GET INSPIRED
"Whoever you are, you already have every reason to care about climate change. And if you don't think you do: you just haven't connected the dots between what already matters to you, how climate change affects it, and how climate solutions benefit us all."
- Dr. Katharine Hayhoe
climate scientist and author
Start with real stories from real people in the Bay Area in our Action Spotlight. We're curating "how to" videos to cut through the clutter about what strategies work and how to implement them in your apartment, home, or business. There are books, films, videos about climate solutions, impacts, and policies. We've chosen a few to get you started.
Action Spotlight
A Zero Emission Home
(17 min)
Contra Costa County resident Wei-Tai Kwok challenged himself in 2019 to see how hard it would really be to replace all his natural gas appliances with high-efficiency electric versions powered by 100% renewable energy. It turns out that it only took him 45 days to replace his gas cooktop with induction electric, gas furnace with heat-pump mini-splits, gas water heater with heat pump technology and gas fireplace with an electric log insert before disconnecting permanently from the gas grid.
Essential Viewing
Featured Videos
Science Moms
A mom - and scientist - shares how our window to act on climate change is like watching our children grow up: you blink...and you miss it. Watch this 1 minute video from Science Moms, and be inspired to make sure that we give our children the future we promised them.
Prince Ea - 3 Seconds
Spoken word artist Prince Ea makes a powerful case for protecting the planet in this short film from National Geographic. Winner of the Film4Climate competition, Prince Ea challenges the human race to create a sustainable future.
The World Bank film4climate.net.
Four Levels of Action
Not sure how you can make a difference?
Watch Will Grant's short video on the Four Levels of Action and plug in where you feel comfortable...
or a teensy bit UNcomfortable. That's OK, too. Stretch! The planet needs you, and so does your community.
Climate Solutions 101: a six-part series
Your climate solutions journey begins now. Filled with the latest need-to-know science and fascinating insights from global leaders in climate policy, research, investment, and beyond, this video series is a brain-shift toward a brighter climate reality.
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Keep exploring, and see all six episodes!
Documentaries & Films to Check Out:
Jamie Redford's Happening:
A Clean Energy Revolution
​​
An Inconvenient Truth
​
A Life on Earth
​​​
Cowspiracy​
The True Cost
​
Racing Extinction
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Paris To Pittsburg
​
This Changes Everything
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Normal is Over​
Chasing Ice
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The 11th Hour
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After the Fire
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The Condor and The Eagle​​
Carbon Nation
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Chasing Coral
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Before the Flood
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The Story of Stuff
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Ice on Fire
Essential Reading
Before you order anything online, we strongly encourage you to visit your local public library or independent book stores for these titles. You can download audio books, podcasts, videos, and so much more without having to shop and ship. Let us know a favorite that we should add: info@DrawdownBayArea.org
Featured books
Book Title
SPEED & SCALE
John Doerr
an action plan for solving our climate crisis now
A launch pad for those who are ready to act now, this book is geared to leaders in every walk of life. With a definitive action plan, the latest science, and a rising climate movement on our side, we can still reach ne zero before it's too late. But as Doerr reminds us, there is no time to waste.
REWIRING AMERICA
Saul Griffith
the strategy to reach net-zero in the U.S.
Reaching net-zero is critical and achievable. How? By replacing or installing one billion American-made machines: furnaces, water heaters, cars, clothes dryers, and infrastructure machines. Here's the math and the strategy behind this urgent opportunity, that adds jobs and will help keep global warming below pre-industrial levels.
THE FUTURE WE CHOOSE
Christiana Figueres & Tom Rivett-Carnac
by the "architect" of the 2015 Paris Agreement
Christiana Figueres and Tom Rivet-Carnac make the compelling case for confronting the climate crisis head-on, with determination & optimism, a cautionary but optimistic book about the world’s changing climate and the fate of humanity.
Have you checked your local public library or independent book store? Here are a few more titles to look for:
DRAWDOWN, the book
A Comprehensive Guide to
80 Solutions Backed by Science
Edited by Paul Hawken
Published in 2017, this comprehensive guide to 80 existing solutions, backed up by science and data from a worldwide team of over 200 scholars, scientists, policy-makers, business leaders, and activists who modeled solutions, ranking them by their on reducing greenhouse gas emissions and restoring the earth's climate.
