Paintings, TED talks, books and much more... A different take on energy and sustainability to broaden your horizon. With brand new rankings every month!

You've probably never heard of the world's first climate scientist: the remarkable Eunice Foote. Foote's pioneering research was some of the first to describe carbon dioxide's capacity to absorb heat: “An atmosphere of that gas would give to our earth a high temperature.” Despite identifying what we now know as global warming (in the 1800s no less) Foote's remarkable contributions have only recently received their due - about time we think. 

Eunice Foote

Eunice Foote - Climate Scientist 

Author of the seminal Silent Spring, Carson's writing was at the forefront of the 1960's burgeoning environmental movement. Warning of the adverse effects of pesticides, Carson's fluid prose and detailed research changed the game. Don't believe me - David Attenborough claimed that Silent Spring was probably the book that has changed the scientific world the most, after only Darwin's the Origin of Species

Rachel Carson

Rachel Carson - Biologist & Conservationist

Brundtland's many accomplishments include being Norway's first woman Prime Minister, and former Director General of the WHO, but they are perhaps best known for the groundbreaking Brundtland Report. Published in 1987 'Our Common Future' was one of the first texts to detail the modern concept of sustainable development, urging for a delicate balance between economy and ecology. 

Gro Harlem Brundtland 

Gro Harlem Brundtland - Policymaker

A legendary conservationist and humanitarian, Jane Goodall's research on chimpanzees "redefined the relationship between humans and animals". In recent years Goodall has toured the world advocating for a brand of humanitarian politics that protects the environment and local peoples most at threat from the climate crisis. 

Jane Goodall 

Jane Goodall - Researcher & Advocate

Immortalised in Steven Soderbergh's 2000 film by the same name, Erin Brockovich has become one of the world's most recognisable environmentalists. Her legal battles with (PG&E) over groundwater pollution have emboldened environmental activists worldwide to take on big business - and win. 

Erin Brockovich

Erin Brockovich - Environmentalist & Legal Clerk

Isatou Ceesay is a Gambian activist and entrepreneur whose 'One Plastic Bag' movement has empowered thousands of women all the while regenerating the environment. Founded in 1998 Ceesay's initiative recycles plastic into fashion, generating revenue for 11,00 people - testament to the power of innovation, and the opportunities presented by environmental protection, Ceesay truly deserves her title as "Queen of Recycling". 

Isatou Ceesay

Isatou Ceesay - Social Entrepreneur & Activist

One of the key figures involved in organising Cop21, Figueres overcame herculean odds to achieving a universally agreed regulatory framework, culminating in the 2015 Paris accords. A proponent of "collaborative democracy", Figueres has worked tirelessly to build solidarity and harness collective action for political change. 


 Christiana Figueres

Christiana Figueres - Diplomat

A lead author on several of the IPCC's special reports, Seneviratne was the only woman featured in the top 10 on Reuters' 2015 Hot List of Climate Scientists. Seneviratne has contributed to some of the most seminal scientific reports of the 21st century, despite blatant inequities in STEM. 

Sonia Seneviratne

Sonia Seneviratne - Climate Scientist

Included in Time 100 (2016) for their work on Global Climate Justice, Sunita Narain began their struggle on climate change in the early 90s and has been a pioneering figure ever since. Featured alongside Leonardo DiCaprio in Before the Flood, Narain is a superstar in their own right, advancing environmentalism and climate action, often against immense political opposition. 

Sunita Narain

Sunita Narain - Environmentalist & Activist

Greta Thunberg needs no introduction - Time person of the year for 2019, Thunberg has rallied an entire generation, consistently holding power to account and successfully democratising the combat for climate justice. 

Greta Thunberg 

Greta Thunberg - Activist

Top 10 Women in Climate Change

Jack Harries is a documentary filmmaker and presenter, with roots as a content creator on youtube. His most recent series Seat at The Table features interviews with David Attenborough and Barack Obama, but its most affecting moments often come from broadcasting marginalized voices from those on the front-lines of the climate crisis. 

