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Is it time for a tactical shift in battling climate change?

Decades of warnings by scientists that use of coal, gas and oil need to swiftly cease - to keep people and the planetary systems they depend on safe - have been largely ignored, with greenwashing about climate action often far exceeding any real action.

But disruptive climate protests - designed to break through that inaction - also have had limited effect, not least because many of the people who worry about climate change also don't support protesters glueing themselves to buildings or blocking roads.

So climate protest group Extinction Rebellion tried a new tactic this weekend: Non-disruptive protest.

It and 200 other climate action organisations, hosted "The Big One" - a four-day family-friendly London street gathering designed to draw in new supporters - though with a promise of "new and inventive" civil disobedience if climate action continues to stall.

Tens of thousands turned up to the event - including Sophy Allen, who brought along her 9-year-old son Ezra to his first climate protest.

"We need to find a space for everyone to have a voice," she noted, admitting that "I think about the shame I'd be feeling in 20 years if I didn't do something."

In the United States, another new climate-fighting tactic is gaining ground: Mining old buildings for reusable materials.

Cities in states from Texas to Idaho now mandate deconstruction rather than demolition of unwanted buildings, with reusable materials removed, preserved and then sold to be used again.

Backers call it a crucial way to cut huge volumes of waste - the vast majority of it recyclable - and curb the carbon emissions involved in creating new buildings.

Globally, the construction industry is responsible for a third of the world's waste and 40% of carbon dioxide emissions, experts say.

"Deconstruction has been scaled up, and it's happening all over the country," said Neil Seldman, co-founder of nonprofit Institute for Local Self-Reliance, one of the effort's backers.

The other good news? Disassembling old buildings is also a new source of revenue - $1.4 billion last year - and it creates jobs, with deconstruction now employing about 14,500 people.

What does disruptive resilience look like in the Caribbean? Like community-owned solar grids - which are now set to scale up.

When Hurricane Maria battered Puerto Rico and decimated the island's power grid five years ago, the lights stayed on in one building in the mountain town of Adjuntas.

That's where the Casa Pueblo environmental group had equipped its local headquarters with solar panels and storage batteries - a model of green self-sufficiency.

As climate change brings more extreme weather events, including Caribbean hurricanes, such projects are key to building local resilience - and putting energy production into citizens' hands.

They're also likely to be widely replicated now, with the U.S. Department of Energy in February promising Puerto Rico $1 billion to improve energy resilience among poor communities.

"A local community putting up the resource to be able to sustain themselves during problematic times - it's a big deal," said Tim McJunkin, a researcher at the Idaho National Laboratory, a U.S. energy research lab. 

See you next week,

Laurie