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All We Can Save: Truth, Courage, and Solutions for the Climate Crisis
Provocative and illuminating essays from women at the forefront of the climate movement who are harnessing truth, courage, and solutions to lead humanity forward.
There is a renaissance blooming in the climate movement: leadership that is more characteristically feminine and more faithfully feminist, rooted in compassion, connection, creativity, and collaboration. While it's clear that women and girls are vital voices and agents of change for this planet, they are too often missing from the proverbial table. More than a problem of bias, it's a dynamic that sets us up for failure. To change everything, we need everyone.
All We Can Save illuminates the expertise and insights of dozens of diverse women leading on climate in the United States--scientists, journalists, farmers, lawyers, teachers, activists, innovators, wonks, and designers, across generations, geographies, and race--and aims to advance a more representative, nuanced, and solution-oriented public conversation on the climate crisis. These women offer a spectrum of ideas and insights for how we can rapidly, radically reshape society.
Intermixing essays with poetry and art, this book is both a balm and a guide for knowing and holding what has been done to the world, while bolstering our resolve never to give up on one another or our collective future. We must summon truth, courage, and solutions to turn away from the brink and toward life-giving possibility. Curated by two climate leaders, the book is a collection and celebration of visionaries who are leading us on a path toward all we can save.
With essays and poems by:
Emily Atkin • Xiye Bastida • Ellen Bass • Colette Pichon Battle • Jainey K. Bavishi • Janine Benyus • adrienne maree brown • Régine Clément • Abigail Dillen • Camille T. Dungy • Rhiana Gunn-Wright • Joy Harjo • Katharine Hayhoe • Mary Annaïse Heglar • Jane Hirshfield • Mary Anne Hitt • Ailish Hopper • Tara Houska, Zhaabowekwe • Emily N. Johnston • Joan Naviyuk Kane • Naomi Klein • Kate Knuth • Ada Limón • Louise Maher-Johnson • Kate Marvel • Gina McCarthy • Anne Haven McDonnell • Sarah Miller • Sherri Mitchell, Weh’na Ha’mu Kwasset • Susanne C. Moser • Lynna Odel • Sharon Olds • Mary Oliver • Kate Orff • Jacqui Patterson • Leah Penniman • Catherine Pierce • Marge Piercy • Kendra Pierre-Louis • Varshini Prakash • Janisse Ray • Christine E. Nieves Rodriguez • Favianna Rodriguez • Cameron Russell • Ash Sanders • Judith D. Schwartz • Patricia Smith • Emily Stengel • Sarah Stillman • Leah Cardamore Stokes • Amanda Sturgeon • Maggie Thomas • Heather McTeer Toney • Alexandria Villaseñor • Alice Walker • Amy Westervelt • Jane Zelikova
There is a renaissance blooming in the climate movement: leadership that is more characteristically feminine and more faithfully feminist, rooted in compassion, connection, creativity, and collaboration. While it's clear that women and girls are vital voices and agents of change for this planet, they are too often missing from the proverbial table. More than a problem of bias, it's a dynamic that sets us up for failure. To change everything, we need everyone.
All We Can Save illuminates the expertise and insights of dozens of diverse women leading on climate in the United States--scientists, journalists, farmers, lawyers, teachers, activists, innovators, wonks, and designers, across generations, geographies, and race--and aims to advance a more representative, nuanced, and solution-oriented public conversation on the climate crisis. These women offer a spectrum of ideas and insights for how we can rapidly, radically reshape society.
Intermixing essays with poetry and art, this book is both a balm and a guide for knowing and holding what has been done to the world, while bolstering our resolve never to give up on one another or our collective future. We must summon truth, courage, and solutions to turn away from the brink and toward life-giving possibility. Curated by two climate leaders, the book is a collection and celebration of visionaries who are leading us on a path toward all we can save.
With essays and poems by:
Emily Atkin • Xiye Bastida • Ellen Bass • Colette Pichon Battle • Jainey K. Bavishi • Janine Benyus • adrienne maree brown • Régine Clément • Abigail Dillen • Camille T. Dungy • Rhiana Gunn-Wright • Joy Harjo • Katharine Hayhoe • Mary Annaïse Heglar • Jane Hirshfield • Mary Anne Hitt • Ailish Hopper • Tara Houska, Zhaabowekwe • Emily N. Johnston • Joan Naviyuk Kane • Naomi Klein • Kate Knuth • Ada Limón • Louise Maher-Johnson • Kate Marvel • Gina McCarthy • Anne Haven McDonnell • Sarah Miller • Sherri Mitchell, Weh’na Ha’mu Kwasset • Susanne C. Moser • Lynna Odel • Sharon Olds • Mary Oliver • Kate Orff • Jacqui Patterson • Leah Penniman • Catherine Pierce • Marge Piercy • Kendra Pierre-Louis • Varshini Prakash • Janisse Ray • Christine E. Nieves Rodriguez • Favianna Rodriguez • Cameron Russell • Ash Sanders • Judith D. Schwartz • Patricia Smith • Emily Stengel • Sarah Stillman • Leah Cardamore Stokes • Amanda Sturgeon • Maggie Thomas • Heather McTeer Toney • Alexandria Villaseñor • Alice Walker • Amy Westervelt • Jane Zelikova
419 pages, Hardcover
First published September 22, 2020
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27409 people want to read
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September 22, 2020
*108th climate book*
To begin with: I can't claim to be unbiased or a disinterested observer (but, no one can). No one reads 108 books about climate change without deep investment, and most of the contributors in this collection I am already familiar with; if not in books, then in newsletters, articles, scientific papers, youtube series, podcasts, documentaries, or TED talks. All We Can Save is practically a roll-call of 2020 Climate Heroines (Katherine Hayhoe! Dr. Wilkinson! Dr. Johnson! Amy Westervelt, Dr. Marvel, Adrienne Maree Brown, Mary Anne Hitt, Rhiana Gunn-Wright, Emily Atkin, Varshini Prakash, Susanne Moser, Mary Annaise Heglar, Leah Stokes! etc.), and I was excited enough to read it before my NetGalley request was approved (so yes, I received a free electronic copy in exchange for a review; and then I bought a copy in actual paper because it's really good and ebooks give me a headache).
There was really no chance I wasn't going to love it, and, spoiler alert, I do. The editors have done a great job in compiling climate perspectives that centre black and indigenous women climate leaders, and address everything from climate grief and staying motivated, through advocacy strategies and how to talk about climate change, through specific highly technical solutions like regenerative ocean farming and soil conservation techniques. The essays are interwoven with fabulous poems, by poets like Ada Limon, Joy Harjo, Mary Oliver, Alice Walker and Sharon Olds. Nothing is going to make me more likely to buy a book, statistically speaking, than the combination of amazing poetry and climate action. Add in some feminism and I'm done for.
There's a lot to love about this essay collection, and only one glaring disappointment.
To begin with, if by some chance you're not familiar with at least half of the names in the contributors' list, you're in luck: you'll get a beautifully written, elevator-pitch-length summary of their work, from Katherine Hayhoe's advice on talking about climate change, to Rhiana Gunn-Wright's work on the Green New Deal, Mary Ann Hitt's work closing hundreds of coal plants, Emily Atkin's climate journalism (see Heated), Adrienne Maree Brown's Emergent Strategy: Shaping Change, Changing Worlds, and more. If you want to know who is doing what on climate action and why, so you can figure out whose work to follow, participate in and promote: start here.
