Hi friends,
If you’re reading this, then you’ve seen the headlines and the images – the climate alarm bells are blaring, and progress feels so slow. This letter is for you.
We’ve pulled together a world-class team of advocates, scientists, policy-makers and developers with roots in Canada, the US and India to create a new approach to climate action called My Climate Plan.
Most of us are the parents of young children – we see the spiralling climate impacts and we know that the only way to reclaim a better future is to work together.
The goal: help everyone live in a climate safe community – prepared for climate extremes, drawing down carbon pollution, welcoming displaced people – with an approach that gets more powerful as climate impacts get worse.
Here’s the plan
People make climate change a priority – in their lives and their votes – when they believe it is a problem now, not in a distant future, and when they believe that it’s possible to make a difference.
When it comes to climate, almost everyone is in one of three groups – the Alarmed, the Middle and the Deniers.
The Alarmed know climate change is a problem now, but they risk losing hope that they can make a difference.
The Deniers are mired in delusion and outrage, much of it intentionally manufactured. We will not reach them directly, and we don’t need to. While they are loud, the Deniers are relatively few.
The Middle are concerned about climate change, but persuaded that it’s a problem for the future, or just for polar bears. Life can feel overwhelming these days, and folks in this group are often feeling too stretched to confront the reality.
Here’s another key thing about these folks: the Middle dominates the swing districts politicians care about.
We can help each other, and build the sustained climate supermajority we need to make our communities climate safe – with an approach that engages the Middle and empowers them and the Alarmed.
This is the three part journey we’re building to empower the Alarmed and Middle to achieve the goal of helping everyone live in a climate safe community:
- Impact look-up, especially during climate extremes: When people are experiencing climate extremes, we’ll reach them in their feeds with immediate help and a localized impact look-up to find out the climate impacts they face and the benefits of acting.
- Personalized climate plan: We’ll then provide a platform for people to answer a few questions to build a personalized climate plan that starts with preparing for the direct, personal impacts they face – like overwhelming heat, dangerous smoke and floods – and then connects to collective solutions in their communities and advocacy to governments.
- Ongoing support through membership: Finally, for people who want ongoing support and community – we’ll provide a membership program that features community, benefits and direct advocacy support for our households and neighbourhoods.
The more people we can reach in moments of extreme climate impacts, the more people in the Alarmed and Middle we’ll be able to engage and empower, and the stronger the membership program will get.
In turn, more members means more people and resources to reach even more people during the next round of extreme climate impacts – especially in the places where it matters most.
Progress Report
Here’s where we’re at today:
- A hundred people from around the world have joined to become founding members.
- Hundreds more have given their input to our founding survey – telling us to prioritize advocacy to get governments to prepare for climate impacts, provide ongoing updates on climate impacts for households, and help make it more affordable for people to take action.
- We’ve raised funds to build a prototype of the planning platform and started an e-newsletter called The My Climate Plan Weekly, with new issues every Thursday.
- We’re talking to people from all walks of life to make sure My Climate Plan works for them and bridges divides.
- A prototype of the planning tool will launch in the early fall, with a version for renters and for homeowners.
Next Steps
We’d love to welcome you. By clicking the red subscribe button you’ll get options.
You can sign up to get updates on the project.
Or, you can decide to become a Founding Member now: you’ll get the My Climate Plan Weekly, crowdfund the project, power advocacy, and guide the platform and program so it develops to give you what you need next on a life-long journey for a climate safe future.
Thank you for considering,
The My Climate Plan Team
PS – if you’re interested in supporting this non-profit project as a funder, please contact us at adam@myclimateplan.com
#myclimateplan feature: Rodrigo Samayoa