Worried About Climate Collapse? Here’s Ten Things You Can Actually Do - Gregory Andrews

 Lyrebird Dreaming - Gregory Andrews

Author Gregory Andrews is: Founder and Managing Director of Lyrebird Dreaming A former Australian Ambassador and High Commissioner in West Africa Australia’s first Threatened Species Commissioner A leader in Indigenous policy

Someone asked a really good question on one of my posts recently. They said they loved the climate content but wondered what they can actually do. 

And honestly, that question matters. Because one of the worst things about climate collapse is the feeling of powerlessness. 

We watch governments approve new coal and gas. We watch billionaires and huge companies greenwash their way through everything. We watch floods, fires, heatwaves, bleaching, crop failures and insurance crises roll through communities - and then we’re told to recycle more.

Yes, personal choices matter. But they’re not enough. The climate crisis wasn’t created by ordinary people forgetting their reusable cups and shopping bags. It was created by political choices, corporate power, fossil fuel lobbying, and decades of delay. 

So the answer has to be bigger than individual guilt. It has to be about active hope. Not passive optimism. That means choosing to act because the future is still being shaped, and because power shifts when people organise.

Here’s my top ten things you can do.

1. Stop trying to do everything

This might sound strange as number one. But it matters. Climate collapse is overwhelming because it touches everything: energy, transport, housing, food, forests, oceans, politics, money, war, migration, health and justice. Nobody can work on all of that at once. So choose your lane.

Maybe your thing is political campaigning. Maybe it’s protecting a local forest. Maybe it’s helping renters electrify. Maybe it’s First Nations justice. Maybe it’s calling out fossil fuel fascism. Maybe it’s making art, writing posts, showing up at meetings, or helping good people get elected. 

You don’t have to do everything. But you do need to do something.

2. Join with other people

Individual action matters most when it becomes collective action. One person writing to a politician can be ignored. A thousand people writing to a politician becomes a problem. One person changing banks is symbolic. Thousands of people shifting their money away from fossil fuel finance becomes pressure. One person talking about climate might feel isolated. A community talking about climate can change an election.

This is why movements matter. Find a local climate group, a community campaign, a Landcare group, a union campaign, a school group, a renewable energy group, or a community independent campaign. 

Climate action becomes less scary when you stop carrying it alone.

3. Get political - properly political

The climate crisis isn’t just an environmental issue. It’s a political issue. That means voting matters. But voting isn’t the only thing that matters. Join campaigns. Door knock. Hand out how-to-vote cards. Scrutineer. Host kitchen table conversations. Ask candidates direct questions. Support people who are serious about climate, integrity and community.

I felt genuinely empowered working with my community to help get David Pocock elected in 2022. It reminded me that politics doesn’t have to be something done to us by party machines. It can be something we do together. And we almost got there with Jessie Price in 2025. Next time, for sure. The community independents movement matters because it shows that ordinary people can organise, challenge the major parties, and change the national conversation. 

That’s climate action.

4. Hold politicians accountable between elections

Politicians don’t only need to hear from us every three years. They need to hear from us all the time. Email them. Call their offices. Ask for meetings. Turn up to town halls. Respond to consultations. Make submissions. Ask simple, direct questions:

• Will you support no new coal and gas?
• Will you support a climate trigger in national environment law?
• Will you support ending fossil fuel subsidies?
• Will you support protecting forests?
• Will you support electrifying homes, transport and industry?

Don’t let them hide behind vague language about “balance”, “transition” or “all of the above”. Ask what they’re actually doing.

5. Follow the money

The fossil fuel industry does’t just dig up coal and gas. It buys influence. It sponsors events. It funds think tanks. It donates to political parties. It advertises during sporting events. It puts its logo on community programs. It hires lobbyists. It uses greenwashing to buy social licence. So follow the money.

Ask who’s funding the campaign. Ask which companies are sponsoring the conference. Ask whether your superannuation is invested in fossil fuels. Ask whether your bank is lending to new coal and gas projects. Ask whether your university, sporting club, festival, arts organisation or charity is taking fossil fuel money. 

