user to emit CO2, we make carbon credits as a permit to extract crude oil, coal, and natural gas. Extractors would use these carbon credits to buy a permit from the regulator to extract these resources, and the regulator destroys the credit upon receiving them.

How many carbon credits per tonne of coal/oil/gas?

We already know the chemistry and can calculate exactly how much CO2 is released by fully oxidizing that resource, and that is exactly how many carbon credits the extractor would need. This is the “sink” for these credits.

What is the “source” of these credits?

We distribute the carbon credits equally to every person in the jurisdiction where this system is being implemented. We recognize that until we finish the transition, we still require these commodities to live in today’s world, but we also recognize that every person has an equal right to life in this society. Only human persons receive their share, companies/organizations/corporations receive nothing.

How do these credits make their way from the “source” (individual people) to the “sink” (carbon extractors)?

The credits act as a parallel currency to the existing national fiat currency system. Participants in the economy would naturally only require these carbon credits if their activities are still coupled to fossil fuels/petrochemicals. For example:

  • You buy a bus ticket with money + carbon credits.
  • The bus operator buys diesel from the fuel distributor with money + carbon credits.
  • The fuel distributor buys diesel from the refiner with money + carbon credits.
  • The refiner buys crude oil from the oil driller with money + carbon credits.
  • The oil diller buys the permits to continue their operation from the government/regulator with carbon credits.
  • The government/regulator destroys the credits.

How many credits does the regulator create?

The plan for the quota must meet our climate goals of decoupling from fossil fuels fast enough to prevent as much human suffering as possible, while recognizing that if we constrain our fossil fuel use too early and suddenly, the economic shock can also reduce our ability to transition rapidly and cause immediate harm to people. This must be analyzed by experts on climate science as well as other fields, and updated as our understanding of the situation evolves. It must also be made public knowledge to give people and organizations the information necessary to plan their transition. For example, at the start we can maintain the current trend of fossil fuel extraction to try to minimize economic shock, then gradually reduce the quota over time, accelerating as time progresses until we reach our climate targets at the required deadline.

What happens if you want/need to consume more than your allowance can afford?

You can buy them from someone else through an exchange setup by the regulator to facilitate instant and free trading of credits. Key point, you cannot buy them directly from the regulator, the regulator only creates new credits based on the quota and distributes them equally. Thus, to pollute more than your fair share, you must always buy the privilege from someone else who has polluted less than their fair share (either through conscious action, or being unable to afford to consume at that level).

Some advantages of this system:

  • We have a simple policy tool to set a clear roadmap to achieving the decoupling from fossil fuels, which we can adjust depending on the development of climate science and the progress of the transition.
  • We create a tangible and measurable incentive for all levels of society to decouple from fossil carbon. For businesses, decoupling from fossil carbon now can provide a measurable cost advantage for ecological action. For individuals, reducing carbon intensive consumption can bring additional wealth through credits sold.
  • We reduce the cost of administering the carbon credit system.

Existing systems that apply to emissions must account for the intricacies of every form of emissions in our complex economy. For example, the way to calculate emissions for a drinks bottling plant that consumes plastics will be very different from a farm that consumes chemical fertilizers, or an individual driving a petrol powered automobile.
This system that applies to fossil fuel producers only needs to account for the carbon mass fraction of the raw fossil carbon (coal/oil/gas), and needs to audit a much smaller number of entities (coal miners, oil/gas drillers).

  • We create a redistributive mechanism for wealth. Anyone wishing to pollute more than their fair share must do so in exchange for a part of their economic power. Today, we do not price the externalities of emissions, and thus encroach on each other’s right to a safe climate for free. While this is primarily aimed at rewarding people who make environmentally friendly decisions and delivering some justice to people who never had the wealth capacity to cause the climate crisis, it can also be sold to the rich and powerful as a mitigating factor to their outsize emissions.
  • We delegate decisions to the local level by letting every economic player determine what is their own best course of action to decouple from fossil carbon, based on their knowledge of their specific context and capabilities.
  • Less intrusive on privacy. The government does not need to track and categorize what individuals do or buy to assess their carbon cost. The carbon cost of products is determined by the free market. If a business overprices their products in carbon credits, that cost is directly convertible into a monetary cost that can be used to compare similar offers from competitors.
  • Democratic advantage. In a system with unbalanced emissions, it is a mathematical certainty that the people who pollute more will be a minority. Thus the majority will benefit from the redistributive properties of the system, which should be advantageous to politicians to back it in a democratic system.

