I have been hesitant to talk much about climate change in English Detective. It’s already so well known—and often so controversial. What could I include that you don’t already know?

However, I just found a couple of resources that seem so outstanding to me I just have to share them—even if many of you will have seen at least one of them already. (Quite a bit of follow-up research added a few more. Choose the ones you have time and interest for.) As usual, there is some vocabulary practice below the photo.

TED just released a new (15 min.) talk by Per Espen Stoknes on how to change people’s attitudes toward climate change by changing the way scientists and activists present it. He discusses his research into the psychology behind different attitudes. Then he suggests ways to encourage engagement—a willingness to take small actions that can begin to reduce the big problem.

Vox has a short summary of Stoknes’ research, including the perspective of other psychologists, here.

A much longer and more detailed Guardian article looks at Seven Megatrends that could beat Global Warming.

Both discuss technological and economic reasons for hope, though they make it clear that we’re not “home free”—there will be some major disruptions caused by global warming that has already happened. There are also no guarantees that these hopeful trends will happen fast enough and massively enough to prevent the most serious or irreversible effects on the climate—when even stopping ALL carbon emissions will be too late to prevent future warming.

However, these scientists do see more reason to hope. Maybe we can prevent the worst damage, and gain a little time to work on the problems that cannot be avoided.