SAVING US
A Climate Scientist's
Case for Hope
Katharine Hayhoe
Renowned climate scientist & Evangelical Christian, Dr. Katharine Hayhoe brings a fresh & compelling message about the science of climate change and the moral imperative to act on "global weirding".
DESIGNING
CLIMATE SOLUTIONS
Hal Harvey
A small set of energy policies, designed and implemented well, can put us on the path to a low-carbon future. Energy systems are large and complex, so energy policy must be focused and cost-effective.
REGENERATION
Ending the Climate Crisis In One Generation
Paul Hawken
A radically new understanding of and practical approach to climate change by noted environmentalist Paul Hawken, editor of the New York Times bestseller, Drawdown. It weaves justice, climate, biodiversity, equity, and human dignity into a seamless tapestry of action, policy, and transformation, and is the first book to describe and define the regeneration movement spreading rapidly throughout the world.
BRIGHT GREEN FUTURE
How Everyday Heroes Are Reimagining How We Feed, Power, and Build Our World
Joel Decker Cohen & Gregory Schwartz
As climate change shifts our planet towards an uncertain future, a movement of unlikely heroes is building a blueprint for a better world. It's a world where clean power grows wealth for local communities, resources regenerate themselves, city planning is driven by the people, and healthy soil is our greatest asset.
THE GRAND NEW STRATEGY:
RESTORING AMERICA'S PROSPERITY, SECURITY, AND SUSTAINABILITY IN THE 21ST CENTURY
Mark Mykleby, Patrick Doherty, and Joel Makower
The New Grand Strategy avoids the partisan rhetoric dividing our nation today, and tells the story of a plan, born within the Pentagon, to recapture America’s greatness at home and abroad by elevating sustainability as our new strategic imperative.
THE NO-NONSENSE GUIDE
TO CLIMATE CHANGE: THE SCIENCE,
THE SOLUTIONS, THE WAY FORWARD
Danny Chivers
Accessible and friendly pocket-sized overview of this complex mega-subject, combining all the basics with facts and analysis.
IN OUR HANDS
An Intergenerational Handbook
Wilford H. Welch
A Handbook for Intergenerational Actions to Solve the Climate Crisis looks at the individual and collective levels, actions we must take to shape our future and avoid environmental and societal collapse. Packed with information, ideas, and resources, this book inspires us to move from concern to action.
NET POSITIVE
How Courageous Companies Thrive
by Giving More Than They Take
Paul Polman & Andrew Winston
This is no utopian fantasy. Courageous leaders are already making it real - and the stakes couldn't be higher. With bold and compelling stories, Net Positive sets out principles and practices that will deliver the scale of change and transformation that the world so desperately needs.
MOVING TO HIGHER GROUND:
THE PATH FORWARD
John Englander
From the acclaimed oceanographer, consultant, author, and leading expert on sea-level rise, John Englander describes impacts of rising sea levels for all coastal communities.
HOT
Living Through the Next Fifty Years on Earth
Mark Hertsgaard
From a renowned journalist, a view of how other countries have approached preparing for and slowing climate change; an informative and vividly reported book that goes beyond the politics of climate change to explore practical ways we can adapt and survive.
THE NEW CLIMATE WAR
THE FIGHT TO TAKE BACK OUR PLANET
Dr. Michael Mann
Dr. Mann outlines a plan for forcing our governments and corporations to wake up and make real change.​ With immensely powerful vested interests aligned in defense of the fossil fuel status quo, the societal tipping point won't happen without the active participation of citizens everywhere aiding in the collective push forward. This book will reach, inform, and enable citizens everywhere to join this battle for our planet.
WE ARE THE WEATHER
Saving the Planet Begins at Breakfast
Jonathan Safran Foer
By beginning with WWII, and demonstrating the collective effort to win the war, the author sets down the parameters that, for us to do anything about climate change, we must do it collectively.
THE FATE OF FOOD
THIS CHANGES EVERYTHING
Capitalism vs The Climate
Amanda Little
An environmental journalist and professor asks the question: Is the future of food looking bleak—or better than ever? and takes the reader on a trip through 11 countries and 13 states, meeting people working various angles of our food supply.
Naomi Klein
Klein exposes the myths that are clouding the climate debate.

 We've been told the market will save us, when in fact the addiction to profit and growth is digging us in deeper every day. We have been told it’s impossible to get off fossil fuels when in fact we know exactly how to do it.
If ever time was of the essence, it is now.
If ever a region could meet the challenge, it is the Bay Area.
Together, the Bay Area can make a world of difference.