Other notes:

  • This system only aims to facilitate the transition away from fossil carbon, and cannot act on its own. It must be used in parallel with other actions to repair the damage we have already done.
6 Comments
2024/03/04
00:25 UTC

138

Amtrak takes 40 hours longer and costs nearly 10x as much to get me across the country. Do I still take it or fly and invest the money in companies that help climate change?

Using a burner cause I figure people might hate on me.

I'm older and have money. Because of climate change, I've given up flying for years, so I never travel to Europe anymore (which I used to love to do yearly).

I've also taken Amtrak instead of flying for most of my trips (barring situations where the train leaves in the wee hours on a freezing night or Amtrak cancels).

Because I'm older, female (and acknowledging privilege here), I like to get a roomette if I'm going to be sleeping on the train because I can't sleep in coach. (For people who don't know, the rides are very JOLTING. Amtrak runs on freight tracks. That and the horn constantly sounding, people getting on and off at every stop, loud talkers, people watching shows without headphones, etc. make 48 hours a long time to go without sleep.)

A roomette (small fold down bed, private, more secure, no people getting on and off, etc.) costs a shit ton more than flying. Example: A trip that's 8 hours round trip flying is 48 hours plus delays via Amtrak. Coach plane tickets (totally doable, cause it's not 48 hours) cost $275. Amtrak roomette costs $2,100.

With my privilege, I invest in climate-friendly stocks when there's enough extra to invest. (A lot of them don't do so well, but I figure they need support from investors).

Bottom line: In terms of climate change, is it better to take the flight and invest the money? Or is flying so bad I should stick with the train?

I'm aware of contrails leading to upper atmosphere clouds that blanket heat against the earth and exacerbate warming. It's a bigger problem than the GHG emissions. Just don't know which is the better way to go here with the money.

Sorry for the long post. Just wondering if the money would help more in investment form.

49 Comments
2024/03/02
18:46 UTC

204

how the hell do i not go insane over the impending doom of climate change?

i’m currently having a mental breakdown over climate change and how it seems like we’re totally fucked, especially since i am an abused dude who’s been waiting for years to get out of an abusive home, and this year is finally the year i leave and now climate change is at an all time high. i’ve been doomscrolling for hours and i’ve seen nothing but the worst, and i have no idea what i could even do at this point since the only real change that could happen is at a governent level

so how do i keep myself sane while all of this shit is happening to the earth?

58 Comments
2024/02/27
20:29 UTC

120

Eat the rich…. or piss em off

Throwaway.

Yellowstone Club is a private ski/golf resort in Big Sky Montana for the richest of the rich that’s destroying not only the local community but the rest of the planet. One of the only places with the resources to be fully sustainable does not even recycle. River dumping, extreme private jet traffic, excessive waste production, etc.

There is one road to get into the club. It could easily be blockaded. I’ve never participated in climate activism to this extent but it’s something I’ve been thinking about. Wanted input.

15 Comments
2024/02/27
15:56 UTC

14

Championing Walkable Cities

Last year, I was a Fellow of the Kansas State Walking College, put on by America Walks with funding and support from AARP Kansas.

Over the course of the fellowship, I began to recognize the impressive and cheap climate benefit of designing cities for people instead of cars. Whatever cars there will be in the future should be electric, but the switch should really be from cars to active transportation and transit for most people.

After spending a full year in the climate-adjacent space of urbanism and transportation design (fueled by The War on Cars, Booked on Planning, Reinventing Parking (podcasts); The High Cost of Free Parking, Walkable City, Paved Paradise (books); and media from Strong Towns and the Parking Reform Network (non-profits), I went to visit with my city planner.

We've now been to a Planning Commission meeting and then to a Zoning and Subdivision Committee meeting together, where I presented and argued for a proposal that I wrote, which aims to eliminate minimum parking requirements in our town -- a very important (first) step in making the city one that can be accessed and enjoyed by all modes of transportation. The outcome of all this is still uncertain, but I hope that you might consider reading the proposal and, if you find it agreeable, take up the cause in your city.

Thank you.

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1TZusEYwcJVVzIwtXDyWl-ZAw-NfA8sv9kfgP6CZTIHI/edit?usp=drivesdk

1 Comment
2024/02/27
12:20 UTC

42

Please VOTE in Your Dem Primaries: March Primary States

Heads up: if you live in AL, AR, CA, NC & TX, your state primaries are 3/5. If you live in MS, your state primary is 3/12. If you live in IL & OH your state primary is 3/19. Please plan to vote in the Dem primary in your state. To help you pick the best candidate, check out Blue Voter Guide which provides your ballot with all Dem candidates running down to county levels AND the organizations endorsing them (including climate organizations).

www.bluevoterguide.org

2 Comments
2024/02/25
20:53 UTC

33

A simple idea that I saw shared on social media

I saw someone post this idea on social media a while back... but unfortunately I can't remember who it was!

