Local climate resources
- Incentives available to improve your home and reduce your bills!
- The Switch Is On: Guide to incentives & contractors to facilitate upgrading your home with clean energy technologies like a new heating/cooling system, heat-pump water heater, induction stove, or EV charging port!
- Video from OCA member Dave Large–passcode: ^?GISu0*
- U.S. Government guide to energy savings incentives
- National-level guide from the New York Times
- Local government climate planning:
- Local climate impacts & resiliency planning:
- North Olympic Resource Conservation & Development Council:
- North Olympic Peninsula Climate Resiliency Planning 2022
- Climate Action Toolkit — 2022
- Planning for Climate Change on the North Olympic Peninsula — 2015
- Final report (including Adaptation Progress Dashboard)
- Resources used in the report
- North Peninsula climate resilience spatial planning project–a collaboration of the Jefferson and North Olympic Land Trusts
- NOAA climate modeling mapping tool–helps foretell local risks
- Olympic Coast National Marine Sanctuary climate change study
- Ocean acidification in the Pacific Northwest
- Ideas for local mitigation strategies and actions — OCA 2022
- Spatial trends in local climate resiliency planning – North Olympic Land Trust 2021
- Projected impacts on streams – UW Climate Impacts Group
- Projected sea-level rise in Clallam County – Ian Miller, WA Sea Grant
- Wildfire impacts of climate change – Bob Lynette, OCA member
- Water supply concerns (draft) – Ann Soule, OCA member
- Olympic National Forest & Park study of climate adaptation needs
- Study: Olympic glaciers will be gone in 50 years (2022)
- Presentation by the researcher, Dr. Andrew Fountain, to OCA, 6/15/22
- Olympic National Park: glacial & snowpack recession
- Presentation by Bill Baccus, Olympic National Park 2019
- 2015 scientific paper
- North Olympic Resource Conservation & Development Council:
- Peninsula Tribal climate planning:
- Ocean acidification vulnerability of Peninsula coastal Tribes (video)
- OA impacts on coastal Tribes–Congressional briefing summary
- Coastal tribes collaborate to confront climate change
- Quileute Tribe Climate Action Planning
- Makah Tribe Climate Planning 2018
- Lower Elwha KlallamTribe climate planning
- Jamestown S’Klallam Tribe climate planning
Regional climate-change references
- Map tool: Changes in Climate-Related Natural Hazards for WA
- Climate Q&A from the League of Women Voters of WA
- Washington State Climate Policy Group: Excellent starting point for a layperson
- How WA State can transition to 100% renewable energy – Mark Jacobson et al.
- University of Washington Climate Impacts Group: Compendium of science, analysis, and news about climate change, focusing on WA state, including Climate Change Impacts and Adaptation in Washington State: Technical Summaries for Decision Makers and this summary of expected impacts. State of Knowledge: Climate Change in Puget Sound is a comprehensive synthesis report summarizing relevant research on the likely effects of climate change on the lands, water, and people of the Puget Sound region
- National Climate Assessment Regional Reports, including Chapter 21, Northwest
- Climate Change Effects & Adaptation Approaches in Marine & Coastal Ecosystems of the North Pacific Landscape Conservation Cooperative Region: Executive Summary
- Sightline Institute: researches best practices in public policy for a sustainable Northwest Good analyses of proposed coal ports, etc.
