What better way to learn than learning by doing? By becoming an activist and talking to other people you can contribute to climate justice while learning yourself. Just remember, you don’t have to know everything to become an activist! No one knows everything. We constantly learn and make mistakes. Find local initiatives to join or start something new yourself! You can also join climate strikes and pressure governments to act. Click on the button to find your national Fridays For Future group or to learn how you can start your own strike!

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Learning by doing

There is always a lot happening, and it is easy to feel swamped by all the information, new and old. One way to stay updated with new facts about climate change and learn about how marginalized communities are affected by the climate crisis, is to follow certain social media accounts. 
In this way, you can enjoy all new facts straight in your feed, without actively searching for it. Here are some great accounts to follow to educate yourself a bit every day!

See who to follow!

Stay updated

Information about climate justice that is easy to understand, can sometimes be difficult to find. And it often seems time-consuming to read and learn from. Fortunately, there are lots of people who communicate both science and social justice issues, in accessible ways online. Find what works for you – short articles, podcasts or YouTube videos, or something else. Look at my list to get tips of some good videos, that gives you some deeper thought into the climate crisis!

Go to YouTube-playlist

Learning that works for you

Fridays for Future

Knowledge is power! By becoming informed you stand in a better position to act. To achieve climate justice, information and knowledge needs to be more widespread amongst the people, but more importantly within the system. Within governments and companies. And they need to act upon it.

quality education

Quality Education

Knowledge for climate action

In order to build a better tomorrow we need a surge of creative actions towards the Global Goals - from sustainable production and consumption, to transport, water, wildlife, well you know them all by now. And that requires that we all take action. Do something. Do one thing. Do it now. Watch your world change. Challenge your friends to take action at heart17.com 

Challenge your friends

Take action for the planet

The Global Goals, aka the SDGs, are a roadmap and a toolbox to repair the world. These 17 goals is basically a survival kit for humanity. It's a plan. And this is where it gets really beautiful: 193 countries have agreed that this is the path forward, this is the blueprint we all share for a better tomorrow. An action plan to tackle the climate crisis. So shift perspective. There are new opportunities everywhere. The demand for activism perfection is limiting us. We need to start somewhere.

Want to know more?

There is a plan – 17 goals to save humanity

The demand for activism perfection is limiting us. We need to start somewhere. The Global Goals, aka the SDGs, are a roadmap and a toolbox to repair the world. These 17 goals is basically a survival kit for humanity. It's a plan. And for it to work we all have to take action.

partnerships for sustainable development

Partnerships for Sustainable Development

Here is the survival kit for humanity

Use “Ecosia” search engine so we can plant trees together, support local farmers, and protect endangered animals.  

SWITCH TO ECOSIA 

Plant trees by browsing the internet

Buy local food and ecofriendly products so we support those who are vulnerable to climate change and reduce our waste. And we support good initiatives and actions. 

Act and spread the word

Innovate your pantry, buy eco-friendly

In the beginning of changing my path to a greener one I calculated my greenhouse gas emission as a first step. It really helped me realize how my actions affected the planet. You can easily do the same. 

CALCULATE YOUR CARBON FOOTPRINT

Be aware of your carbon footprint

Each day, all around the world, individuals take small actions that have huge impact on our planet and now it's our time to green those actions to reduce our carbon footprint. Join me! 

climate action

Climate Action

Make your footprint green

Changing even a few non-vegetarian meals to vegetarian or vegan is great for the planet! According to the economist Going vegan for two-thirds of meals could cut food-related carbon emissions by 60%. 

Check out these plant-based recipes!

Eat more plant-based

Switch to reusable bottles, bags, straws and items with less packaging! Every piece of one-time-use commodities we buy requires energy and resources to create. Furthermore, if the commodity is non-biodegradable it harms our land and oceans for hundreds of years. 

Switch to sustainable alternatives

Switching to buy local or second hand can help reduce the energy and resources that go into creating and shipping clothing. There could be a higher environmental cost hidden behind low price-tag on fast fashion. Invest in clothes that will last longer or give new life to clothes by buying second hand. 

Find your nearest second hand shop

Buy second hand

The power of “balance” is the premise for sustainability. If we can balance our consumption and switch to sustainable alternatives, we can collectively make a huge difference to our planet.

Switch to sustainable

We can commit to reducing our meat and dairy consumption by a few meals per week. Tell five friends about how to find alternative proteins and challenge them to start eating more plant-based food.

Challenge your friends!

Eat more plants

Get to know more about Sustainable Development Goal #12 on UNDP.org. Share what you learned and make a post about it on social media using #OneFuture and #SDG12 hashtags! Together we make the change. 