The idea is, set up a crowdfunding campaign. With the money you raise, buy a plot of land, rewild it turn it into a nature reserve. Then rinse and repeat, over and over again, buying up and rewilding as much of the earth as possible.

Could this work? It would only improve things in fragments, but if it took off it could possibly have a bit of a far-reaching effect?

6 Comments
2024/02/25
00:04 UTC

39

How do I get over my fear of becoming a social outcast?

I really want to make a difference when it comes to climate change. I’m a 100% convinced we cannot continue as we are, and feel like every day I’m not actively helping the movement, I’m part of the problem.

I see all these brave people doing road blocks and using their social media to highlight the climate action needed, but I’m to scared to become a social outcast to take action myself. I’ve seen how much hate people get for participating in these things. I know I shouldn’t care what others think, but it is really hindering me from doing what’s needed.

I know there’s probably others out there who have experienced the same thing, so my question is: How did you get over your fear of participating in climate actions?

16 Comments
2024/02/20
19:04 UTC

32

How can I make more change?

Hi. I am disabled and don't really have disposable income to donate to climate charities/initiatives. I can't really protest due to my health either. I already:

  • went vegan (i don't use pleather)
  • take public transport when possible (sometimes I need the gasoline car but rarely, our household uses it once a week)
  • vote in my elections national and local
  • source my energy from 100% renewables
  • reduce my plastic waste where I can (i avoid buying plastic products but sometimes need pre cut vegetables because of my health)
  • use a reusable shopping bag
  • buy sustainable clothing made to last, and rarely buy new clothes or accesories
  • i don't fly at all, extremely rare international travel is by long distance train (yay Europe!)
  • I'm learning how to forage
  • use a climate friendly bank

I'm struggling to think of anything else I can do. I'd like to reduce my soy intake but unfortunately that's very hard to do while staying healthy as a vegan (I am under the guidance of a dietician). I'd appreciate anything I might have missed!

21 Comments
2024/02/20
10:02 UTC

30

I don't know who needs to see this, but here you are

The climate crisis often has an extremely detrimental effect on my mental health (had a massive panic attack nearly a week ago), and this is really counter-productive because it limits my capacity to help join in with climate activism. To deal with the problem, it's important that in addition to staying informed on how bad things are (which is important too), we also need to see the positive things that are happening, so here you go.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g9p5VKd8VkE

2 Comments
2024/02/19
09:39 UTC

3

Do you think the following could work? Why? Why not?

Could implementing a tiered system, similar to the regulation of prescription drugs, be a potential approach to addressing global climate change. By designating and limiting heavy and long-term pollutants as controlled substances, governments could enforce stricter regulations and accountability measures on industries and individuals heavily contributing to greenhouse gas emissions.

1 Comment
2024/02/19
01:26 UTC

32

I'm trying to shift public perception on a lot of issues. I've decided to start making videos and would love input.

(This is targeted to several different subreddits, largely because these issues overlap like crazy and I want perspectives from a ton of people from different backgrounds if possible.)

Starting a year ago, I became hyper-aware of, well... a lot of what's going wrong with the world.

For the past six months, I've been trying to think of ways to actually make a difference as a low-income citizen with zero connections and effectively no social network. The average worker, basically. And as everyone here is well aware, the average worker views themselves as more or less powerless on their own (acting as a collective = the only way forward).

But I have a few skills that may be helpful to subs and communities like this-- one of them seems to be an obsession with the interconnected nature of the problems discussed here and elsewhere. I want to frame the most significant ones in ways that don't leave you feeling hopeless, in ways that demonstrate progress can be made (and how best to make that progress).

There are a lot of moving parts, and this post doesn't need to be an essay. To start with, I'm going to build a social media presence that acts as a unifier for discussing tech, socioeconomic dysfunction, the climate crisis and other ecological disasters, and the manipulation occurring in each of those vectors. This will ideally lead to crowdsourcing research, cooperatives, etc. The first content slated for release on social media is a series that I've nicknamed "The Problem Series", eight episodes running 45-60 minutes each. Here's where I'd love some input! Let me know what you think of the following topics/premises, whether they accurately portray the biggest problems we're all facing, and if they seem compelling enough to gain traction:

(Episode titles are intentionally clickbait-ish to accommodate audience demographics, suggest a different order if you strongly feel that a certain sequence of information presentation would be more logical...)