- Climate Change and Our Natural Resources, Northwest Indian Fisheries commission
- Carbon fluxes of Washington forests – by DNR & USFS
- Municipal Research & Services Center of WA: information on climate science and policy, focused for local governments
- Seattle Times series on ocean acidification
Forests and Climate (graphic from Law et al. 2022–see below)
- Primer on Forests as Natural Climate Solutions
- Forests FAQ from 350 Seattle
- Global Forest Watch tree cover loss/gain maps
- Values of our mature/older/pre-1945 forests:
- Compendium of science on the values of older forests
- What the old forest taught us: Forest stewardship in the 21st century–Jerry Franklin
- Older trees sequester and store more carbon than younger ones (Birdsey et al. 2023)
- Older trees are more resilient to climate-related mortality (Acker et al. 2023)
- Temperate evergreen forests are the best biome on earth for storing carbon (Keith et al. 2009) and will become even more important as tropical and boreal forests are impacted by climate change (“Feedback Loops” 2020)
- Why forest soil carbon is so important (Rath and Ramirez 2023)
- Webinar: Forests as Natural Climate Solutions, featuring Jim Furnish, ret. US Forest Service Deputy Chief, and Dominick DellaSala, Wild Heritage Chief Scientist (2 hr)
- Federal forest practices need reform:
- Proforestation (letting forests grow) is the best thing we can do to protect the climate (Moomaw et al. 2019)
- 9-minute PBS animated interview with Dr. Beverly Law describing why (PBS 2022)
- 50 million acres of older federal forests need protection (DellaSala et al. 2022)
- Extending industrial harvest rotations stores more carbon and yields more timber (Sightline 2022)
- To protect climate/biodiversity/water, we must create Strategic Forest Reserves (Law et al. 2022)
- Best strategy: Longer rotations on private lands, reserves on public lands (Law et al. 2018)
- Proforestation (letting forests grow) is the best thing we can do to protect the climate (Moomaw et al. 2019)
- State forest practices need reform:
- In WA, DNR & industrial forest lands are net emitters (see p. 13) (USDA & WADNR 2020)
- WA State must reform forest practices to achieve its climate targets (Robertson et al. 2021)
- 77,000 acres of older state forests need protection (Center for Responsible Forestry)
- League of Women Voters webinar on protecting older state forests:
- Map: Forest loss on the Olympic Peninsula (Global Forest Change, U. of Maryland 2021)
- Washington State undercuts its climate commitments via a little-known 2020 law declaring logging to be climate-friendly (Earth Island Journal 2022)
- Science refutes timber industry claims that logging is climate-friendly:
- Purported climate virtues of industrial logging are based on skewed accounting (2023 news article; Peng et al. 2023 ; Searchinger et al. 2023; Moomaw & Law 2023; Harmon 2019; Hudiburg et al. 2019; 200 scientists’ letter to Congress 2020)
- Webinar: Lost in the Woods: Industrial Logging’s Unacknowledged Climate Impact, NRDC at COP27 (1.3 hr)
- Backstory: How the timber industry greenwashes through the UW School of Forestry
- Wildfire “thinning” & “salvage” will waste money and accelerate the climate problem:
- Most “fire-suppression” logging is wasteful and counterproductive (DellaSala et al. 2022)
- Falsification of the science in government-funded wildfire studies (Baker et al. 2023)
- Webinar: The Truth about Carbon, Wildfire, & Biodiversity, with panelists Drs. Bev Law, Chad Hanson, and Monica Bond (1.5 hr)
- The key to wildfire protection is “best practices” on home lots (Sightline 2022)
- Timber economies weaken local communities:
- How the timber industry weakens rural communities – Center for Sustainable Economy
- Webinar: Climate and Social Costs of Industrial Timber Practices (passcode: Kh$Y?&21)
- Organizations working for forest reform:
- The WA Forest Defense group works for sustainable & just forest management
- A Green New Deal for Forests: How rural communities can balance the ecological, social, and economic needs of our times
- The Center for Responsible Forestry & Legacy Forest Defense Coalition campaign for conservation of older state forests
- The Climate Forests campaign aims to protect older federal forests
- National Congress of American Indians and Affiliated Tribes of Northwest Indians resolutions re: protecting Mature & Old Growth Forests on federal ancestral lands
National/Global climate-change references
- Animated history of fossil fuels in 300 seconds, narrated by Richard Heinberg
- What is Climate Change? Comprehensive Knowledge/Study Guide — Perlego
- 4th National Climate Assehttps://climatecommunication.yale.edu/visualizations-data/ycom-us/ssment, Vol. 1 – assessment of the climate science
- 4th National Climate Assessment, Vol. 2 – impacts, risks, and adaptation
- Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Report
- Summary of IPCC’s 1.5°C Special Report and the 4th National Climate Assessment
- Carbon Brief – latest developments in climate science, climate policy and energy policy
- Climate Solutions Simulator model from MIT–plot out your own climate solutions!
- National Climate Opinion Maps – broken down by state & county
Climate-action organizations
- 350.org. Founded by Bill McKibben, 350 represents the number of parts per million of carbon that the atmosphere can hold without a catastrophic degree of climate change; we are already well beyond 400. OCA is affiliated, and there’s a WA State chapter.
- Sunrise Movement: a movement of young people to make climate change an urgent priority across America, end the corrupting influence of fossil fuel executives on our politics, and elect leaders who stand up for the health and wellbeing of all people.