There were no bad essays, and many of them were just breathtaking. Pretty much every piece in Feel was a standout. Under the Weather (Ash Sanders) made me cry, and of course anything by Mary Annaise Heglar is wonderful (Home is Always Worth It). Sarah Stillman's Like the Monarch uses animal migration as a positive analogy for human migration and provides a beautiful counter-point to fascism and xenophobic rhetoric. Heaven or High Water by Sarah Miller, previously published on Popula, is a hilarious and eye-opening first-person account of climate impacts on the Miami Beach real estate market. I didn't necessarily expect to read pieces on mobilizing fashion models or the 1% to foster the revolution, but I enjoyed reading them.
None of this leaves a lot of obvious room for disappointment, but here it is, and it might not have been so glaring for me if I weren't reading Care Work: Dreaming Disability Justice at the same time:
The book beautifully centres indigenous and black leadership, the importance of women, the need to build in class and income disparities and analysis, considers climate displacement from the global south, and in general considers thoughtfully and in depth every marginalized community but one: disabled people.
As a type 1 diabetic and a single mom to a disabled teen, that does sting. Worse, it didn't have to be that way: many of the leaders they discuss struggled with health issues or disabilities of various kinds (Adrienne Rich had arthritis, Rachel Carson died of cancer, Audre Lorde had cancer and vision loss, Mary Oliver struggled with PTSD, Octavia Butler was dyslexic, etc.). Greta Thunberg is autistic, for heaven's sake, and calls her autism a superpower. Chances are good that a bunch of this book's contributors have disabilities or chronic illnesses, but you would never know it from the text. Both All We Can Save and Care Work discuss Octavia Butler's Earthseed books, but only Care Work acknowledges and discusses that Lauren Olamina was disabled, and it was her disability that made her an effective leader.
There were so many natural opportunities to bring up disability and disability justice, and they were all overlooked. One of the essays, At the Intersections by Jacqui Patterson, discussed in passing one person with hearing loss and a few others with AIDS, as people who need care and assistance because of climate change, which is valid and true, but nothing in the book discussed disability or chronic illness in terms of leadership or contribution--despite Greta, despite the disabled writers quoted. I hope the editors have future editions in which this can be remedied, because as true as it is that disabled people are often overlooked in emergency response planning and exposed to much higher mortality risks from climate impacts and should be included on that basis, it's also true that disability justice has a lot to offer climate activism.
As just one example, what would climate activism (and environmentalism and conservation work more generally) look like if we could release our cultural vice grip on cure as the only valid goal or outcome? Think-pieces on the futility of our work, given that we're past the point of being able to return our world to the pre-industrial condition of 1550 or pre-colonial condition of 1450, and the grief and difficulty of loving a broken world, allowing yourself to care about environments that don't look like they used to, etc., are as common in green publications as kentucky bluegrass in a Canadian suburb, and about as worthwhile. Do you know who has grappled already with knowing that some things can't be fixed, can't be cured, and yet are worth loving, and offer lives worth living with lots of joy and community? Disabled people. Ask them (/us).
Or not, but, you know, you're suffering needlessly, and this will affect your work. Disability justice advocates have expertise and relevant skills for climate work, and it is such a shame that this otherwise very comprehensive collection didn't take advantage.
If I could have given this 4 1/2 stars, I would have; I wanted to round it up to 5, but dammit, they left out my kid.
(also available with additional quotes on my blog.)
To begin with: I can't claim to be unbiased or a disinterested observer (but, no one can). No one reads 108 books about climate change without deep investment, and most of the contributors in this collection I am already familiar with; if not in books, then in newsletters, articles, scientific papers, youtube series, podcasts, documentaries, or TED talks. All We Can Save is practically a roll-call of 2020 Climate Heroines (Katherine Hayhoe! Dr. Wilkinson! Dr. Johnson! Amy Westervelt, Dr. Marvel, Adrienne Maree Brown, Mary Anne Hitt, Rhiana Gunn-Wright, Emily Atkin, Varshini Prakash, Susanne Moser, Mary Annaise Heglar, Leah Stokes! etc.), and I was excited enough to read it before my NetGalley request was approved (so yes, I received a free electronic copy in exchange for a review; and then I bought a copy in actual paper because it's really good and ebooks give me a headache).
There was really no chance I wasn't going to love it, and, spoiler alert, I do. The editors have done a great job in compiling climate perspectives that centre black and indigenous women climate leaders, and address everything from climate grief and staying motivated, through advocacy strategies and how to talk about climate change, through specific highly technical solutions like regenerative ocean farming and soil conservation techniques. The essays are interwoven with fabulous poems, by poets like Ada Limon, Joy Harjo, Mary Oliver, Alice Walker and Sharon Olds. Nothing is going to make me more likely to buy a book, statistically speaking, than the combination of amazing poetry and climate action. Add in some feminism and I'm done for.
There's a lot to love about this essay collection, and only one glaring disappointment.
To begin with, if by some chance you're not familiar with at least half of the names in the contributors' list, you're in luck: you'll get a beautifully written, elevator-pitch-length summary of their work, from Katherine Hayhoe's advice on talking about climate change, to Rhiana Gunn-Wright's work on the Green New Deal, Mary Ann Hitt's work closing hundreds of coal plants, Emily Atkin's climate journalism (see Heated), Adrienne Maree Brown's Emergent Strategy: Shaping Change, Changing Worlds, and more. If you want to know who is doing what on climate action and why, so you can figure out whose work to follow, participate in and promote: start here.
There were no bad essays, and many of them were just breathtaking. Pretty much every piece in Feel was a standout. Under the Weather (Ash Sanders) made me cry, and of course anything by Mary Annaise Heglar is wonderful (Home is Always Worth It). Sarah Stillman's Like the Monarch uses animal migration as a positive analogy for human migration and provides a beautiful counter-point to fascism and xenophobic rhetoric. Heaven or High Water by Sarah Miller, previously published on Popula, is a hilarious and eye-opening first-person account of climate impacts on the Miami Beach real estate market. I didn't necessarily expect to read pieces on mobilizing fashion models or the 1% to foster the revolution, but I enjoyed reading them.
None of this leaves a lot of obvious room for disappointment, but here it is, and it might not have been so glaring for me if I weren't reading Care Work: Dreaming Disability Justice at the same time:
The book beautifully centres indigenous and black leadership, the importance of women, the need to build in class and income disparities and analysis, considers climate displacement from the global south, and in general considers thoughtfully and in depth every marginalized community but one: disabled people.
As a type 1 diabetic and a single mom to a disabled teen, that does sting. Worse, it didn't have to be that way: many of the leaders they discuss struggled with health issues or disabilities of various kinds (Adrienne Rich had arthritis, Rachel Carson died of cancer, Audre Lorde had cancer and vision loss, Mary Oliver struggled with PTSD, Octavia Butler was dyslexic, etc.). Greta Thunberg is autistic, for heaven's sake, and calls her autism a superpower. Chances are good that a bunch of this book's contributors have disabilities or chronic illnesses, but you would never know it from the text. Both All We Can Save and Care Work discuss Octavia Butler's Earthseed books, but only Care Work acknowledges and discusses that Lauren Olamina was disabled, and it was her disability that made her an effective leader.