The social licence of fossil fuel companies is not inevitable. It can be withdrawn.

6. Call out fossil fuel fascism and corporate greenwashing

Big fossil fuel companies aren’t just selling coal and gas. They’re defending a dying business model with political donations, lobbying, disinformation, culture wars, attacks on protest rights, and greenwashing. That’s why I call it fossil fuel fascism. It’s what happens when a powerful industry knows its product is destabilising the climate, but instead of changing course, it tries to bend democracy around its own survival.

So call it out. When a gas company says gas is “clean”, ask compared to what. When a coal company sponsors a community event, ask what social licence it’s trying to buy. When politicians repeat fossil fuel talking points, ask who benefits. When corporations talk about “net zero”, ask whether they’re still expanding coal and gas. When media outlets run climate denial or delay narratives, ask who’s funding the story.

Greenwashing works when nobody challenges it. Fossil fuel power works when people are too polite, too tired, or too intimidated to name it. Name it. Because democracy can’t survive if governments keep serving fossil fuel companies while communities pay the price.

7. Use your workplace, profession and networks

Most of us have more influence than we realise. You may not feel powerful as one person. But you may be part of a workplace, board, school, university, union, church, sporting club, professional association, arts organisation or community group.

Ask what your organisation is doing on climate. Does it have a climate policy? Is it electrifying? Is it divesting? Is it reducing travel emissions? Is it still banking with fossil fuel lenders? Is it purchasing renewable energy? Is it using its public voice? 

Every institution is part of the climate system now. Push yours.

8. Protect nature where you live

Climate and nature aren’t separate crises. Protecting forests, wetlands, grasslands, rivers, reefs, soils and threatened species is climate action. So is restoring habitat, removing invasive species, supporting cultural burning, protecting urban trees, and defending Country from destructive development.

This work is local, practical and powerful. It also helps to counter despair. Because when you plant something, restore something, defend something, or care for Country, you’re not just opposing destruction. 

You are participating in repair. That matters.

9. Talk about climate in human terms

Facts matter. Science matters. Data matters. UN treaty obligations matter. But people are moved by stories. So talk about climate as a cost-of-living issue. Talk about insurance. Talk about rent and food prices. Talk about asthma. Talk about heat stress. Talk about children. Talk about older people. Talk about farmers, our Pacific neighbours and First Nations communities watching Country change before their eyes.

The climate crisis isn’t a future abstraction. It’s already here. And it’s already personal.

The more we make that visible, the harder it becomes for politicians and corporations to pretend delay is harmless.

10. Practise active hope

Hope isn’t the belief that everything will be fine. Hope is the decision to act anyway.

Some days, that might mean joining a campaign. Some days, it might mean making a phone call. Some days, it might mean donating $20. Some days, it might mean sharing a post. Some days, it might mean resting so you can keep going.

Climate action isn’t about purity. It is about persistence. The fossil fuel industry and fascists want us isolated, exhausted, cynical and ashamed. So refuse that.

Find your people. Choose your lane. Build power. Hold politicians accountable. Hold companies accountable. Protect what you love. And keep going. Because the future isn’t decided yet. And ordinary people like us, organised together, have changed history before.

Gregory Andrews Climate Change Articles

• Fossil Fuel Fascism: When a Dying Industry Tries to Take Democracy With It
• Climate Policy Counts Dollars and Tonnes. What if We Counted the Dead?
• The Climate Crisis is a Health Crisis
• The Science Is In: Global Warming Is Accelerating
• While We Watch Iran, the Planet Keeps Burning
• Have your say on Canberra’s next Climate Strategy: It will be make or break
• Science Warns of Future Where Billions Bake
• Two Years to 1.7°C: the “Prediction Game” We Can’t Afford to Lose
• Emergency Photos Ops Aren't Climate Leadership
• Why Fascists Reject Climate Science
• Don’t Be Distracted: Earth’s Life Support Systems Are Collapsing
• Diesel rebates for miners and a new EV tax? Australia’s climate policy double-think
• What Gas is That? Get to Know Your Climate Pollutants