Mary DeMocker - The Parents Guide to Climate Revolution: 100 Ways to Build a Fossil-Free Future, Raise Empowered Kids, and Still Get a Good Nights Sleep

Praise for The Parents Guide to Climate Revolution

A great prescription for anyone concerned about protecting future generations. The Parents Guide to Climate Revolution is encouraging, entertaining and, most of all, deeply empowering.

Catia Juliana, climate activist and mother of Kelsey Juliana, youth plaintiff in the Juliana v. U.S. climate lawsuit against the federal government

I love this book. Our current climate crisis can easily feel overwhelming, well beyond the reach of any single individual. This sense of powerlessness is often magnified for parents. In this wonderful, inspiring book, Mary DeMocker offers up a potent antidote a compelling collection of simple, yet effective activities that any child, teen, or adult can engage in. The pathway to a thriving future will emerge from a vibrant vision of our destination, and steps to take us there. The Parents Guide to Climate Revolution is brimming with ideas to carry us on the journey!

Scott D. Sampson, PhD, president & CEO of Science World British Columbia; author of How to Raise a Wild Child; science advisor and host of PBS Kids Dinosaur Train

This book is the most delightful remedy to the feelings of overwhelm that anyone looking seriously at climate change is bound to feel. Read it and enjoy the stories, tangible support, and inspiration from Mary DeMockers creative, powerful vision. Engagement really is the antidote to despair, especially for our young people.

Kari Marie Norgaard, author of Living in Denial

The most important thing parents can do is teach their children to grow up loving the Earth. We all protect what we love, just as a parent protects a child. Children should grow up understanding that all life is sacred and that we all drink from the same waters and draw life from the same Earth. I am so excited to see this book in the hands of anyone who wants to create a world were proud to pass on to future generations. The Parents Guide to Climate Revolution will empower you and your children to walk hand in hand to turn the tides, gently but effectively, on the biggest issue we face. We owe it to future generations to be the leaders of today so they can have a tomorrow.

Xiuhtezcatl Martinez, youth director of Earth Guardians and author of We Rise

For the love of children and our planet, devour this essential book and stand with the youth rising across the globe to protect their basic human rights to a livable future. Moms, dads, grandparents, aunts, uncles, teachers, this book gives you real stories to inspire and concrete ways to be upstanding adults, uplifting the voices of our children in the most important struggle of their lives.

Julia Olson, executive director of Our Childrens Trust and lead counsel in Juliana v. U.S.

The average concerned citizen has little idea of how to navigate the deluge of terrifying climate news coming at us. This book is grounding, uplifting, and supremely empowering all at once. It is a page-turner, and I devoured it on the first read. Now I pick it up almost every day for ideas on practical steps I can take to create the world we need for our children. Join the rest of us: buy it, read it, and take action!

Mary Christina Wood, Philip H. Knight Professor of Law at the University of Oregon and author of Natures Trust

Read this book. Dont tell me youre too busy. This is the book youve been waiting for. At last, genuinely practical and powerful answers to the question, what can I do to push back against fossil fuels and promote climate sanity? The book is brilliant, honest, and funny. Heres what you can do right now.

Kathleen Dean Moore, author of Great Tide Rising

Wise, subtle, fun, and informative this is a book to savor, dog-ear, bookmark, highlight, and press into another persons hands.

Peter Hoffmeister, author of Let Them Be Eaten by Bears and Too Shattered for Mending

It used to be taken for granted that kids would revolt against parents it was dubbed the war between the generations. But now were in a more important war the war against climate destruction. Mary DeMockers The Parents Guide to Climate Revolution is an invaluable handbook for how family members can ally with each other in everyday life to win that war.

Jeremy Brecher, author of Against Doom

As a mayor who worked to reduce the carbon emissions of our city, I counted on our citizen leaders, parents, and children to help us develop our citys Climate and Energy Plan and one of the strongest climate ordinances in the nation. Mary DeMocker effectively blends her creativity, scientific knowledge, and commitment to our planets well-being to support and encourage positive activism. She knows that it will take all of us and she shares my optimism that we can make a difference in our homes, our cities, and our nation. Her book makes it easy for us to create a better future for all children.

Kitty Piercy, three-term mayor of Eugene, Oregon, voted Most Valuable Local Official in the U.S. by the Nation in 2010

DeMocker brilliantly links parenting skills that we already have to the social and political changes that we can make and are making to stabilize the Earths climate for future generations. This is a guilt-free roadmap to saving ourselves in order to save the planet.

Stephanie LeMenager, professor of environmental studies at the University of Oregon and author of Living Oil

Copyright 2018 by Mary DeMocker

All rights reserved. This book may not be reproduced in whole or in part, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means electronic, mechanical, or other without written permission from the publisher, except by a reviewer, who may quote brief passages in a review.

Illustrated by Hannah Peck

Text design by Tona Pearce Myers

appeared in The Oregonian.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available.

First printing, April 2018

ISBN 978-1-60868-481-6

Ebook ISBN 978-1-60868-482-3

Printed in Canada on 100% postconsumer-waste recycled paper

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

For Zannie and Forrest,

with all my love

Its not either/or, parent or save the Earth. The question is how your decisions as a parent can teach your children to love the thriving planet, and to understand that love is a way of acting in the world.

KATHLEEN DEAN MOORE

Contents

G lobal warming is the deepest, scariest problem that we humans have ever wandered into. Weve only known about it in any real way for thirty years, barely a human generation, but it is already changing the biggest physical features of our planet, triggering horrible droughts, fires, and floods and in their wake massive human migrations, and driving many of our fellow creatures toward extinction. One question I get asked often is Should I even bring a child into this world? I usually reply yes and Ill do so with more confidence now that I know I can hand new parents this fine book.