I’ve been making a list and checking it twice, and then don’t you know The New York Times comes out with something akin to what I’m working on, so what, great minds think alike? Margaret Renkl, who is described as a contributing opinion writer who covers flora, fauna, politics and culture in the American South, published “This New Year, Resolve to Green Up Your News Feed.”
Since I write about climate change, including my literary climate fiction series, The Steep Climes Quartet, and give talks about the future we face and how we must respond to climate change, I read a lot about the subject. There are, of course, the IPCC and NASA and NOAA and other foundational information resources for climate change, but I’m talking here more about podcasts and substacks and the like. Over the years I’ve accumulated a number of go-to sources that range from straightforward informational resources to analysis on specific climate change topics and interesting opinion pieces. I was pleased to see a number of my go-to’s show up on Renkl’s essay and I loved seeing a number of periodicals mentioned too.
One such inclusion is the impressive Grist, which describes itself as “…a nonprofit, independent media organization dedicated to highlighting climate solutions and uncovering environmental injustices.” Grist, pound for pound, is likely the best general journalism there is for climate change, and a whole lot more, too.
Renkl also mentions The Guardian, and for good reason, although climate change is only part of this organization’s focus, of course. The Guardian is currently my newspaper de jour, my having finally soured on the corporate elite orientation of The New York Times.
And then Renkl has Orion on her list, and while I check in with the magazine only occasionally, I’m happy to have Renkl mention this publication, and not just because the magazine has an editorial presence in my neck of the woods (South County, Berkshire, MA). Orion is interesting in terms of its values, which is described, back at the start of this periodical in 1982 by George Russell, the first Editor-in-Chief, as follows: “It is Orion’s fundamental conviction that humans are morally responsible for the world in which we live, and that the individual comes to sense this responsibility as he or she develops a personal bond with nature.”
Another Renkl mention is Canary Media, “an independent, nonprofit newsroom covering the transition to clean energy and solutions to the climate crisis. We report on how the world is decarbonizing — in electricity, transportation, buildings, and industry — with a critical focus on finding out what works and what doesn’t. Through uncompromising reporting, our journalists dig into the ways policymakers, businesses, investors, and communities are moving toward a clean and equitable energy future.” If I’m remembering right, this grew out of (or at least got much of their staff from) Greentech Media, one of the early—and quite good—clean energy newsletters. Canary Media offers whitepapers and how-to guides, too, and its new manifestation is a solid resource.
The universe of climate change resources is bigger than Substack, although there’s some crossover, too, as with Dana Drugmand’s Climate in the Courts (not Substack) growing out of her One Earth Now (Substack), and you’ll find many of the writers mentioned here on other platforms, too. Heatmap, which features efforts by Matthew Zeitlin, Jessica Hullinger, Jeva Lange, and others, presents through own website as a news service and more, and offers various breakout subscriptions such as HeatMap A.M. There are some functional similarities between HeatMap and Canary Media and other climate change news service bureaus. Covering Climate Now, which describes itself as “Organized by journalists… to improve climate coverage worldwide,” was cofounded in 2019 by Columbia Journalism Review and The Nation, in association with The Guardian, and is a great starting point for those interested in climate change journalism as a career and for those interested in following how climate change is covered in the media. Probable Futures is another example of a different type of website, describing itself as “…a non-profit climate literacy initiative. We make climate science accessible and understandable so that everyone, everywhere can think about climate change in practical ways and prepare for what’s to come. Our goal is for climate considerations to become an integral part of the decisions people make every day—at home, at work, and in their communities.” Probable Futures is just one of several efforts to provide climate change extrapolation aimed at adaptation planners, and it is hardly guaranteed the non-profit business model will keep the organization going, but what they do and how they do it fascinates me, so I check in on the site regularly.
Substacking Away
Many of my daily reads come from Substack, but I’ve not figured how to link into a specific substack, or simply may not be able to, since these are subscription models. Some of these substacks also have or only have websites, and some suck links are active. Mostly, you’ll have to go to Substack and look each up by name. Those I’m recommending here include the following:
The Crucial Years, Bill McKibben, with 61.1K subscribers. The Crucial Years is, in my opinion, a crucial read. Not only does McKibben write about moral issues of climate change, but his essays are rich in reportage and detail and each post includes a solid list of news items that provide a decent one-stop-shop for climate change news of import.
Volts, David Roberts, 73.9K subscribers. Volts provides twice-weekly podcasts or newsletters that offer in-depth exploration of climate change topics with a focus on practical efforts underway, thus a business orientation. David Roberts has been focused on climate change for a long time and he’s able to go into depth about a wide range of facets of the world of climate change mitgation. I find Volts one of the essential and useful portals into real-world climate change topics.
HEATED, led by Emily Atkin, has 117K subscribers over the past five years, but this substack, touts “mission of producing original, impactful, reader-powered journalism that holds polluters to account,” with the contributions of Arielle Samuel, with the goal of “building a reader-funded climate newsroom.” In the new year, though, HEATED is undergoing a change mostly due to failure to turn enough subscribers into paid subscribers. Heated will be more personal essays going forward, but Emily Atkins has a fine mind and deep knowledge of climate change issues and the sharp tongue the sleeping world still very much needs to acknowledge the challenges ahead.
Sustain What, Andy Revkin, with 8.4K subscribers, is the work of another long-time climate reporter who presents valuable longform podcast interviews and discussions. Revkin has something of a bee in his bonnet about climate change activists who make too many unsubstantiated claims about one or another aspect of climate change, and so provides a useful check on some of the less helpful exaggerations and pseudo-science claims in the infosphere. At times, Revkin may strike some activists as too cautious, but such caution is an important contribution. As he puts it: “Sustain What is a regular dose of sanity and substance amid the spin around climate and sustainability challenges.”