There were so many natural opportunities to bring up disability and disability justice, and they were all overlooked. One of the essays, At the Intersections by Jacqui Patterson, discussed in passing one person with hearing loss and a few others with AIDS, as people who need care and assistance because of climate change, which is valid and true, but nothing in the book discussed disability or chronic illness in terms of leadership or contribution--despite Greta, despite the disabled writers quoted. I hope the editors have future editions in which this can be remedied, because as true as it is that disabled people are often overlooked in emergency response planning and exposed to much higher mortality risks from climate impacts and should be included on that basis, it's also true that disability justice has a lot to offer climate activism.
As just one example, what would climate activism (and environmentalism and conservation work more generally) look like if we could release our cultural vice grip on cure as the only valid goal or outcome? Think-pieces on the futility of our work, given that we're past the point of being able to return our world to the pre-industrial condition of 1550 or pre-colonial condition of 1450, and the grief and difficulty of loving a broken world, allowing yourself to care about environments that don't look like they used to, etc., are as common in green publications as kentucky bluegrass in a Canadian suburb, and about as worthwhile. Do you know who has grappled already with knowing that some things can't be fixed, can't be cured, and yet are worth loving, and offer lives worth living with lots of joy and community? Disabled people. Ask them (/us).
Or not, but, you know, you're suffering needlessly, and this will affect your work. Disability justice advocates have expertise and relevant skills for climate work, and it is such a shame that this otherwise very comprehensive collection didn't take advantage.
If I could have given this 4 1/2 stars, I would have; I wanted to round it up to 5, but dammit, they left out my kid.
(also available with additional quotes on my blog.)
January 15, 2021
I'm very glad that so many have found this book worthwhile, but something about it just failed to move me: It was repetitive and relentlessly US-centric despite having a diverse array of contributors. Short biographies at the beginning of each piece would have given important context to the authors; instead each essay had to serve as the author's biography, keeping the information in the essay necessarily surface-level. Large swathes of it read like the ghost-written memoirs of politicians and Olympic athletes, superficial and ultimately meaningless. It felt like a lot of influential people merely introducing themselves to me. I know from books like Robin Wall Kimmerer's Braiding Sweetgrass that environmental essays can be stronger and deeper than most found in this collection.
Many of the poems were very good, and I'll be sharing them with my students in our climate change lessons. Many of the statistics were useful as well. I think this book is better picked apart for pieces than read straight through.
Many of the poems were very good, and I'll be sharing them with my students in our climate change lessons. Many of the statistics were useful as well. I think this book is better picked apart for pieces than read straight through.
March 9, 2022
This book is a powerhouse of female leaders in the climate sector. Never in my life have I read such a powerful, compassionate, creative, and honest book that beautifully and thoughtfully weaves a diverse compilation of voices where every reader will find something that resonates. I feel very fortunate to have gotten an advanced copy of this magnanimous work.
Drs. Ayana Elizabeth Johnson and Katharine K. Wilkinson brought together the voices I didn’t know I desperately needed to hear. It is a body of work compiled and written with care and fervor. Each woman shows and describes different facets of the climate crisis, many of which I was unaware of or hadn’t considered.
Read it and have all of your friends, family, acquaintances, enemies, and coworkers read it too. Let this book enlighten you. Let it inform you. Let it gob-smack you. Let it encourage you, empower you, hold you. Mostly though, let it bring you to act and see how each of us has an important and vital role in the climate movement.
Drs. Ayana Elizabeth Johnson and Katharine K. Wilkinson brought together the voices I didn’t know I desperately needed to hear. It is a body of work compiled and written with care and fervor. Each woman shows and describes different facets of the climate crisis, many of which I was unaware of or hadn’t considered.
Read it and have all of your friends, family, acquaintances, enemies, and coworkers read it too. Let this book enlighten you. Let it inform you. Let it gob-smack you. Let it encourage you, empower you, hold you. Mostly though, let it bring you to act and see how each of us has an important and vital role in the climate movement.
December 22, 2020
A few months ago a friend of mine asked if I wanted to be part of what she called her “circle” to read and discuss a book she really, really liked. She's always up to something interesting and I like reading so what the heck, yeah, sure. And that’s how I found myself reading this "characteristically feminine and more faithfully feminist” collection of essays about the climate crisis and its movement as part of a book club with four women.
Our book club Zoomed every Tuesday evening for 10 weeks to discuss our thoughts (and, um, feelings) prompted by three somewhat open-ended questions. At the first meeting I was feeling really out of place and a bit nervous since, well, I’m not a woman. Plus I was mostly ignorant about the subject—I didn’t comprehend there was an established climate movement culture much less understand the nuances, history, politics, challenges, and direction(s) of said movement. And the potential value of a feminist perspective to the climate crisis? I couldn’t fully understand that question.
So it’s not surprising that I also didn't comprehend the very first open-ended question asked in our first meeting: "Do you think of yourself as a climate feminist?” Total Blank. Nothing. A low-level dread boiled over to panic as beads of sweat formed on my masculine head. I mumbled the shortest and most honest word I could think of—“no.” Well damn, I thought that might be it, I was going to be voted off the island after only one week. But in fact, it turns out none of us identified as "climate feminists" for reasons that were varied and illuminating. Beads of sweat evaporated and over the next couple of weeks my discomfort at being the odd, um, man out dissipated, and by, say, the third week, I felt that maybe I actually did belong in this group. And by the 10th week, I knew I did. The members of my circle are fun, smart, committed, wonderful people, and don’t seem to mind when I’m a bit clueless. We’ve bonded so much that we're going to continue on as a book club (plus other interesting things we have up our collective sleeves).
Anyhow, back to the book. The feminist perspective was interesting but, at least initially, it really wasn't the book’s main value. But the breadth of subjects covered functioned well as a 2020 climate crisis primer, something I didn’t know I needed but I did. And after reading all the essays and listening to the members of my circle I now sense there might be a revolutionary need for a "characteristically feminine and more faithfully feminist” approach to the crisis (not to mention the need to include indigenous voices). So, call me a climate feminist!
Book 4 stars, circle +1 Star. If you can get in a circle, do so.
Our book club Zoomed every Tuesday evening for 10 weeks to discuss our thoughts (and, um, feelings) prompted by three somewhat open-ended questions. At the first meeting I was feeling really out of place and a bit nervous since, well, I’m not a woman. Plus I was mostly ignorant about the subject—I didn’t comprehend there was an established climate movement culture much less understand the nuances, history, politics, challenges, and direction(s) of said movement. And the potential value of a feminist perspective to the climate crisis? I couldn’t fully understand that question.
