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Table of Contents
Introduction
Introduction
A lot of activism focuses on changing people's minds, getting politicians to vote for or support certain causes, or on personal behavior. This can feel very inefficient, like placing a single block at a time while the fossil industries bulldoze the foundations of everything we hold dear.
Common Solutions are Impossible without Infrastructure
Common Solutions are Impossible without Infrastructure
There's also the issue that many "solutions" aren't actually accessible to many people. For example it's hard or even impossible to use public transportation if your community doesn't have any, or has very limited and hard-to-access mobility options. It is much harder to recycle when your community doesn't offer a pick up or drop off service.
Filling in the Gaps
Filling in the Gaps
On our Levels of Activism page we discuss levels 1 and 2 or personal and small groups such as friend, families, or co-workers. Level 3 as community-wide actions and solutions, and level 4 as the national or even international systems, laws, and programs. There is often a disconnect between levels 1 & 2 vs level 4, in that governments are hesitant to provide solutions or laws unless there is enough support from the people. The mirror issue is that people who want to make personal changes, or convince those close to them to make eco-friendly changes often lack the infrastructure, grants, or other types of support from their communities or national leaders.
When we focus on infrastructural change, we not only make the small personal changes easier for ourselves, but also for everyone else in our community. These improvements can help gain momentum, which in turn provides evidence to our leaders that change is desired, as well as evidence that if more infrastructure is built, people will in fact use it and benefit from those changes.
Types of Infrastructural Activism
Types of Infrastructural Activism
Agriculture
Agriculture
Our food system has the biggest impact on our land use, fertilizer and pesticide use, uses most of our water for the least efficient food products, and currently encourages food shortages through wasteful practices. By better understanding the current systems impact on food security and water security, deforestation, water pollution and other aspects, we can help forge a path towards a cleaner, and more efficient farm system in the future.
Some solutions to the problems caused by modern farming include topics such as vegan agriculture with a focus on switching production to livestock alternatives and non-lethal pest control.
Education
Education
Today's education will have far-reaching effects on how today's students think about and solve the problems we are already beginning to experience. That is why we've started a selection of topic pages For Teachers
Schools
Schools
In an attempt to start a sustainable transition, we can help set a good example for the younger generation, with some solutions such as School Solar systems and green School Yards providing educational opportunities.
As solar energy builds momentum, there are a growing number of companies with programs designed specifically for the schools they equip, allowing students to see how their schools energy use in real time, as well as how the solar panels meet their campus's energy needs.
School yards are not only important for child development (and sometimes provide a community's only public playground for weekend and summer play). These spaces can also provide space for wildlife (especially if planted with trees, bushes and flowers), as well as additional SUD space for flood control.
Public Education
Public Education
Libraries provide valuable information including books and other resources about local history, wildlife, and infrastructure. In addition they can also offer items including tools, crafting supplies, and much more, which can be useful in reducing a community's consumption habits.
Citizen science and local monitoring practices can help a community or region track important data that might be hard to gather or sift through otherwise. This info in turn can be used to support local projects, petitions, and programs.
Transportation
Transportation
Walkable Infrastructure
Walkable Infrastructure
Transportation Art
Transportation Art
Transportation Art: The Scenic Route Guide to Arts, Culture, and Transportation "Creative placemaking is an approach that deeply engages the arts, culture, and creativity—especially from underrepresented communities—in planning and designing transportation projects to better reflect and celebrate local culture, heritage, and values. This updated guide from Smart Growth America and Transportation for America provides a tour of the eight common approaches used in exemplary projects across the country at the potent intersection of arts, culture, and transportation."
Urban Infrastructure
Urban Infrastructure
"Build up" land only accounts for around 1% of Earth's habitable space, but that number is expected to double as our population increases to around 2%. Though this is a relatively small area, the way these spaces are designed has a massive impact on transit emissions, heating & cooling emissions, light pollution, human health, water pollution, as well as people's access to basic needs and social justice.
Through Urban Design (and re-design), we can not only minimize humanity's impact on the planet, but make our communities more equitable and human-friendly.
Green & Wild Spaces
Green & Wild Spaces
Green spaces are important for human health and wellbeing, but overly-tidied spaces that grow invasive species can cause more harm than good for both wildlife and humans. Allowing our green spaces to become a little more wild can help reverse this problem. By avoiding common gardening practices that produce large amounts of landscape-related pollution, and by encouraging or planting natives instead of invasives, we can maximize our positive impact, while also boosting our wellbeing. These efforts can even help us as individuals or even governments to save money while reaching sustainability targets.
Resources
Resources
Plastic Reduction
Plastic Reduction
Plastic Smart Cities: Best Practice Approaches "committed to implementing global approaches that prevent, minimise and manage plastic, both as a resource, and as a waste. We encourage you to explore our growing catalogue below, and further contribute to the Plastic Smart Cities community by submitting your own for consideration and inclusion."