Jack Harries

Jack Harries - Filmmaker 

Founder and executive director of Force of Nature, Clover Hogan illuminates the impact of the climate crisis on youth mental health, exploring how we can transform our anxieties into collective action. Check out Clover's profile for a youth driven conversation beyond sustainability jargon and greenwashing. 

Clover Hogan

Clover Hogan - Mental Health Advocate

CEO and founder of Carbon Equity, Van den Ende is an entrepreneur focused on sustainable investment and battling greenwashing. Check out her feed for tips on impact driven investment and hot topics in ESG.

Jacqueline van den Ende

Jacqueline van den Ende - ESG Voice

An award winning climatologist, and current Director of the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies, Schmidt’s twitter feed offers enormous expertise and empirical substance. This is the place to come for clearly presented data and cutting edge research. 

Gavin Schmidt 

Gavin Schmidt -  Climate Scientist

Covering the climate crisis and environmental issues for the Guardian, Nat Geo and more, Sean’s breathtaking photography captures the beauty of the natural world and its gradual degradation. His page is an important visual reminder of what we’re protecting - and what we’re up against. 

Sean Gallagher

Sean Gallagher - Photographer

Heather McTeer Toney works at the interface of race, poverty and the climate crisis. An indispensable voice in understanding intersectionality, with a keen legal perspective, her twitter feed is a cant miss. 

Heather McTeer Toney 

Heather McTeer Toney - Intersectionality and Legal 

A rare example of an activist turned policy maker - all by the age of 19 - Jerome Foster is the white House's youngest ever advisor. Having organised some of the world’s biggest climate marches, as well as interning on the hill, Foster provides a rare glimpse into the world of policy making from an eco-conscious perspective.

Jerome Foster II

Jerome Foster II - Policymaker

Self described 'Renegade economist' Kate Ratworth is a senior Associate at Oxford University’s Environmental Change Institute. Dedicated to exploring the Green Transition, Kate's twitter feed and blog provide a crucial perspective on  systemic economic reform. 

Kate Ratworth

Kate Ratworth - Economist

The so called zero waste chef, Bonneau is a fount of useful techniques and delicious recipes that minimise waste and encourage sustainable lifestyles. 

Anne-Marie Bonneau

Anne-Marie Bonneau - Sustainable Living

No list of influencers would be complete without a shoutout to an activist. Not one to pull punches, Nakate holds the powerful to account, harnessing the frustrations of so many young people who expect better from their leaders. Testament to the power of collective action, protest and solidarity, Nakate is the ultimate climate influencer. 

Vanessa Nakate

Vanessa Nakate - Activist

Top 10 Climate Shapers

This quote sets the stage for exploring the topic of climate risk through selected quotes. Climate change is a 2.0 problem, but how we think about and respond to risks hasn’t been upgraded from 1.0 thinking. Einstein provides an urgent reminder to think critically about the systems and methods that created the climate crisis in the first place. 

Albert Einstein

"We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them"

We tend to turn all problems into economic problems, which isn’t particularly helpful when it comes to climate change. 

Arthur M. Schlesinger

“Economists are about as useful as astrologers in predicting the future; they never let failure on one occasion diminish certitude on the next"

The Climate Crisis threatens the world's most vulnerable people, amplifying inequalities between the Global North and South. Global poverty also limits our ability to combat environmental change. Some 30% of the world's biodiversity is protected by indigenous peoples; ensuring they have adequate support is more pivotal than ever. 

Nicholas Stern 

"Climate Change and global poverty are two sides of the same coin. If we fail on one we also fail on the other" 

There is a tendency to focus on what we know about climate change, but that misses a key point about climate risk as expressed in this quote from risk expert George Backus. 

George Backus

“From a risk perspective, the emphasis is on how much is not known rather than on how much is known about the future climate”

For too long climate change was placed on the political back burner. This quote identifies climate complacency as a symptom of short term thinking and pervasive denial. 