So it’s not surprising that I also didn't comprehend the very first open-ended question asked in our first meeting: "Do you think of yourself as a climate feminist?” Total Blank. Nothing. A low-level dread boiled over to panic as beads of sweat formed on my masculine head. I mumbled the shortest and most honest word I could think of—“no.” Well damn, I thought that might be it, I was going to be voted off the island after only one week. But in fact, it turns out none of us identified as "climate feminists" for reasons that were varied and illuminating. Beads of sweat evaporated and over the next couple of weeks my discomfort at being the odd, um, man out dissipated, and by, say, the third week, I felt that maybe I actually did belong in this group. And by the 10th week, I knew I did. The members of my circle are fun, smart, committed, wonderful people, and don’t seem to mind when I’m a bit clueless. We’ve bonded so much that we're going to continue on as a book club (plus other interesting things we have up our collective sleeves).
Anyhow, back to the book. The feminist perspective was interesting but, at least initially, it really wasn't the book’s main value. But the breadth of subjects covered functioned well as a 2020 climate crisis primer, something I didn’t know I needed but I did. And after reading all the essays and listening to the members of my circle I now sense there might be a revolutionary need for a "characteristically feminine and more faithfully feminist” approach to the crisis (not to mention the need to include indigenous voices). So, call me a climate feminist!
Book 4 stars, circle +1 Star. If you can get in a circle, do so.
September 27, 2020
Woof. What a tour de force. I've heard some people call this a book about female climate people, which somewhat misses the point. It's a book about massive suffering and our capacity to mitigate it; about hurricanes and soil, monarchs and whales, Miami realtors and Indian migrants; about fear and hope and what it means to "be alive in a moment that matters so much." And yes, the voices are all women, and it's clear how much stronger the book and the climate movement is for it.
If you've been engaged on climate stuff, you'll probably have read some of this before, but that didn't take away any of my enjoyment. (My only real quibble, as a former editor, is that many of the essayists directly addressed the same ideas and themes and I felt portions of it could have been condensed to avoid such overlap.)
Bottom line: read this book. Make your friends and family and peers and enemies read this book. And then — following the example of each and every writer in this book — let's roll up our sleeves and get to work.
If you've been engaged on climate stuff, you'll probably have read some of this before, but that didn't take away any of my enjoyment. (My only real quibble, as a former editor, is that many of the essayists directly addressed the same ideas and themes and I felt portions of it could have been condensed to avoid such overlap.)
Bottom line: read this book. Make your friends and family and peers and enemies read this book. And then — following the example of each and every writer in this book — let's roll up our sleeves and get to work.
Read
April 20, 2022Here are just a few of my favorite moments from this extraordinarily powerful anthology:
“Here are two truths: To some of us, much of the time, it feels exceedingly unlikely that humans will survive this—yet it’s a simple fact that if we respond robustly, we can survive this…Anything that we do this year or next is worth ten of the same thing ten years from now…This makes us, however unintuitively, the most powerful people who have ever lived.” – Emily N. Johnston
“For this is noble and necessary work, and it is impossible to do alone.” – Kate Knuth
“The capacity of the human mind to rationalize, to compartmentalize, and to be easily distracted...might explain the way serious people can simultaneously grasp how close we are to an irreversible tipping point and still regard the only people who are calling for this to be treated as an emergency as unserious and unrealistic.” – Naomi Klein
“It isn’t a matter of moving climate change further up our priority list. The reason we care about it is because it already affects everything that’s at the top of our priority list….To care about a changing climate we don’t have to be a tree hugger or an environmentalist (thought it certainly helps); as long as we are a human alive today, then who we already are, and what we already care about, gives us all the reasons we need.” – Katharine Hayhoe
“And yet when we talk about climate change, there’s often a hidden resignation—like, of course we harmed the Earth. And when we talk about acting on it, there’s also an undercurrent: that it will require a level of sacrifice that is worth it, but just barely. What if, instead, the story we tell about climate change is that it is an opportunity?” – Kendra Pierre-Louis
“I lived next to the I-880 highway, which carries the highest volume of truck traffic in the San Francisco Bay Area as it slices through communities of color. In contrast, the nearby I-580, which cuts through more affluent and White communities, did not allow trucks. Those communities were protected, while we ingested toxic diesel fumes that cut our life spans.” – Favianna Rodriguez
“Indigenous peoples hold 80 percent of the world’s remaining biodiversity.” – Tara Houska
“Sixteen percent of all premature deaths across the world are the result of exposure to air pollution—almost nine million human beings annually, more than those killed by tuberculosis, malaria, and AIDS combined. It’s serious business…Climate change is not a faraway problem that no one can fix.” – Gina McCarthy
“Cultivate grounded hope…This is an act of rebellion against the extinction of soul.” – Susanne C. Moser
“Everyone lives downstream and downwind.” – Louise Maher-Johnson
“The agricultural productivity of the Great Plains decreased about 64 percent after just twenty-eight years of tillage by Europeans…The truth is that for thousands of years Black people have had a sacred relationship with soil that far surpasses our 246 years of enslavement and 75 years of sharecropping in the United states. For many, this period of land-based terror has devastated that connection.” – Leah Penniman
“There is also a psychological edge we’re all living on. We know that we’re living in a world that is being devastated but also one replete with the beauty and power of life. We live on the boundary of deciding to make positive contributions although we know we are complicit in the destruction.” – Janisse Ray
“The reality is it is too much work for one generation. Those of you who are retired and have more time on your hands, or with children you are no longer caring for, or those of you with additional resources—consider becoming a climate activist. Can you imagine how beautiful a movement led by children and grandparents would be?” – Alexandra Villaseñor
“When we start to see the choices that are not available, we can begin to see the role of political power in our daily lives. Who decides what options are available for us to choose in the first place?” – Leah Cardamore Stokes
“It could be said that the bridge is either collapsing beneath us, or being made as we walk together, in the long twilight hours when one civilization gives way to another.” – Geneen Marie Haugen
“So where do we go from here? First, take a breath. It’s a lot.” – Ayana Elizabeth Johnson and Katharine K. Wilkinson
“Here are two truths: To some of us, much of the time, it feels exceedingly unlikely that humans will survive this—yet it’s a simple fact that if we respond robustly, we can survive this…Anything that we do this year or next is worth ten of the same thing ten years from now…This makes us, however unintuitively, the most powerful people who have ever lived.” – Emily N. Johnston
“For this is noble and necessary work, and it is impossible to do alone.” – Kate Knuth
“The capacity of the human mind to rationalize, to compartmentalize, and to be easily distracted...might explain the way serious people can simultaneously grasp how close we are to an irreversible tipping point and still regard the only people who are calling for this to be treated as an emergency as unserious and unrealistic.” – Naomi Klein
“It isn’t a matter of moving climate change further up our priority list. The reason we care about it is because it already affects everything that’s at the top of our priority list….To care about a changing climate we don’t have to be a tree hugger or an environmentalist (thought it certainly helps); as long as we are a human alive today, then who we already are, and what we already care about, gives us all the reasons we need.” – Katharine Hayhoe
“And yet when we talk about climate change, there’s often a hidden resignation—like, of course we harmed the Earth. And when we talk about acting on it, there’s also an undercurrent: that it will require a level of sacrifice that is worth it, but just barely. What if, instead, the story we tell about climate change is that it is an opportunity?” – Kendra Pierre-Louis
“I lived next to the I-880 highway, which carries the highest volume of truck traffic in the San Francisco Bay Area as it slices through communities of color. In contrast, the nearby I-580, which cuts through more affluent and White communities, did not allow trucks. Those communities were protected, while we ingested toxic diesel fumes that cut our life spans.” – Favianna Rodriguez
“Indigenous peoples hold 80 percent of the world’s remaining biodiversity.” – Tara Houska
“Sixteen percent of all premature deaths across the world are the result of exposure to air pollution—almost nine million human beings annually, more than those killed by tuberculosis, malaria, and AIDS combined. It’s serious business…Climate change is not a faraway problem that no one can fix.” – Gina McCarthy
“Cultivate grounded hope…This is an act of rebellion against the extinction of soul.” – Susanne C. Moser
“Everyone lives downstream and downwind.” – Louise Maher-Johnson
“The agricultural productivity of the Great Plains decreased about 64 percent after just twenty-eight years of tillage by Europeans…The truth is that for thousands of years Black people have had a sacred relationship with soil that far surpasses our 246 years of enslavement and 75 years of sharecropping in the United states. For many, this period of land-based terror has devastated that connection.” – Leah Penniman
“There is also a psychological edge we’re all living on. We know that we’re living in a world that is being devastated but also one replete with the beauty and power of life. We live on the boundary of deciding to make positive contributions although we know we are complicit in the destruction.” – Janisse Ray
“The reality is it is too much work for one generation. Those of you who are retired and have more time on your hands, or with children you are no longer caring for, or those of you with additional resources—consider becoming a climate activist. Can you imagine how beautiful a movement led by children and grandparents would be?” – Alexandra Villaseñor
“When we start to see the choices that are not available, we can begin to see the role of political power in our daily lives. Who decides what options are available for us to choose in the first place?” – Leah Cardamore Stokes
“It could be said that the bridge is either collapsing beneath us, or being made as we walk together, in the long twilight hours when one civilization gives way to another.” – Geneen Marie Haugen
“So where do we go from here? First, take a breath. It’s a lot.” – Ayana Elizabeth Johnson and Katharine K. Wilkinson
July 27, 2021
Wow!