- Climate Reality Project: Al Gore has tirelessly put together the pieces to explain the causes, effects, and prevention of climate change. Some OCA members have been trained by Al and can give his slide show to community groups.
- Climate Solutions is a Pacific Northwest-based organization accelerating clean-energy solutions to the climate crisis through research, partnerships, and advocacy.
- Union of Concerned Scientists’ Climate Action Button will guide you to effective climate actions tailored to your passions and talents.
- Sierra Club: Leader in the fight against fossil fuels and the move toward clean energy.
- RAVEN: Respecting Aboriginal Values and Environmental Needs. Canadian organization that embraces the ancestral laws of Indigenous Peoples and their equitable access to the justice system within a thriving natural habitat. Leader in the struggle against the Alberta Tar Sands and associated pipelines.
Science of climate change
- The “climate clock” keeps ticking
- This graph shows how quickly and radically we have to act
- Which countries have emitted the most CO2?
- The Climate Toolbox — A collection of web tools for visualizing past and projected climate and hydrology of the contiguous United States of America
- How data science can help address climate change
- Climate science summarized by the National Academies of Science & Royal Society
- Summary of risks from the American Academy for the Advancement of Science
- Extreme weather risks, from Union of Concerned Scientists
- NASA: Global Climate Change, Vital Signs of the Planet
- 11 NASA graphs show how greenhouse gases warm the planet
- My NASA Data: graphically powerful, well-organized tool, esp. for educators
- Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Fifth Assessment Report:
- Working Group I: The Physical Science Basis
- Working Group II: Impacts, Adaptation, and Vulnerability
- Working Group III: Mitigation of Climate Change
- Skeptical Science explains what peer-reviewed science has to say
- Direct info from a group of climate scientists: RealClimate.com
- Hitchhiker’s Guide to Climate Change, 2-page graphic by Ned Hammar of OCA
- Global warming explained in a 2-minute video (or try the 5-min. “long” version)
- Global warming explained in an 18-minute video by scientist Katharine Hayhoe
- Global weirding: Why do a couple of degrees matter? by Katharine Hayhoe
- Global warming explained in Q&A format
- Climate research 1-page summary
- Global temperatures since the last Ice Age, in one loooong cartoon strip
- What’s really warming the world?–series of graphs showing relative contributions
- How the fossil fuel industry manufactured doubt about climate change
- The Lancet: Countdown on Health & Climate Change
- Mental Health and our Changing Climate – American Psychological Assn. 2017
The path to a sustainable human society
- Paul Hawken, Regeneration: Cascade of Solutions – beautiful storyboard guides you to make your own personal action checklist and share with others
- Deep Carbonization Pathways Project
- Model Laws for Deep Decarbonization
- National Academies of Sciences 2021 report on Accelerating the US Energy Transition
- House Select Committee on the Climate Crisis report 2020
- Climate Crisis Policy Digest – a compendium of policy ideas
- Equitable & Just National Climate Platform 2018
- Post-Carbon Institute: preparing communities for the rest of the 21st Century
- State Climate Policy dashboard
- Climate Justice Field Manual – a lively, practical guide to saving civilization
- Racial Justice is Climate Justice – 350 Seattle Video Library 2020
- Climate Adaptation Knowledge Exchange (CAKE)
- Climate Resilience Tool Kit from NOAA
- Guidelines for Considering Traditional Knowledges in Climate Change Initiatives
- Sustainable World Sourcebook and Engagement Circles Convener Guide
- Reduce your – and our – carbon footprint
- Why All the Excitement about EVs? – slides from OCA member Tony Billera
- Climate change impacts and your home
- The Money-Saving Guide to Going Green at Home
- Teaching Resources on Climate and Energy
- What YOU Can Do – National Park Service
How to talk to one another about sustainable progress
- Crucial Conversations: Tools for Talking when the Stakes are High
- 100 memes to help in the climate crisis – Sarah Lazarovic
- The Aspiring Thinker’s Guide to Critical Thinking
- Having climate conversations – 350.org
- Preparing people for the resilience needed to deal with climate change
- ecoAmerica: How to build public support for climate solutions
- Science Insights — A Climate Basics Series – 10 articles — Nan Bray
- Science Insights — Biodiversity — Nan Bray
Olympic Climate Action 