Kimmerer argues that “the most profound act of linguistic imperialism was the replacement of a language of animacy with one of objectification of nature, which renders the beloved land as lifeless object, the forest as board feet of timber.” Her main point of argument is the use of it in the English language for „being[s] of the living earth”. Derived from the Potawatomi “Aakibmaadiziiwin” (a being of the earth), she suggests the pronoun ki. She believes that words matter, and that a more inclusive pronoun could unlock a new (and ancient) way of thinking that puts human exceptionalism aside and brings us closer to the “commonwealth of life.” Kimmerer acknowledges that Russian  – and German too – does ”embrac[e] animacy in its structure” (by not using it pronouns for animals), but still argues for our reflection on language because it “reveals unconscious cultural assumptions and exerts some influence over patterns of thought.”

One of the most striking and instructive graph in the IPCC's Sixth Assessment Report: It lists the potential contribution to net emissions reductions by 2030 for different migration options in sectors such as energy, AFOLU (Agriculture, Forestry and Other Land Uses), buildings, transport and industry. In addition to the width of the bars, it also shows colour ranges for the cost of the reduction potential of the options.

The areas with the highest potential contributions are solar and wind energy, halting deforestation, better agriculture, strengthening ecosystems and hydrogen in industry.

Wind and solar energy are cheap up to 2 GtCO₂-eq per year, while the often-promised carbon capture is expensive from the outset and has very little potential.

The graphic is part of the Summary for Policymakers in “Climate Change 2022: Mitigation of Climate Change. Contribution of Working Group III to the Sixth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change”.

Since 2004, Brooklyn-based artist Rachel Sussman has explored harsh climates from Antarctica to the Mojave Desert to photograph the world’s oldest living organisms. This includes Pando, an aspen colony in Utah with a root system around 80,000 years old, and the Llareta plants in South America, which grow 1.5 cm annually and live for over 3,000 years. Despite their longevity, such ecosystems face threats from climate change and human activity.

Her photographs are meditations on “deep time” – timescales that are outside of our human, physiological experience of time – and often show the most versatile adaptation to the harsh climate conditions these organism are living in.

The shortfilm (2022, 25′) documents walrus haulouts – large gatherings of walruses seeking refuge on shore when their search for remaining sea ice forces them to swim much farther and farther distances.

The marine biologist Maxim Chakilev records these dramatic gatherings in Cape Serdtse-Kamen, Russia. Living together with the scientist in a small, wooden hut surrounded by thousands of walruses, the film team captures the intense atmosphere and suffering of the animals. And the helplessness of Maxim.

The film is produced by The New Yorker (which provide valuable background information on the film), is shortlisted for the 2023 Oscars and premiered 2022 at Berlinale. It is currently disabled on YouTube, which might be due to the Oscar nomination, but is still available at Yahoo.

It might not look like much but it's probably the most defining number of our time, one that will shape this century and many beyond it. It is the amount, in parts-per-million, of carbon dioxide in our planet's atmosphere. This project by Julian Oliver and Gardan Savičić displays this number on your smartphone.

Scenarios about our future are generated with models that calculate climate impacts based on various variables like energy mix, policy decisions and population development. What if you could set these variables and let the simulation evolve? The planetary crisis panning game Half Earth Socialism allows for just that. Using the open-source model Hector, Francis Tseng and Son La Pham (with the help of other designers, researchers, and artists) created a format that kept me engaged for 4 hours straight with the myriad of tweaks and trade-offs of climate policy. The game is lovingly designed and embellished with myriad narrative details and an entertaining political embedding by borrowing from the book Half Earth Socialism. And when no settings you try, works out, a look at this IPCC figure might help.

Filmmakers travel to six continents and 20 countries to document the impact humans have made on the planet.