Buy it, read it, share it ... and repeat.
Powerful stuff on climate change - no, the climate crisis, an important ... no, the dominant issue of our age (and our future). And one of the better tools for getting one's mind wrapped around the breadth and scope and pervasiveness of the environmental injustices that got us to this point and how important environmental justice will be to stemming (and, hopefully, someday, reversing) the tide.
We can't address the climate crisis if we don't talk about it, and this is a great vehicle for stimulating the conversation. Moreover, by including so many different voices and topics and styles and perspectives, it not only offers an opportunity for everyone to find their place ... or answer the question: but what difference can I make?, ... but it helps broaden our (all too narrow) thinking about the challenges to come.
A word of warning: as discussed in the book, one of the impediments to (and challenges in) reading/learning about the climate crisis is that it's profoundly depressing and potentially paralyzing and destabilizing. But the better books (and essays), such as this one, effectively integrate the concept of hope for the future - because, well, otherwise, we'll never rise to the challenge. But, despite its grace and beauty and warmth and potency, the book is hard work, it's a lot to digest, it's painful and raw and angry (and appropriately so) ... but, ultimately, it's worth it.
Again, if we can't talk about (climate change and) the accelerating climate crisis ... and think about it ... we can't organize ourselves to do something about it.
Full disclosure 1: I tend to steer away from essay collections and anthologies, but ... in this case ... that would have been a bigger mistake than not reading this earlier, in hardback.
Full disclosure 2: I've never fully appreciated poetry, but I found that the selection of poetry employed here was sublime ... emotive ... and incredibly effective.
Full disclosure 3: I've read a fair amount of stuff from a number of the voices included in the collection. And, individually and collectively, their contributions were nicely done. But the beauty (for me) in the collection was the introduction to scores of new voices (and issues). Again, wow.
I'll be adding this to the list of books I've been recommending to my students (and anyone else who will listen).
Buy it, read it, share it ... and repeat.
Powerful stuff on climate change - no, the climate crisis, an important ... no, the dominant issue of our age (and our future). And one of the better tools for getting one's mind wrapped around the breadth and scope and pervasiveness of the environmental injustices that got us to this point and how important environmental justice will be to stemming (and, hopefully, someday, reversing) the tide.
We can't address the climate crisis if we don't talk about it, and this is a great vehicle for stimulating the conversation. Moreover, by including so many different voices and topics and styles and perspectives, it not only offers an opportunity for everyone to find their place ... or answer the question: but what difference can I make?, ... but it helps broaden our (all too narrow) thinking about the challenges to come.
A word of warning: as discussed in the book, one of the impediments to (and challenges in) reading/learning about the climate crisis is that it's profoundly depressing and potentially paralyzing and destabilizing. But the better books (and essays), such as this one, effectively integrate the concept of hope for the future - because, well, otherwise, we'll never rise to the challenge. But, despite its grace and beauty and warmth and potency, the book is hard work, it's a lot to digest, it's painful and raw and angry (and appropriately so) ... but, ultimately, it's worth it.
Again, if we can't talk about (climate change and) the accelerating climate crisis ... and think about it ... we can't organize ourselves to do something about it.
Full disclosure 1: I tend to steer away from essay collections and anthologies, but ... in this case ... that would have been a bigger mistake than not reading this earlier, in hardback.
Full disclosure 2: I've never fully appreciated poetry, but I found that the selection of poetry employed here was sublime ... emotive ... and incredibly effective.
Full disclosure 3: I've read a fair amount of stuff from a number of the voices included in the collection. And, individually and collectively, their contributions were nicely done. But the beauty (for me) in the collection was the introduction to scores of new voices (and issues). Again, wow.
I'll be adding this to the list of books I've been recommending to my students (and anyone else who will listen).
October 7, 2020
As a door-stop or on the table of your waiting room, this colorful thick book will signal to your patients and to your shallow friends that you care about climate change as long as nobody ever dares to open and read it.
You will not find anything new or interesting in this collection of disconnected chapters. Inspirational words with no depth or substance become annoying about ten pages in. Thankfully, the pages are not too busy and a couple hours is enough to go through.
Sadly, this book will not give you any valuable insight or information about climate change. Instead the authors have gathered all the worthy causes of the moment to create buzz without explaining how or why they are related in a feel good "Best of 2020" that serves no clear purpose. Is this book about climate change ? about women rights ? About Poverty ? About human rights ? About communities ? The authors simply pretend everything is connected to make the novice reader feel smart but the substance is just not there. Only the end goal is clear. Selling paper, and monetizing climate activism along with other popular causes.
While some of the chapter authors are recognized in their field (Regine Clement, Maggie Thomas) and had the decency to handpick popular cuts from their previous work, and some are good poets, you will also find hilariously naive chapters like "Community is our best chance" and "November" written by delusional aspiring climate activists who never achieved anything substantial in their lives beyond managing their own social media presence.
If you do care about climate change, perhaps the best decision is to NOT buy this book, no trees deserve to be chopped for that.
You will not find anything new or interesting in this collection of disconnected chapters. Inspirational words with no depth or substance become annoying about ten pages in. Thankfully, the pages are not too busy and a couple hours is enough to go through.