Transportation Art
Transportation Art
Transportation Art: The Scenic Route Guide to Arts, Culture, and Transportation "Creative placemaking is an approach that deeply engages the arts, culture, and creativity—especially from underrepresented communities—in planning and designing transportation projects to better reflect and celebrate local culture, heritage, and values. This updated guide from Smart Growth America and Transportation for America provides a tour of the eight common approaches used in exemplary projects across the country at the potent intersection of arts, culture, and transportation."
North America
North America
USA
USA
Coastal Restoration Toolkit: Take Action to Restore Our Coastlines "Find tools and information you need to launch a restoration project in your community."
Green Infrastructure Effectiveness Database "This database is a compilation of literature resources documenting the effectiveness and economics of nature-based solutions and Green Infrastructure for coastal resilience."
Quantifying Carbon Footprint Reduction Opportunities for U.S. Households and Communities
Tools & Calculators
Tools & Calculators
Climate Change
Climate Change
En-ROADS Climate Solutions Simulator "is a fast, powerful climate solutions scenario tool for understanding how we can achieve our climate goals through changes in energy, land use, consumption, agriculture, and other policies. The simulator focuses on how changes in global GDP, energy efficiency, technological innovation, and carbon price influence carbon emissions, global temperature, and other factors. It is designed to provide a synthesis of the best available science on climate solutions and put it at the fingertips of groups in policy workshops and roleplaying games. These experiences enable people to explore the long-term climate impacts of global policy and investment decisions.
En-ROADS is being developed by Climate Interactive, Ventana Systems, UML Climate Change Initiative, and MIT Sloan.
This guide provides background on the dynamics of En-ROADS, tips for using the simulator, general descriptions, real-world examples, slider settings, and model structure notes for the different sliders in En-ROADS."
North America
North America
USA
USA
Rewiring America: Track Your Local Pace of Progress "These projections from Rewiring America worked backwards from the emissions targets for 2050, and forward from current sales of machines for cooking, water heating, space heating, transportation, and rooftop solar to set a number of new clean electric machines that must be sold each year to reduce emissions from fossil-fueled machines. Type your city, county, or state into the search bar to get those numbers broken down for your area, by each machine category.
While creating this tool, one of things we found is that some individual communities and states are leading the way: their goals are bolder than the rest of the country and so don’t match the path laid out in our data. That’s a great problem to have. So our tool should not be considered the only source of its kind -- but one that reflects only one of the possible paths to decarbonization."
Minnesota
Organizations & Programs
Organizations & Programs
International
International
Plastic Smart Cities "is a WWF initiative that supports a no plastic in nature agenda. Since 2018, the initiative has supported cities and coastal centers in taking bold action to stop plastic pollution, with a goal to reduce plastic leakage into nature by 30% in the near term, and achieving no plastics in nature by 2030."
Europe
Europe
UK
UK
Wild Spaces "The combined effect of habitat loss and climate change means that butterflies and moths are in severe decline across the UK. But... it doesn't have to be that way. Butterfly Conservation is asking for everyone's help in creating more Wild Spaces where butterflies and moths can thrive. Working together we will make a difference!"
North America
North America
USA
USA
The Clean Energy States Alliance "is a national, nonprofit coalition of public agencies and organizations working together to advance clean energy.
CESA works with state leaders, federal agencies, industry representatives, and other stakeholders to develop clean energy programs and inclusive renewable energy markets. CESA members—mostly state agencies—include many of the most innovative, successful, and influential public funders of clean energy initiatives in the country."Smart Growth America "empowers communities through technical assistance, advocacy and thought leadership to create livable places, healthy people, and shared prosperity. We work with elected officials at all levels, real estate developers, chambers of commerce, transportation and urban planning professionals, and residents to improve everyday life for people across the country through better development."
Maps
Maps
International
International
Butterfly Conservation: Wild Spaces: Put Your Wild Space on the Map "Our interactive map shows the number and types of Wild Space near you. When you sign up in the UK, your Wild Space will also appear on the map so you can show everyone that you're taking action and encourage others to get involved too."
More People Care About Climate Change than You Think "The majority of people in every country support action on climate, but the public consistently underestimates this share."
Europe
Europe
UK
UK
Butterfly Conservation: Wild Spaces: Put Your Wild Space on the Map "Our interactive map shows the number and types of Wild Space near you. When you sign up in the UK, your Wild Space will also appear on the map so you can show everyone that you're taking action and encourage others to get involved too."
North America
North America
USA
USA
Coastal Flood Exposure Mapper "Jumpstart community discussions about local coastal flooding hazards by developing maps that show the people, places, and natural resources at risk."
Grants & Funding
Grants & Funding
North America
North America
USA
USA
Minnesota
MWMO: Community Grants "are available for short-term or small-scale water quality projects. The grant amount may not exceed $5,000. No matching funds are required."
Oceana
Oceana
Australia
Australia
Western Australia
The Sustainability Grants Program (in the City of Cockburn) "offers funding for projects related to six sustainability themes. Open to small businesses, schools, not-for-profits, and collective households, successful applicants can receive up to $4,000 for their project."
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