Learn more at undp.org

Learn more – Tell others

We can save a lot of money, and at the same time help the planet, by recycling and reusing materials in our homes. Learn more on how you and your family can do it easily. 

Zero waste for beginners

Recycle – Aim for zero waste

Small actions can have huge impact. Contribute to responsible consumtion by eating more plants, recycling or reuse materials. Challenge your friends to make a difference! 

responsible consumption

Responsible consumption and production

Let’s consume responsibly

Educate ourselves about ways to improve and protect everybody’s mental health. Practice positive mental health as a preventative measure.

Learn more on UN.org

We should be curious and learn more

Write an email to policymakers calling them to prioritize mental health. Keep it short, maximum 500 words. Take a stand and be the voice for someone who might not be able to speak for themselves. 

How to communicate with policymakers

Write to Policymakers and be the voice

Always spread love, kindness, positivity because we never know what the next person is going through. It will create energy and change. 

Spread love on Social media

Spread love and kindness

Mental health remains an important aspect of health has been overlooked for many years. The lack of prioritization is seen through under-funding, lack of adequate mental healthcare services, little education and awareness raised about it, yet mental health problems continue to increase worldwide. 

good health and wellbeing

Good Health and Wellbeing

Make Mental Health Matter

To stop the climate crisis, systemic changes and collective actions are needed. Throughout history, social transformations have been achieved through movements demanding change. Wherever you live, join marches and actions to demand action from your government, corporations and the financial sector! Find your local group and follow them on social media to be informed of upcoming actions. 

Find your local group 

Demand action from world leaders

It is time to get uncomfortable and think about our consumption, if you have the privilege. While changing our consumption patterns alone is not enough, it is important for cultural transformation. Change can range from eating more plants and walking and cycling more, to simply consuming what is necessary.

Make a pledge – change habits

Rethink your consumption habits

Despite being in a crisis, there is not enough talk about the climate crisis. Not in the media, not in schools and not in everyday life. That is why getting informed and spreading the information with others is an important way to take a step forward. Watch any TED talk about the climate crisis and share your thoughts and new learnings with others.

Watch TED talk: Climate crisis

Educate ourselves and spread with others

To stop the climate crisis, systemic changes and collective actions are needed. Throughout history, social transformations have been achieved through movements demanding change. Wherever you live, join marches and actions to demand action from your government, corporations and the financial sector! 

Fight for climate justice

Suggest to your teacher or workplace to run the World Climate Simulation as an event, or take the matters into your own hands and run it by yourself with your community. The simulation is a great and interactive way of learning about the climate crisis and allows us to explore possible solutions. This action requires some prepping time, but show the way by starting to learn about the simulation possibilities and how to organize a session!

Take me to the simulation

Organize a Climate Simulation 

A great starting point is to challenge your friends to a Climate Action Weekend!  MEATLESS FRIDAY: Eat zero meat. Instead, make some delicious vegetarian dishes!  
GREEN SATURDAY: No transport using fossil fuels. Walking or bicycling are great options and super good for your health!  LAZY SUNDAY: Take some time with your friends or family to watch a documentary film about the environment, for example ‘Earth’ or ‘An Inconvenient Truth’. 

Challenge a friend!

A Climate Action Weekend

Every year UN, local governments, NGOs and volunteer groups act for the climate and the preservation of the environment. The actions intensify on certain days, such as the International Forest Day or World Water Day. In addition, these days reminds us of the importance of our involvement. Add my World Environment Calendar to your personal agenda, to make sure the climate is on top of your mind!

Add Calendar 

Add climate action in your agenda

UNICEF Youth Leader

We need to get involved. Small steps done by many will create real change and Day to Day actions that builds resilience will have positive effects on the climate change.  Click on my actions and join in.

Make climate action top of mind

How to switch frustration to innovation? Gather your friends – your POWER TEAM – and use our Take Action Workshop material to guide the team in going from idea to action. Working with others is the most powerful way of sparking creativity, so why wait? Let’s collaborate. 

Download workshop

Workshop with your power team

To be able to collaborate and be creative with others, start with empowering yourself:  When do you feel good about yourself, any awesome skills?  
How can you apply this even more in your daily life?   
Then choose one thing you will start do today. 
This empowerment exercise helped me realize that I’m awesome at connecting with others. But the pandemic made me do this less frequently, so I promised myself to call one person each day and now I feel a lot more confident about myself. Do the exercise – and challenge a friend to do the same!  

Empower yourself

To be able to collaborate with others and switch frustration to innovation, you have to start with empowering yourself. Here is my best tips for how to make change happen. 