Sadly, this book will not give you any valuable insight or information about climate change. Instead the authors have gathered all the worthy causes of the moment to create buzz without explaining how or why they are related in a feel good "Best of 2020" that serves no clear purpose. Is this book about climate change ? about women rights ? About Poverty ? About human rights ? About communities ? The authors simply pretend everything is connected to make the novice reader feel smart but the substance is just not there. Only the end goal is clear. Selling paper, and monetizing climate activism along with other popular causes.
While some of the chapter authors are recognized in their field (Regine Clement, Maggie Thomas) and had the decency to handpick popular cuts from their previous work, and some are good poets, you will also find hilariously naive chapters like "Community is our best chance" and "November" written by delusional aspiring climate activists who never achieved anything substantial in their lives beyond managing their own social media presence.
If you do care about climate change, perhaps the best decision is to NOT buy this book, no trees deserve to be chopped for that.
October 5, 2020
Netgalley review.
I was super excited about this book because I think it discussed the climate crises we are living in with the urgency we should have. I also really appreciated that the movement gave credit to where credit is due, emphasizing that the representation we have in activism wrongly centers white people. I really liked the mix of essays and poetry.
Each essay is moving, but I did think it became repetitive after awhile because essays were repeating similar ideas and topics. I think this book could have benefited from including more information as well. Still, it was really great and I think it will open a lot of minds into the work that needs to be done if we as humans want to survive.
I was super excited about this book because I think it discussed the climate crises we are living in with the urgency we should have. I also really appreciated that the movement gave credit to where credit is due, emphasizing that the representation we have in activism wrongly centers white people. I really liked the mix of essays and poetry.
Each essay is moving, but I did think it became repetitive after awhile because essays were repeating similar ideas and topics. I think this book could have benefited from including more information as well. Still, it was really great and I think it will open a lot of minds into the work that needs to be done if we as humans want to survive.
December 28, 2020
This was an amazing, intense read for me. This book is a collection of essays and thoughts from a variety of scientists and activists, all women, in the climate change space. It's educational, heart-wrenching, and inspirational. It's full of clear examples of climate change's devastating effects happening today and how people are fighting to build a better world at a variety of levels of government and across a spectrum of circumstances.
I've spent the better part of the last 5+ years trying to learn and step farther into environmental activism and it's been a rough ride. Depending on your circumstances, this journey can be incredibly difficult and lonely. This book grand-slams the trifecta message that
1) This issue is very serious. We are experiencing its negative effects now and it's getting worse.
2) There is an overwhelming amount of data and evidence to support the reality of climate change, as well as how we can address it.
3) Those who are fighting to address this are not alone. This is a growing community. Whether you're a high school teenager, a retiree, a mom, or a middle aged office worker. There is something you can do. There are people who are excited to have you on board, who care about you, and are already working to build a better tomorrow for all of us.
Again, this book is a super inspiring read based in real life, real experience, and real solutions. I listened to this in audio and am ordering a physical copy so I can continue to reference it. I have new personal heroes after reading it. 10/10 would recommend to anyone who wants to build on their understanding of climate change and the movement to address it.
I've spent the better part of the last 5+ years trying to learn and step farther into environmental activism and it's been a rough ride. Depending on your circumstances, this journey can be incredibly difficult and lonely. This book grand-slams the trifecta message that
1) This issue is very serious. We are experiencing its negative effects now and it's getting worse.
2) There is an overwhelming amount of data and evidence to support the reality of climate change, as well as how we can address it.
3) Those who are fighting to address this are not alone. This is a growing community. Whether you're a high school teenager, a retiree, a mom, or a middle aged office worker. There is something you can do. There are people who are excited to have you on board, who care about you, and are already working to build a better tomorrow for all of us.
Again, this book is a super inspiring read based in real life, real experience, and real solutions. I listened to this in audio and am ordering a physical copy so I can continue to reference it. I have new personal heroes after reading it. 10/10 would recommend to anyone who wants to build on their understanding of climate change and the movement to address it.
September 14, 2020
Climate change can be so overwhelming. Yet, the fact is there is still so much we can do to stop this crisis. This is an amazing new collection by something like 60 women working on climate change. I got to read an early copy and was blown away. There is art, poetry, inspiring stories. I felt like we can tackle this problem after reading this book. I really recommend it if you are freaked out and want to know what we can do: talk about climate change in our daily lives, change policy, support independent climate journalists, write to our representatives, take to the streets.
There is so much left that we can save! Inspiring.
There is so much left that we can save! Inspiring.
September 20, 2021
Lots of gems, education, and inspiration but also lots of essays that read like nonprofit marketing pamphlets and I’m allergic to that.
March 31, 2022
I read many of these essays/poems for a work book club on Climate Change, and of all the books we've read so far in over a year this has been my favorite. Intersectional, focusing on women and marginalized people, many who do not have an option to "move" or invest in increasingly gentrified green tech/building. The breadth of contributors is excellent, and this would make a fantastic desk reference for anyone interested in having some hope and a will to work towards solutions in this ongoing crisis.
I also appreciated poetry, art, and pop culture were included with the science. My favorite essay thus far was "Wakanda Doesn't Have Suburbs."
I also appreciated poetry, art, and pop culture were included with the science. My favorite essay thus far was "Wakanda Doesn't Have Suburbs."
October 11, 2024
I feel heavy after reading this: heavy with knowledge and a sense of empowerment I cannot see a way to wield. This is an important read about the climate crisis we face and what our possible role could be in affecting positive change.
"The work at hand is hard and uncertain, yet we find our warrior spirits, charge ahead, and care for one another every step of the way."
"The work at hand is hard and uncertain, yet we find our warrior spirits, charge ahead, and care for one another every step of the way."
February 7, 2025
I have a lot of thoughts on this one!!!
Starting off, I did love it and thought it was a beautiful compilation of compelling essays that showcase different (amazing!!!) voices and aspects of the climate crisis. As someone who is intimately familiar with many of the dynamics, systems, policies, and facts discussed here, the value for me was not in specific novelty but rather in the weaving together of perspectives, poetry, calls to action, emotion, and reality. I think this is a compelling and important read for anyone who is a little familiar with climate change/action/justice but wants to know more. However, this is (sadly) not the book to convince the skeptics, deniers, and “economy-first” (🤮) folks that are driving conservative backlash and climate backsliding in today’s political climate. I started reading this book (it’s been on my list for a while) around US Inauguration Day 2025, and, during the weeks that followed full of disappointment, disgust, and terror, I turned to this book for hope — which it may have given me more of, but I couldn’t shake the feeling that if we were so screwed decades, years, months, ago, how are we still going backwards??? (That’s rhetorical). Don’t get me wrong, I am deeply invested in every person, plant, particle, and perspective brought up in this book and many more pieces of well-researched and articulated literature on the climate crisis and my life remains dedicated to this. But I can’t help feeling a little despair as the “all we can save” feels smaller with each executive order passed by the current US administration.
Anyways, I don’t mean to blame this book for the doom. It’s a beautiful call to action and anthology of stories that are so important to share now more than ever. However, what I’m looking for next in a climate book is one that I could hand to the people in my life who still remain complacent and maybe even oppositional to the intersectional climate justice rhetoric that I and many champion. Not every book needs to appeal to every type of mind, but I do feel that this one is one for those of us already “in” on the problem, and there are sadly still so many people whose perspectives remain so far from this relation-based, stewarding, all hands on deck call to action for climate, migrant, gender, and human rights justice.
