While world leaders convene at the UN General Assembly this week, The Climate Group was making sure climate change was on the agenda of public discourse in New York. A series of climate-related events across the city included Monday’s sold-out gathering at the NY Society for Ethical Culture, focused on “Drawdown”, a massive international project comprising comprehensive strategies for reversing global warming. 

Much has been written about the impact of climate change, but CivicStory’s interest in Project Drawdown stems from its methodical, practical, carefully-researched suggestions for reversing global warming. “We struggled to find solutions-oriented tools to understand what’s possible,” explained Chad Frischmann, Project Drawdown’s Research Director. Dr. Katharine Wilkinson calls it “a blueprint of possibilities”.

Possibilities range from technological solutions such as wind power and refrigeration alternatives, to awareness of what Dr. Wilkinson calls the “gender/climate nexus” - the many ways in which empowering women and girls, globally, will be a significant factor in reversing global warming. The book, Drawdown, lists 80 such solutions, each ranked by effectiveness and impact. It is a reference book meant to inspire people who might feel that the problems of climate change are too overwhelming. “A new push for community activism”, in the words of panelist Karen Washington, who has made food justice her mission, “an uprise of new voices.”

Story submitted by Donna Liu, CivicStory's Interim Media Manager