I have posted this several times but I know forum participation fluctuates, so...
The single, best way to reduce carbon in the US, is to have a tax on carbon or carbon fee and dividend. It would act like a railway switch and propel us onto a different, lower carbon track. Please call or send a postcard to your Member of Congress and two Senators telling them that you are worried about climate change and that you endorse a carbon fee and dividend
The carbon tax idea has been in the works for as long as I can remember. If I call my congressional delegation tomorrow, I doubt anything will come from it. Perhaps you could suggest some groups we could join?
I should have suggested that people join groups; none of us accomplishes much alone. The Climate Reality Project is very active. You can join a chapter without having to go through the training. They will send a weekly calls-to-make list that only takes a few minutes and will help create a cacophony of climate action voices.
The not-for-profit Citizen's Climate Lobby has been working on a price on carbon for a decade and they are making progress. They have their ear to the ground in DC and work diligently.
One of the historic issues ever since the first "social-cost-of-carbon," which is the economic calculation of the cost of inaction, has been that it was and still is, calculated far too low. In the Nicholas Stern report, they omitted ocean acidification, for example, which will have massive global environmental and economic consequences. Economists are not in tune enough with the science.
Subscribe to "Inside Climate News" to get free updates on science. https://insideclimatenews.org/
"Yale Environment 360" is excellent, too. https://e360.yale.edu/
For monitoring the ice on the poles and in glaciers, I receive a regular update "Major Developments in Cyrosphere Science" but I signed up at a conference and don't know how to refer others. Try,
https://www.cryosphere2022.is/
Oh, Columbia Earth Institute has many fabulous webinars but it helps to have a background in energy and or climate.
There are many environmental groups who work on climate but I want all of my efforts to be extremely climate focused but perhaps other folks will have recommendations, too.
@raincloud Thank you, this is very helpful! As I read your post, my hope levels rose.
A promising message about sources in the Indigenous community is offering knowledge to help grow crops in a drier climate. The Yale Program on Climate Change Communication produces regular short, 2 minute, podcasts related to climate, many of which are meant to encourage us.
Yale Climate Connections
@raincloud Dry farming by indigenous people fits visions I've had of indigenous people surviving climate change. I would love to get a hold of some of these dry veggie seeds and try them in my veggie garden. I searched the links but clearly they are not at the point where a person can order the seeds. However, where I live, the northeast, we never know if we are going to have a drought or the opposite. I would however like to find seeds that can survive drought so I can stop watering my garden once the plants have gone from seedling to small plant stage.
James Hansen's latest climate update: "Hotter Hotspots, Drier Dryspots, Wetter Wetspots, and Stronger Storms" clarifies what the top climate scientist is observing, and has been expecting to see for many years.
Although I always felt that rapid climate change would happen faster than even Hansen was predicting, now I see he's talking about the 2030's in the same way I've been feeling them, i.e., get ready for big changes. That's a hit for a prediction I made ten years ago. Still, I find Hansen comforting because he's a scientist (and I am not) and he believes we can slow down the escalation, which I am uncertain but hopeful we can. He is worth reading and subscribing to (free). To subscribe to his email list: https://columbia.us1.list-manage.com/subscribe?
To read this latest climate update: http://www.columbia.edu/~jeh1/mailings/2022/AprilTemperatureUpdate.16May2022.pdf
As I write this post, I can feel that @raincloud will know much more about this than I have expressed. She has both the climate science and the intuition about the situation.
Wildfire risk estimates by U.S. region in 2022 and 2052. I've been telling clients that my favorite U.S. location for the long term is the Northeast, especially near the Great Lakes. This assessment validates that prediction. https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/interactive/2022/wildfire-risk-map-us/?
@Jeanne-mayell I go through cycles of obsessing about certain places, people etc and I never understand why until afterwards when something in the news appears or is going to be siginificant soon. But I am starting to learn the pattern a bit more now.
For example, during the year leading up to covid in 2020, I had a big obsession with China, with their culture, their people, their way of life. Little did I know, that the pandemic was going to emerge from China in 2020.
The same thing is happening again with me this year with Florida, Arizona and Nevada. I keep looking at these 3 states over in particular. Maybe, I just want to go there in the future on holiday one day? Or maybe it is something more? I don't know...
Each of those 3 states are very important in the 2022 mid-term elections.
In my state of Arizona, the Governor seat is open and as bad a Ducey is as the current Governor, any of his Republican replacements would be really bad for Arizona. Hobbs, the main democratic contender is running hard but it is a tough battle. Hobbs was the lone voice of sanity during the election last year as Sec. of State and didn't cave to the absurdity of the Reps and their idiotic Cyber Ninja excrement.
Nevada is important for many reasons including the balance of power in the senate as a swing state and the fact the republicans want to change how voting is done in that state and get rid of mail in voting.
Florida is...well...I have no idea where to even begin with Florida.
There are other important states where the balance of power is at stake such as Texas and Pennsylvania. Many important states. So many important states...
Also wanted to add that those 3 states have some of the biggest climate concerns right now. There is a catastrophic situation going on with water for Nevada and Arizona and 4 other states in the west. Especially dire for Arizona, Nevada and Southern California. Two main "lakes" ( Manmade) those 3 states draw their water from are at all time lows. The Colorado River flows into them and there just isn't enough water flowing in the west. Phoenix is way below average for rain again this year too.