Sustainability by Numbers, Hannah Ritchie, with 43K subscribers, holds a similar perspective with Andy Revkin, but her focus on possible climate change solutions looks at data, an appropriate perspective since Ritchie is a data scientist. Like Revkin, Ritchie can sometimes exasperate climate activists because she’s willing to question some popular positions, but if you are approaching climate change seriously, you’ll want to track her work to keep exaggeration out of your own considerations.
The Climate Brink, Andrew Dessler and Zeke Hausfather, has 13K subscribers and declares “…we currently find ourselves standing at the edge of two very different brinks. One represents the disastrous consequences of unmitigated climate change, and the other represents the hope of innovative solutions, renewable energy, and a sustainable future. In this Substack, we will explore these two precipices and discuss how we can navigate between them to secure a prosperous and resilient future for ourselves and generations to come.” The Climate Brink offers solid reporting and analysis on major issues. Two recent examples include “Stop emissions, stop warming: A climate reality check: Why future warming isn’t as ‘locked in’ as you might think,” and “How unusual is current post-El Niño warmth? Global temperatures rose earlier and have potentially remained elevated longer than in any prior El Niño event since at least 1940.”
Climate in the Courts, Dana Drugmand is doing some of the most important reporting related to climate change, which is on the various court cases undertaken by states and cities, or as “About” puts it: “The unfolding climate emergency is the biggest story on the planet, affecting all dimensions of our society from human health to national security to business and financial markets. One important aspect to this story is the fight for justice and accountability being waged in the courts. Through law and litigation, efforts are underway to hold powerful actors – typically governments and corporations – accountable for actions contributing to climate change and for harms resulting from it. Climate accountability litigation is a burgeoning battleground in the larger fight for a healthier, more sustainable and just planet, and courts are the arena where these battles are playing out.” She’s right and offers solid coverage on what promises to be a bigger and bigger topic in the years ahead. Drugmand started out on Substack, but has recently added a new platform, and if I understand it right, Climateinthecourts.com will be her main focus going forward.
ExxonKnews, Emily Sanders,with 4.9K subscribers. There is clearly a crossover between Climate in the Courts and ExxonKnews, but ExxonKnews is more focused on Big Oil’s disinformation efforts, as their “About” makes clear:“We serve as a watchdog over the fossil fuel industry’s continued campaigns to deceive the public, delay climate action, and avoid paying for the harm they knowingly caused. And we’ll bring you the latest on what’s being done to hold them accountable.” Possibly this is the best title for a climate change-related Substack, although I may be showing my love for puns and my own predilection about the moral argument for going after Big Oil and their self-serving deceitful ways. Regardless of my similar predilections, it is a pleasure to see such good reporting pulling back the curtain.
Gen Dread, led by Britt Wray, PhD, is hardly a daily substack, but it is thoughtful and informative. In the site’s “About Us” section, Gen Dread is described as follows: “Humans are pushing on planetary limits and it is coming back to bite us as an enormous health threat. A growing field of research shows how the climate crisis and other forms of ecological degradation are putting pressure on our mental health, in unequally distributed ways.”
Climate Tech Distillery, Javier Gascón, with 1.2K subscribers, tells subscribers that “Every Wednesday and Saturday you will get…everything you need to know about 1 climate tech company in under 5 minutes [and] the problem they solve, product/service, market overview, founding story, and top impact stats.” Climate Tech Distillery has a very structured approach, and may be a secondary online resource, but its 42 company/technology (to-date) short descriptions are all good reference points, although a bit catch-as-catch-can, due to its structure.
Futureverse, Molly Wood and Ramanan Raghavendran are self-described “climate obsessives,” but the main interest for me is that their main interest is that “modern fiction is being written by authors imagining a future climate-inflected world, and this is our excuse to speak with them and share their insights (and their works!) with you.” This is a specialized substack that happens to be congruent with my efforts in The Steep Climes Quartet. (Hello! Interview available!)
The Weekly Anthropocene, Sam Matey has 9K subscribers and has been around on Substack since 2022, but the website goes back to 2017. The Weekly Anthropocene “offers data-driven independent journalism sharing regular news roundups on climate and biodiversity progress from around the world, plus more in-depth interviews, deep dives, book reviews, and more,” and there’s an extensive archive.
The Gigaton, Stella Liu, which has 5.5K subscribers, describes itself as “a newsletter that vets the gigaton impact and commercial viability of climate solutions so people know where their careers can have the biggest impact,” and publishes posts from a number of writers from Stanford’s GSB MBA program. There is a focus of practical solutions and building “viable businesses in climate technology.”
More, More, More
There are a number of other sites that could easily be swapped out for some of those described above, and there’s Medium, too, in addition to standalone websites. I’m not boasting that I read every post of every source cited above, and that is mainly because I’d have no time to write if I did. In fact, I might not even have time to eat, breathe, and say hello to the dog, come to that. It is easy enough to find lists of core climate change information resources online, and I’ve not mentioned any governmental or NGO resources, and there are many such, and valuable at that.
Even states have a lot of information resources, and my state of Massachusetts, stands in as a good example. The World Bank Group, The International Monetary Fund, and, of course, the United Nations and IPCC (The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change), to name just some of the big players, have an astonishing wealth of information about climate change.
What we actually know about climate change and solutions to mitigate greenhouse gases gone wild is staggering. We have sufficient understanding of the problem and solutions and plenty of people and organizations that contribute to our understanding and problem solving. So much so, in fact, I’m exhausted and I think I’ll go take a nap.
Except, of course, the work still has to get done.