I’d like to re-read some of the essays in this book soon, if anyone owns a physical copy (I had to return it to the library today so I speed-read).
Starting off, I did love it and thought it was a beautiful compilation of compelling essays that showcase different (amazing!!!) voices and aspects of the climate crisis. As someone who is intimately familiar with many of the dynamics, systems, policies, and facts discussed here, the value for me was not in specific novelty but rather in the weaving together of perspectives, poetry, calls to action, emotion, and reality. I think this is a compelling and important read for anyone who is a little familiar with climate change/action/justice but wants to know more. However, this is (sadly) not the book to convince the skeptics, deniers, and “economy-first” (🤮) folks that are driving conservative backlash and climate backsliding in today’s political climate. I started reading this book (it’s been on my list for a while) around US Inauguration Day 2025, and, during the weeks that followed full of disappointment, disgust, and terror, I turned to this book for hope — which it may have given me more of, but I couldn’t shake the feeling that if we were so screwed decades, years, months, ago, how are we still going backwards??? (That’s rhetorical). Don’t get me wrong, I am deeply invested in every person, plant, particle, and perspective brought up in this book and many more pieces of well-researched and articulated literature on the climate crisis and my life remains dedicated to this. But I can’t help feeling a little despair as the “all we can save” feels smaller with each executive order passed by the current US administration.
Anyways, I don’t mean to blame this book for the doom. It’s a beautiful call to action and anthology of stories that are so important to share now more than ever. However, what I’m looking for next in a climate book is one that I could hand to the people in my life who still remain complacent and maybe even oppositional to the intersectional climate justice rhetoric that I and many champion. Not every book needs to appeal to every type of mind, but I do feel that this one is one for those of us already “in” on the problem, and there are sadly still so many people whose perspectives remain so far from this relation-based, stewarding, all hands on deck call to action for climate, migrant, gender, and human rights justice.
I’d like to re-read some of the essays in this book soon, if anyone owns a physical copy (I had to return it to the library today so I speed-read).
December 3, 2023
I really enjoyed the concept of this books, which is a collection of essays interspersed with poetry from women at the forefront of the climate movement in the United States, told in eight parts. Some of the essays resonated with me more strongly than others, and I with the structural thread was carried more evenly throughout the works, but on the whole I thought this was a powerful and moving collection.
July 12, 2022
i highly recommend this book! got me interested in climate/environmental studies again :) some really brilliant women speaking about what they’re passionate and leaders in! lots of great climate optimism motivation
April 13, 2024
I think I cried at least 10 times over the course of reading this book and probably two or three times since. It is, sometimes, gut wrenching, other times inspiring, and always illuminating.
I especially loved that there were so many different contributors. It meant that there was nuance and complexity built-in. Often, essays would contradict each other or use opposing sets of concepts or language – this was a strength of the book that helped deepen my understanding.
I was also impressed with the incredible breadth and depth of ideas for how we as individuals can effect systemic change. The vast number of suggestions and detailed steps, along with ways to go about talking about, thinking about, and practicing our activism, regardless of what we're focusing on, meant that any reader can find a number of seeds for their next steps.
The poetry really wrapped everything together and greatly deepened the book as a whole. It was beautiful.
I highly recommend this one.
I especially loved that there were so many different contributors. It meant that there was nuance and complexity built-in. Often, essays would contradict each other or use opposing sets of concepts or language – this was a strength of the book that helped deepen my understanding.
I was also impressed with the incredible breadth and depth of ideas for how we as individuals can effect systemic change. The vast number of suggestions and detailed steps, along with ways to go about talking about, thinking about, and practicing our activism, regardless of what we're focusing on, meant that any reader can find a number of seeds for their next steps.
The poetry really wrapped everything together and greatly deepened the book as a whole. It was beautiful.
I highly recommend this one.
November 14, 2020
A collection of essays and poems by really talented writers who are also extremely knowledgeable and passionate about tackling climate change and remaking our world into something better and equitable.
It was depressing to read all of the despair that deepened my own, but also inspiring to know that there are such smart people working in such diverse ways to transform our system, and really nice to feel like I'm not alone.
It was depressing to read all of the despair that deepened my own, but also inspiring to know that there are such smart people working in such diverse ways to transform our system, and really nice to feel like I'm not alone.
July 25, 2022
I wish I could give this 10 stars. The most hopeful thing I’ve consumed in a long time.
July 7, 2023
4.5 but rounding up to 5 because it inspired me to take action, and because this collaborative and creative collection of essays and art is unlike anything I’ve read before. Really cool parallels to the systems change work I’m (trying to) do in the education field. Some essays were definitely better than others, but I really appreciated the diversity of topics and scope that were represented here!
January 18, 2021
All We Can Save is a collection of writing about climate change. All of the authors are women, and that's the book's intention: to emphasize women's experiences and thoughts on this vast and vital topic. Another key theme is focusing on the roles of black, Latina, and indigenous women. These women are activists, authors, scientists, politicians, and more.
The resulting collection covers a huge range of ground. Geoengineering, the history of climate change, intersectionality by race and gender, practical tips on organizing, the many psychological dimensions of the crisis, Green and Blue New Deals, changing journalistic practices, climate citizenship, urban planning, architecture, underwater construction, classroom teaching, mental health and trauma, mothering, and migration. There's much more, including a handy outline of climate solutions (377ff).
The results are powerful. The book offers an introduction to the climate crisis for those who need it. It also provides inspiration for readers seeking to participate in activism.
I have many questions and thoughts about this. My Kindle copy is quite marked up. In order to not overwhelm you, let me share several here. My intent is not to criticize the book so much as to use it as a way of scrying an emerging socio-political approach to climate change.
1: Across some of the readings is an interesting attitude towards technology. All We Can Save isn't a luddite work, but there's definitely some opposition to tech. An early article asks us to avoid geoengineering (34-5). Another criticizes the popularity of spaceflight stories as being more appealing than narratives about climate change mitigation, and that the former may be "hurting us" (140-1). A third piece distinguishes between technologies and people, implying the latter aren't really part of the former (271). In contrast, there are few positive descriptions of technology, and those are usually quiet, established, and instrumental: scuba gear for underwater work, improved insulation to reduce buildings' carbon footprint.
2: There's a strong tension over economics and class across much of the book. Some articles call for an end to capitalism and the start of a more equal distribution of wealth. Elizabeth Warren is positively name-checked (but not Bernie Sanders, nor Karl Marx). In contrast "Catalytic Capital" asks us to work with the 1%, helping them maintain their riches in order to point them in good directions: "advancing climate solutions requires money." (172) The final outline for climate action is about improving how (post)industrial society works, not overturning its ownership. Indeed, it has a header for "Improve Society - Fostering Equality for All," under which is a sole bullet point about improving access to education and health care. All We Can Save is neither pro- nor anti-capitalist, but a contradictory mix of attitudes along that axis.