1. Problem #1: Capitalism's Death Spiral:

Breaks down why the vast majority of human-created issues now stem from unregulated corporate practices. This includes wage stagnation, wealth consolidation, climate change, the plastic/waste crisis, the housing crisis etc. The intent here is to provide an abstract-level overview that will touch on core problems while illustrating their intersection with one another.

2. Nobody is an Island: The Myth of Rugged Individualism:

Drawing on historical analysis, sociological research, and personal narratives, this episode examines the myth of rugged individualism and its role in shaping Western society's values and attitudes. The idea that we should deify those who successfully carve an outsized portion of resources for themselves (the "self made" billionaires and friends) is inherently toxic and enables extreme levels of passiveness in general citizenry as we watch a select few bleed us dry.

3. Your Landlord is a Robot: Notes on Our Next Housing Crisis:

The title here takes aim both at the actual AI-driven real-estate bidding wars expected to escalate across the next decade as well as at the current practices of "human" landlords running rackets on millions of low-income citizens world-wide. Here, we examine alternatives such as selective applications of communal infrastructure and other collectivist ideals, regulatory measures to eliminate the practices discussed, and other municipality-level approaches that yield more security for at-risk populations.

4. Co-op 101: Building a Better Future :

This episode deviates somewhat from an immediate focus on problems and instead tries to paint an anticipatory picture of what some of our core infrastructure, utilities, and modes of business might look like in a highly-regulated flavor of capitalism (one that leverages the principles of things like "universal basic utilities"; water/electricity/food are treated as basic human rights in this hypothetical)

5. Skepticism 101: Let’s Dissect Corporate (Lies):

Dedicated to taking aim at corporations and monopolies whose legacy of moral bankruptcy continues to harm everyone outside of a minuscule segment of the global population. The aim is to objectively categorize and examine the strategies used by these entities to persuade citizens to ignore the social, financial, and environmental costs incurred by their self-centered practices; the motives that drive these levels of apathy, and what effective organized responses from those impacted would actually look like.

6. Working Until You Die: Income Inequality Explained:

The title here is pretty self-explanatory imo. The intent is to explore the existing trends tied to retirement and the cost of living, and examine what happens in societies that have eroded their social safety nets-- what happens when you simply cannot afford to age out of your work or become disabled? This absolutely stretches beyond retirement, but it's a very potent image to consider since this has historically been the "light at the end of the tunnel" for those below the upper class.

7. Every Purchase is Violence: The Real Cost of Consumerism:

The title may seem hyperbolic until you realize the percentage of the labor/supply chain for consumer goods that are built on outright slavery or extreme animal cruelty. This is another very difficult-to-look-at global phenomenon. But as I mentioned in the intro to this post, I will also deep dive into the lovely handful of companies that are thoroughly pursuing solutions to these issues, and illustrate how other companies can be pressured or convinced to do their part (no, this isn't just boycotting).

8. Forever Automated: AI Wants to Replace You at Work:

More clickbait phrasing, but the crux of it is proving to be exceptionally accurate. We are set to witness the permanent down-sizing of many creative and white collar industries... but we shouldn't be surprised in the least. This episode examines why the writing has been on the wall for centuries when it comes to automating every available function within the workplace, and why objectively different rules apply to the worker displacement seen during the industrial revolution versus the AI and computing revolutions. Remember: if you can describe your jobs as a series of steps, a robot or AI-augmented system can and will take it.

9. You, Me, Us : Fighting for Today instead of Tomorrow:

I have to end it on a high note. This has to be a series that provides some kind of ray of hope for people like me, the ones waking up fucking sad everyday when we think about what the world is turning into. This is the start of a project that proposes to incrementally shift the tracks until our runaway train is diverted onto a safer path. An exit ramp strategy, if you will. This isn't holding hands and singing "We Are the World", this is a declaration of organized resistance built on extending compassion and thoughtfulness into structured change.

  1. Thank you for coming to my ted talk

If literally any of this grabbed your attention, I'd love to hear why, and whether you have more insight in specific areas. Sources, examples, proposals for content. All of it is welcome. If you think it's stupid, cool; I'd love to hear alternative approaches or methods of constructing the beginnings of a grassroots collective.

TLDR; I'm making a video series examining all of the global problems and putting them into a framework to see what existing strategies are missing. Then, running social and economic experiments to test what's actually effective. This will require a shit-ton of crowdsourcing, but I know I'm not the only one looking for something organized that opposes the sea of greedy bullshit we're all wading through.

Edits: crappy list formatting on mobile, compromising with mediocre formatting on desktop

16 Comments
2024/02/18
21:54 UTC

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