Isaac Asimov

"The Easiest way to solve the problem is to deny its existence"

This quote illustrates the enormous tension between near-term and longer-term thinking when it comes to understanding and responding to climate risks.

Lester Lave

"If the world were to disappear twenty-five or thirty years from now, it would make no difference to economists today”

This is the Climatographers’ favourite quote of all time when it comes to explaining where we are with respect to climate change. 

Margaret Heffernan

"In failing to address climate change all the forces of wilfulness come together like synchronised swimmers in a spectacular water ballet"

Experts in human behaviour tend to be pessimistic when it comes to climate change, as suggested by this quote from Nobel Prize winner Daniel Kahneman.

Daniel Kahneman

“I am deeply pessimistic. I really see no path to success on climate change"

This quote provides an advertisement for climate democracy, illustrating the immense importance of accountability. Activism, protest and collective action remain some of our most powerful tools. 

Jared Diamond 

"A blueprint for disaster in any society is when the elite are capable of insulating themselves”

A good place to end, this quote provides a healthy dose of optimism. It is easy to lose our resolve when presented with such an enormous problem, but the efforts of activists and young people around the world are as good a reason for hope as any. 

Paul Hawken

"If you meet the people who are working to restore this earth and the lives of the poor, and you aren’t optimistic, you haven’t got a pulse.”

Top 10 Climate Quotes

Every year, the world uses 35 billion barrels of oil. This massive scale of fossil fuel dependence pollutes the earth, and it won’t last forever. On the other hand, we have abundant sun, water and wind, which are all renewable energy sources. So why don’t we exchange our fossil fuel dependence for an existence based only on renewables? Federico Rosei and Renzo Rosei describe the challenges.

F. Rosei & R. Rosei 

Can 100% Renewable Energy Power the World? 

Taylor Wilson, at age 14, became the youngest person in history to produce nuclear fusion. His TED speech is a call to inspire a new generation of scientists and engineers to dream big and use technology to make the world a better place.

Taylor Wilson

The Future of Energy

With a small journey through history, economics & strategy, a speech that aims to shed light on the biggest untold achievement of the energy world... 

This TED talk for the University of London is a brilliant and thought-provoking reflection from a young "energy leader".

Andrea Gori

The Untold Energy Truth: Who Are The Future Energy Leaders​

The fossil fuel industry knows how to stop global warming, but they're waiting for someone else to pay, says climate science scholar Myles Allen. Instead of a total ban on carbon-emitting fuels, Allen puts forth a bold plan for oil and gas companies to progressively decarbonize themselves and sequester CO2 deep in the earth, with the aim of reaching net-zero emissions by 2050 and creating a carbon dioxide disposal industry that works for everyone.

Myles Allen

Fossil Fuel Companies Know How to Stop Global Warming. Why Don't They?

"The good news is it's now clearly cheaper to save the planet than to ruin it," says engineer and investor John Doerr. "The bad news is: we are fast running out of time." In this conversation with climate policy expert Hal Harvey, the two sustainability leaders discuss why humanity has to act globally, at speed and at scale, to meet the staggering challenge of decarbonizing the global economy (which has only ever increased emissions throughout history) -- and share helpful examples of promising energy solutions from around the world.

 J. Doerr & H. Harvey

How to Decarbonize the Grid and Electrify Everything

In this perspective-shifting talk, energy researcher Rose M. Mutiso makes the case for prioritizing Africa's needs with what's left of the world's carbon budget, to foster growth and equitably achieve a smaller global carbon footprint.

Rose M. Mutiso

The Energy Africa Needs to Develop and Fight Climate Change

Over the last decade, Michael and his colleagues have constructed a new paradigm that views prosperity, cheap energy and nuclear power as the keys to environmental progress. A book he co-wrote (with Ted Nordhaus) in 2007, Break Through: From the Death of Environmentalism to the Politics of Possibility, was called by Wired magazine “the best thing to happen to environmentalism since Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring”. 

