Follow your passion | 52 Climate Actions

Three silhouettes hiking and jumping in the forrest with the sun shining through the trees

Follow your passion

Whether your passion is family or food, nature or knitting, use it in climate action. Passion helps you see actions to completion, causes others to follow your example, sets imagination free and makes things fun. Find the pride, satisfaction and joy in taking climate action.

Man standing in front of a powerpoint that reads "edibles"

What are you passionate about?

“Passion is energy. Feel the power that comes from focusing on what excites you.” - Oprah Winfrey

Education... Animals... Family... Helping others... Food… Your home... Fashion... Camping... Cycling... Gardening... Children... Health... Politics... Food... Money... Music... Friends... Wine…

You're reading 52 Climate Actions, so perhaps you're passionate about climate change. Maybe that passion alone is enough to motivate you to take action. But that's unlikely; it's far more likely that you are motivated to take action when climate change impacts on something else you are passionate about. Look at that list again. Everything on it will be impacted by climate change. And everything on it can be used as the basis for climate action.

52 Climate Actions presents 52 big picture actions and several hundred smaller ones, from planting a tree to cycling to work, from wasting less food to organising your community. Your motivation to take one of these actions could be saving money, or to protect yourself from climate impacts, or a desire to do the right thing. But a big motivation for choosing an action will probably also be your passion (in fact saving money, protecting those around you and doing the right thing might be some of your passions!).

The hundreds of actions presented on this website are only ideas and points of inspiration. Your passion might lead you to actions we haven't included; like buying your own land, starting a Forest School, making your own biochar, setting up a small business or doing a crazy fund-raising scheme for an environmental charity. You might even come up with ideas no-one has thought of yet.

Here's some simple examples:

If your passion is knitting, knit your Christmas presents this year (Actions 11: 'Refuse, reduce, reuse, repair, & recycle' and Action 52: 'Avoid seasonal excess').
If your passion is wild birds, start a local woodland conservation group (Actions 26: 'Protect and Restore Forests' and Action 9: 'Plant and nurture trees').
If your passion is your neighbourhood, organise a community action group (Actions 49: 'Campaign for local adaptation' and Action 37: 'Join a climate action group').
If your passion is DIY, retrofit your home (Actions 40: 'Warm your home efficiently', Action 28: 'Keep your cool' and Action 39: 'Build with green materials').

You get the idea. There are very few passions that can't in some way be engaged to tackle climate change.

Two people on bikes riding bikes with a orange and pink sunset in the background

Can climate action bring you joy?

Identifying and then doing the things that bring you joy is a path to motivation, passion and happiness. However, nobody experiences climate joy; it is more associated with anxiety, grief and depression: (see Action 42: 'Look after your mental health'). But climate action can certainly bring joy.

Personally, we've experienced great satisfaction building 52 Climate Actions, working in an amazing, inspirational team. Being more aware of the climate has made us more aware of the seasons and the beauties of nature, which brings joy. Knowing that we’re doing all that we can to ensure a liveable future for our children and grandchildren makes us proud. We've really enjoyed saving money with the climate actions we've taken. That's a pretty good list.

Action that brings us positive emotions is far more likely to be long lasting than action that doesn't. Not every climate action you take will bring you joy. But when you feel pride, inspiration, gratitude, enjoyment, satisfaction or joy from taking a climate action, take the time to notice it and celebrate. Tell others about it; your passion and joy will be infectious.

Climate change gives us all a chance to see life differently, by:

giving greater value to nature and the natural systems that keep us alive
treasuring relationships more than possessions
appreciating and contributing to the communities we live in
realising we all have to work together in new ways, both locally and globally
understanding that the climate unites all of humanity even more than the internet
recognising none of us are alone, that we're all interconnected in incredible, life giving environmental and social systems

Acting on climate change isn't easy. It’s a long road with many bumps and turns. But along the way there will be many opportunities for experiencing our joy and our passion. Don't forget to look out for them, and to enjoy them.