From frustration to collaboration

To fight the changing climate, we need to move toward carbon neutral sources such as biogas and solar. Choose renewable energy as often you can, weather it is for your home, business, or an investment or saving. Ask questions to your electricity provider, employer, bank or parents to make sure that you always channel your choices and funds to support renewable.

Always choose renewable energy

There are many global youth movements, such as Fridays for Future, that support climate change. Sign up for their newsletter to stay updated about the global climate movement and how you can participate. Change starts with you.

Sign up – stay updated

Join global youth movements 

Young voices matter and have an impact. Raising awareness through social media platforms is a powerful way of amplifying these voices. To help raise awareness, tweet your own or another youth’s voice about the importance of climate justice.

Tweet it!

Raise awareness about global climate issues

Young voices matter and have an impact. To fight the changing climate we need to move toward carbon neutral sources such as biogas and solar. Choose renewable energy as often you can! Change starts with you.

affordable and clean energy

Affordable and Clean Energy

Go Green and Clean

Check out the campaigns and stories of climate activists, especially those most impacted and how they’ve fought back. After learning about the science behind the climate crisis, share what you learned and make a post about it! Inspire others to do the same.

Share what you've learnt

Spread learnings and challenge friends

Expand what you see every day by following activists, especially those at the frontline of ecological breakdown. Learn about important issues, amplify their campaigns, and find out how to start your journey as an activist too! 

See who to follow

Amplify climate and social campaigns 

There are different ways to take action and join the global campaign for climate justice! Check out this current campaign we have led by MAPA (Most Affected Peoples and Areas). Feel free to explore the website and find the different ways to take action and the different campaigns you can participate in.

Check out page and take action

Get involved and take action!

I just want to remind you that we are in a climate emergency. Get involved and take action! Find out how to start your journey to make a difference. 

Raise your voice, not the sea level

Building hope block by block

“The video gaming industry has the potential to reach one in three people on the planet and will be a critical partner if we are to win the greatest multiplayer challenge of our time: climate change”, says co-founder of Playing For The Planet Alliance. 

The UN backed alliance – consisting of the biggest companies in the video games industry such as Sony Interactive Entertainment, Microsoft, Google Stadia and MAG Interactive – have committed to harness the power of their platforms to take action on the climate crisis. The battle has already started with several great initiatives such as building green activations into games and reducing plastic in products. Just sensational!

The gaming industry takes up the battle with climate change

Good news in Gaming

3D scanning and robotics to create personalized AND sustainable jeans, can this really be true?

Of course, just look at the San Francisco- and Hong Kong-based digital apparel brand Unspun. Besides using recyclable material and a unique body-scanning technology to reduce waste, they’ve also added a traceability element which makes it possible for the consumer to understand the jeans’ origin, ensure responsible material use and manufacturing, and a continuous circular life.

Sustainable jeans made-to-order

H&M and the footwear brand Good News joins forces to release a good-looking unisex trainer collection with a smaller environmental footprint. 

Just listen to these materials; Bananatex® — fibre from banana plants — and Vegea™ —vegan grape leather. This is one step closer to circular production, keep up the good work! 

Cool shoes x Small environmental footprint

Here's some really good news for all of you that need to see some innovation and creative ways of making fashion more sustainable!

Good news in fashion!

On April 24th and October 16th 2021 there will be simultaneous youth-led global climate concerts in over 40 countries. 

With the power of music they aim to engage, educate and empower young people to combat the climate crisis. Led by the youth climate groups of Fridays For Future – with Greta Thunberg and other inspiring youth in the lead – we look forward to see the impressive line-up of musicians and artists!

Can you hear the sound of climate action?

Rivers are the main source of ocean plastic pollution, carry waste from land to the ocean. 

The amazing Ocean Cleanup, an NGO, has developed a fleet of vessels, the 

They are extracting plastic from rivers before it reaches the ocean. Coldplay is now adopting their latest Interceptor. 

“Without action, there could be more plastic than fish in the oceans by 2050,”

Coldplay take action to reduce plastic

Music unite us all and can really bring people together to make a difference. Here are som examples when artists and music take action. 

Good news in music

We LOVE that you are here. This site and the Global Goals is like a tool box to change the world. Now, do this: First, click on a cause and take action. Second, record or take your photo and add your voice. Third, share to others and start a chain reaction of hope.

Let our new youth leaders guide you into simple action for hope! We collaborate with progressive youth leaders, business leaders, brands, artists, creators, musicians, believing in our vision of using the powers of creativity and innovation to spark hope and change. We call them Changemakers.

Listen to this inspirational podcast playlist to create hope for the future! 

These episodes were chosen by HEART 17 and Spotify. The podcasts and guests are not necessarily affiliated directly with the UNDP or HEART 17.

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