Michael Shellenberger

Why I Changed my Mind About Nuclear Power

India has a historic opportunity to power its industrialization with clean energy - and its energy choices will make or break the world's fight against climate change, says clean energy executive, physicist and author Varun Sivaram. Bringing on-the-ground experience as CTO of India's largest renewable energy company, Sivaram proposes a plan for India to achieve three herculean feats, all at the same time - and reimagine its economy with renewable energy at its heart.

Varun Sivaram

How India Could Pull Off the World's Most Ambitious Energy Transition

What does environmental devastation actually look like? Photographer Garth Lenz shares shocking photos of the Alberta Tar Sands mining project, and the beautiful (and vital) ecosystems under threat.

Garth Lenz

The True Cost of Oil 

The coronavirus brought much of the world to a standstill, dropping carbon emissions by five percent. Al Gore says keeping those rates down is now up to us. In this illuminating interview, he discusses how the steadily declining cost of wind and solar energy will transform manufacturing, transportation and agriculture, offer a cheaper alternative to fossil fuels and nuclear energy and create millions of new jobs. Stay tuned for a lively debate about geoengineering and hear Gore's thoughts about how humanity can create a clean, prosperous future through a focused global effort and a generation of young people committed to change. 

Albert Arnold Gore Jr.

The New Urgency of Climate Change

Top 10 TED talks

A French painter close to impressionism, cubism and fauvism, Raoul Dufy (1877-1953) was an eclectic painter that defied categorization attempts. In 1936, the Parisian electricity distribution commissioned a painting from him to “highlight the role of electricity in national life and in particular highlight the leading social role played by electric light”. Dufy exceeded expectation and delivered the painting for the Word Fair of 1937. 

Raoul Dufy

The Spirit of Electricity

The world-famous painter of the American loneliness Edward Hopper (1882-1967) painted this gas station as a symbol of his time. He simultaneously captures the intensification of exchanges in society and the isolation that it may paradoxically engender. This crepuscular scene is emblematic of Hopper’s social realist style. 

Edward Hopper

Fernand Léger (1881-1955) is a French painter that proposed his own version of cubism, sometimes called “tubism”. A large share of his work is devoted to the poetic representation of workers. In 1937, he answered to a public tender to embody physics concepts at the Paris World's fair. In this painting, he draws a parallel between hydraulic energy and the natural water cycle by contrasting an energy producing factory to a rainbow in his own distinctive style. 

Fernand Léger

Transportation of forces

Though this painting is not the most representative of van Gogh’s (1853-1890) style, it shows the interest that the artist took in his contemporaries' working conditions. It is noticeable for depicting the feminine labor conditions in the coal extraction business. The faded colours used by the painter strengthens the feeling of misery conveyed to the viewer.

Vincent Van Gogh

Miners’ Women Carrying Coal Bags

Alain Jacquet (1939-2008) is a French representative of the pop art. As his American colleagues, he plays with general commodity products and art history references. On this canvas, the shell of the major oil company rimes with the one that gives life to Venus in Botticelli’s renaissance masterpiece. It is interesting to notice that in the 60s, the fuel pump was a symbol of modernity dialoguing with a figure of the ancient times, whereas today, the pump appears vintage while Venus remains an icon of perfection. 

Alain Jacquet

Camouflage Botticelli, Birth of Venus II

The British naïve artist L. S. Lowry (1887-1976) is well known for his depiction of the London industrial era. He addressed the pressing issue of energy production and distribution. This barge of coal on the Thames and the smoky suburbs in the background is representative of his simple yet expressive style. 

L.S. Lowry

The Coal Barge

In the early XXth century, a group of Italian artists self-called "Futurists" decided that art should evolve to reflect changes in industrial production. In particular, they placed a significant emphasis on depictions of speed and energy. On this canvas, Luigi Russolo (1885-1947) fractionates the dynamism of a moving car to allow the public to feel its velocity.

Luigi Russolo

Dynamism of a Car

Hard work in progress is the favorite theme of the French artist Raymond Rochette (1906-1993). In a style similar to Cezanne's, he painted miners after accompanying them down mine pits to faithfully capture their daily life.

