What Can You Do About Climate Change? Join Thrive Market and #Call4ClimateNow

Texas, a state unaccustomed to severe winter storms, was struck by a blizzard in February that hobbled the state’s electrical grid and left thousands stranded in their freezing homes. In August, residents of Louisiana marked a grim commemoration of Hurricane Katrina when, on the 16th anniversary of the historic storm, Hurricane Ida brought devastating floods and lengthy power outages. By early September 2021, over 2 million acres had already burned in wildfires across drought-stricken California, with months of fire weather still to come. 

And that’s just in the United States.

Extreme weather is becoming increasingly common and difficult to avoid, no matter where you live. What was once extraordinary is now the new normal. These unprecedented global weather events and the destruction they leave behind are stark reminders that climate change is here—and it’s everybody’s problem to help solve. 

The IPCC Report: A Global Climate Emergency

Established in 1988, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (or IPCC) is the body of the United Nations that assesses climate science and its impacts. Currently comprising 195 member states and leveraging the work of thousands of people worldwide, it was originally created as a means of providing expert guidance and strategies for political leaders. The IPCC Report is a compilation of the latest climate science findings, conclusions, and next steps.

When the IPCC released its sixth report in early August, it brought lots of bad and some (slightly) good news. To get the bad news out of the way first: the planet has heated by 2 degrees Fahrenheit since the 19th century, and human activity—primarily burning coal, oil, and gas for energy—is unequivocally to blame. The results of this warming can now be seen and felt everywhere on Earth, in the form of blistering heat waves, decreasing biodiversity, rising sea levels and more. 

Now, for some hopeful news: there is a small window in which we can halt the warming of the planet and mitigate the effects of climate change. Though another 1.5 degrees of warming is all but inevitable at this point, according to the report, we can conceivably stop it from getting any hotter. How? By breaking up with fossil fuels ASAP, along with taking other measures to pull carbon out of the atmosphere (like practicing regenerative agriculture). 

“I used to say…that climate change is serious, certain, and soon,” says Linda O. Mearns, Ph.D, a senior scientist from the National Center for Atmospheric Research who contributed to the report. “But that is no longer accurate. Now it is very serious, very certain, and now.”

What Can You Do About Climate Change? #Call4ClimateNow

The problem of climate change can feel overwhelming, and while many people want to be a part of the solution, it can be hard to know where to start. The Call4ClimateNow campaign is designed to mobilize meaningful climate action by making it easy for people to get involved. 

The Call4ClimateNow campaign is focused on two important benchmarks: cutting greenhouse gas pollution in half by 2030 and eliminating carbon pollution by around 2050. To do that, they’ve identified four key components of effective climate action:

• Enacting a Clean Electricity Payment Program that would increase wind and solar power, helping the United States get to 100% clean power by 2035 and create jobs in the process.

• Directing 40% of funding to disadvantaged groups, like BIPOC communities, which are disproportionately affected by the effects of climate change.

• Ending fossil fuel subsidies, which enrich corporations that bear outsized responsibility for pollution and carbon emissions with taxpayer dollars.

• Creating a Civilian Climate Corps to create opportunities and training for well-paying, stable green jobs.

More than 200 businesses throughout the country have put their support behind Call4ClimateNow, including Thrive Market, Burt’s Bees, Ben & Jerry’s, Grove Collaborative, and Dr. Bronner’s. These companies have a lot in common, beyond being in the natural products industry: we share a vision for a healthier future for our planet and a community of conscious consumers like you who want to make a difference.

Thrive Market: On a Mission for Climate Positivity

Sustainability has been in Thrive Market’s DNA since our inception, but over the last year, we’ve redoubled our efforts to build a better food future for our planet and its people. Thrive Market’s renewed commitment to sustainability includes three main goals: becoming Zero Waste Certified by 2022, plastic neutral by 2023, and carbon negative by 2025. 

Beyond these ambitious goals, we’ve made it our mission to get healthy essentials into the hands of those in need, whether by granting memberships to deserving families through Thrive Gives or heeding the call when disaster strikes. In 2021, we’ve witnessed how extreme weather caused by climate change has impacted the most vulnerable communities and responded by:

• Providing essentials like healthy food and clean drinking water to people in Texas affected by the winter storm

• Sending healthy pantry staples to families in New Orleans in the aftermath of Hurricane Ida

• Collecting donations for those impacted by wildfires in California with the help of our 1-million-member community

Now, we’re joining the Call4ClimateNow campaign to rally our community behind this urgent cause and encourage lawmakers to act.

How to Join the #Call4ClimateNow Campaign

Anyone can participate in the Call4ClimateNow campaign—all it takes is picking up the phone and putting the pressure on your lawmakers to take bold action on climate change.

Calling your lawmakers may sound old-fashioned, but it’s a small step that can make a big impact—even bigger than a letter or an email. Call4ClimateNow reports that lawmakers keep track of the volume of calls they receive and use that information to decide what issues to focus on. Every call is counted, so every call you make matters.

To tell your senators and representatives you want them to take action to address the threat of climate change, call (202) 951-7780. 

Tips for Calling Your Lawmakers

Grab a friend, charge up your phone, get some snacks and have a call-your-lawmakers party. Here are a few pointers to help you get started.

• Maybe you lived through one of the extreme weather events of the last few years, or have first-hand experience with the way climate change disproportionately affects marginalized communities. Personal stories are impactful, so speak from the heart.

• That said, if the idea of improvising a phone conversation with a stranger freaks you out, you can read the sample script below.

• If even that feels like too much, make your call outside of business hours (that means before 9AM or after 5PM EST) or over the weekend and leave a message. It still counts!

• When you’re finished with your first call, don’t hang up; press * and repeat the process for your second Senator, then again for your Representative.

• After you’ve made your calls, visit the Call4ClimateNow website and fill out the feedback form. 

• Why stop there? Once you’re feeling inspired after taking meaningful climate action, channel that energy into doing something else—like supporting a B Corp, trying out some new sustainable habits, or sharing the Call4ClimateNow campaign on social media. 

Not Sure What to Say? Use This Sample Script

If you’re used to communicating via text and email, making a phone call—to a stranger, no less—might be a little nerve-wracking. We get it, and so do the folks at Climate Collaborative. They wrote this sample script that you can read when you make your calls.

Hi, my name is [YOUR NAME] and I’m calling from [YOUR CITY/TOWN] because I’m very concerned about climate change. [ADD YOUR OWN REASONS HERE – THIS COULD BE THINGS LIKE “I WANT MY KIDS/GRANDKIDS TO INHERIT A HEALTHY PLANET” or “WE LIVE IN AN AREA WHERE WILDFIRES ARE BECOMING AN ANNUAL THREAT” or “THE ICE STORM LAST WINTER DISRUPTED OUR LIVES FOR WEEKS AND COST $X IN REPAIRS”] 

I’m calling to ask [SENATOR/REPRESENTATIVE] to support big, bold climate action that invests at the scale of the crisis. There are four very important things I believe need to be part of any climate legislation:

Creating a Clean Electricity Payment Program that cuts pollution and modernizes our grid.

Directing 40% of funding to frontline communities.

Ending subsidies for fossil fuel corporations.

Starting a Civilian Climate Corps that puts people to work.

We’re already living with the early stages of climate change and now is the time we must take bold action to prevent things from getting much worse. There’s no time to waste.

Thank you for taking the time to listen and pass my requests along to the [SENATOR/REPRESENTATIVE].