Raymond Rochette

Miners

The master of impressionism Claude Monet (1840-1926) witnessed the upheaval brought about by the industrial revolution. Though not his most well-known work, the Coalmen exhibit Monet's typically recognisable brushstroke. This realistic depiction  of men unloading coal isn't a social critic but rather conveys a dreary sense of gloom.

Claude Monet

The Coalmen

Windmills can be considered as the ancestors of our contemporary wind turbines. As they are part of the Netherlands’ symbolic imagery, it is not surprising that Dutch artists used them as a common iconographic theme. Here’s a painting of Mondrian (1872-1944) from the figurative part of his career.

Piet Mondrian

Oostzijdse Mill in the Evening

Top 10 Energy Paintings

Famous for his large-scale images in high-resolution, Andreas Gursky (1955-) became in 1999 the most expensive photographer in the art market with works like 99 Cent Diptych II or Rhein II. In Les Mées (2016), the German artist gives us a prime example of his grandiose style by capturing what was at the time the largest photovoltaic park in alpine France.


Andreas Gursky

Les Mées

Bernd and Hilda Becher (1931-2007 and 1934-2015) pioneered the field of industrial photography. They are especially known for collating sequences of similar industrial infrastructures such as gas tanks, furnaces or grain silos, thereby creating an interplay between their creative process and the repetitive nature of industrial factory work

Bernd and Hilla Becher

Gas Tanks

The world-famous American photographer Steve McCurry (1950-) is best known for his portraits of refugees in war zones such as Afghan Girl (sometimes considered as the Mona Lisa of our time). This picture of a blazing oil well, shot in Koweit in 1991, shows how a deep mastery of light and colour enables him to depict the cohabitation between humans and animals. 

Steve McCurry

Camels and oil fire in Kuwait

Since the 1960s the French photographer and environmentalist Yann Arthus-Bertrand (1946-) has been capturing images of the Earth from the sky to document the adverse impact of human activities on landscapes and ecosystems. This photography of an offshore wind farm was taken in 2001 between Sweden and Denmark. 

Yann Arthus Bertrand

Wind farm, Denmark

Brazilian artist Sebastão Salgado (1944-) is one of the most influential photographers in the world. He works predominantly in black and white and relies on stark colour contrasts to create powerful pictures. Sometimes described as a humanist, he always tries to shine a light on the hidden parts of our societies and communities

Sebastião Salgado

Greater Burhan Oil Field, Kuwait

A leading member of the surrealist art movement of the 1920s, Man Ray (1890-1976) was commissioned by the Parisian electricity distribution company to produce an album of photogravures promoting the use of electricity as a domestic energy source. The artist set to create surrealistic images of common objects leveraging the photographic mechanism of ‘rayographs’.

Man Ray

Électricité

Contemporary American photographer Mitch Epstein is well-known for his work ironically titled ‘American Power’ in which he questions the way our society deals with energy issues, as well as the interconnections between industry and political power. This image displaying a suburban dwelling in the foreground with a nuclear power station behind shows his mastery of thematic contrast.

Mitch Epstein

Amos Coal Power Plant, Raymond West Virginia

Joseph Quentin (1857-1946) is a French photographer. He was one of the first to go down coal pits to capture images of miners in their daily working environment and to document the hardship of life below the ground.

Joseph Quentin

This photograph is a perfect illustration of the aesthetic of Michael Kenna (1953-). The artist chooses to capture his landscapes in foggy weather, at dawn or night, and focuses mainly on the interaction between pristine landscapes and man-made landscapes.

Michael Kenna

Chapel Cross Power Station, Study 2, Dumfries, Scotland

As one of Britain’s most celebrated photographers, Don McCullin (1935-) is chiefly known as a war reporter, but he also specialized in chronicling the life of society's underbelly. This industrial-era image was taken in the early 60s in West Hartlepool.

Our warmest thanks to Augustin Voruz for his contribution to this top 10.

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