3: Overall the book criticizes masculinity. It urges a social shift away from men and male ideals, towards a greater role for women and female identities. That's in wide strokes, but it bears out through the collection. Men lead the system that causes the climate crisis:
At the same time while the book praises women, it reaches for gender essentialism at many points. Amy Westervelt's article celebrates women as mothers, both domestically and politically, as "community mothers." (250-1) Another piece praises a "collaborative, holistic, and inclusive approach [a]s distinctly feminine." (297) The concluding Alice Walker poem ends on this note:
Recommended.
The resulting collection covers a huge range of ground. Geoengineering, the history of climate change, intersectionality by race and gender, practical tips on organizing, the many psychological dimensions of the crisis, Green and Blue New Deals, changing journalistic practices, climate citizenship, urban planning, architecture, underwater construction, classroom teaching, mental health and trauma, mothering, and migration. There's much more, including a handy outline of climate solutions (377ff).
The results are powerful. The book offers an introduction to the climate crisis for those who need it. It also provides inspiration for readers seeking to participate in activism.
I have many questions and thoughts about this. My Kindle copy is quite marked up. In order to not overwhelm you, let me share several here. My intent is not to criticize the book so much as to use it as a way of scrying an emerging socio-political approach to climate change.
1: Across some of the readings is an interesting attitude towards technology. All We Can Save isn't a luddite work, but there's definitely some opposition to tech. An early article asks us to avoid geoengineering (34-5). Another criticizes the popularity of spaceflight stories as being more appealing than narratives about climate change mitigation, and that the former may be "hurting us" (140-1). A third piece distinguishes between technologies and people, implying the latter aren't really part of the former (271). In contrast, there are few positive descriptions of technology, and those are usually quiet, established, and instrumental: scuba gear for underwater work, improved insulation to reduce buildings' carbon footprint.
2: There's a strong tension over economics and class across much of the book. Some articles call for an end to capitalism and the start of a more equal distribution of wealth. Elizabeth Warren is positively name-checked (but not Bernie Sanders, nor Karl Marx). In contrast "Catalytic Capital" asks us to work with the 1%, helping them maintain their riches in order to point them in good directions: "advancing climate solutions requires money." (172) The final outline for climate action is about improving how (post)industrial society works, not overturning its ownership. Indeed, it has a header for "Improve Society - Fostering Equality for All," under which is a sole bullet point about improving access to education and health care. All We Can Save is neither pro- nor anti-capitalist, but a contradictory mix of attitudes along that axis.
3: Overall the book criticizes masculinity. It urges a social shift away from men and male ideals, towards a greater role for women and female identities. That's in wide strokes, but it bears out through the collection. Men lead the system that causes the climate crisis:
in the cityAnother piece complains about "doomer dudes," men who proclaim the futility of climate action "with glee." (279) "They're almost always White men, because only White men can afford to be lazy enough to quit.... on themselves." (280; italics in original)
one finds it simple to conceive nothing
but a system, and nothing but a world of men. (Joan Naviyuk Kane, "The Straits," 170)
At the same time while the book praises women, it reaches for gender essentialism at many points. Amy Westervelt's article celebrates women as mothers, both domestically and politically, as "community mothers." (250-1) Another piece praises a "collaborative, holistic, and inclusive approach [a]s distinctly feminine." (297) The concluding Alice Walker poem ends on this note:
& I call on all menThe "so" is saving the Earth through collective action. This isn't a surprise, given the collection's gynocentric purpose.
of Earth
to gracefully
and gratefully
stand aside
& let them
(let us)
do so (335)
Recommended.
September 23, 2020
“My heart is moved by all I cannot save:
so much has been destroyed
I have to cast my lot with those
who age after age, perversely,
with no extraordinary power,
reconstitute the world.”
―Adrienne Rich,“Natural Resources“
I write this review as the Bobcat Fire rages on just miles away from my home in Los Angeles, prompting evacuations and causing unprecedented destruction.The most destructive wildfire season on record, 2020 is posing a serious health risk to Californians—from immediate issues, like burning eyes or irritated throat, to chronic heart, lung and skin problems.
Climate scientists have also drawn a connection between climate change and the severity of the hurricanes currently pummeling the East Coast. Of course, climate change is exacerbating these extreme changes in weather—as major countries and investors continue clinging to the use of fossil fuels and refuse to move fast enough toward renewable energy.
In these dire times of fires and floods, we find it’s best to listen to the experts.
Cue: All We Can Save: Truth, Courage and Solutions for the Climate Crisis, a groundbreaking collection of essays and poems by women at the forefront of the climate crisis movement—edited by Dr. Ayana Elizabeth Johnson, a marine biologist and policy expert, and Dr. Katharine Keeble Wilson, a strategist dedicated to developing climate solutions.
Contributors include Sherri Mitchell, an Indigenous activist; Kate Marvel, a renowned climate scientist; Jacqueline Patterson, director of environmental and climate justice at the NAACP; amongst others diverse in age, race, geography, socioeconomic status and expertise (though, as highlighted by Goodreads user Andrea McDowell, none visibly disabled—despite people with disabilities being especially vulnerable to climate change).
With insights from scientists, journalists, farmers, lawyers, activists, teachers and more, this book packs urgency, shedding light on the experiences and insights of women climate crisis activists. They state explicitly where we were yesterday, where we are today and what we need to do in order arrive at the ideal tomorrow.
It’s a sorely needed glimmer of hope—a reminder that there is a way out of this mess: collective action.
“We cannot make enough headway on the climate problem by working at the individual level. We need to organize our efforts,” writes University of California, Santa Barbara energy expert Leah Stokes.
To quote the recently-departed Ruth Bader Ginsburg, “Fight for the things you care about, but do it in a way that will lead others to join you.”
All We Can Save does that. Consider it required reading.
so much has been destroyed
I have to cast my lot with those
who age after age, perversely,
with no extraordinary power,
reconstitute the world.”
―Adrienne Rich,“Natural Resources“
I write this review as the Bobcat Fire rages on just miles away from my home in Los Angeles, prompting evacuations and causing unprecedented destruction.The most destructive wildfire season on record, 2020 is posing a serious health risk to Californians—from immediate issues, like burning eyes or irritated throat, to chronic heart, lung and skin problems.
Climate scientists have also drawn a connection between climate change and the severity of the hurricanes currently pummeling the East Coast. Of course, climate change is exacerbating these extreme changes in weather—as major countries and investors continue clinging to the use of fossil fuels and refuse to move fast enough toward renewable energy.
In these dire times of fires and floods, we find it’s best to listen to the experts.
Cue: All We Can Save: Truth, Courage and Solutions for the Climate Crisis, a groundbreaking collection of essays and poems by women at the forefront of the climate crisis movement—edited by Dr. Ayana Elizabeth Johnson, a marine biologist and policy expert, and Dr. Katharine Keeble Wilson, a strategist dedicated to developing climate solutions.
Contributors include Sherri Mitchell, an Indigenous activist; Kate Marvel, a renowned climate scientist; Jacqueline Patterson, director of environmental and climate justice at the NAACP; amongst others diverse in age, race, geography, socioeconomic status and expertise (though, as highlighted by Goodreads user Andrea McDowell, none visibly disabled—despite people with disabilities being especially vulnerable to climate change).
With insights from scientists, journalists, farmers, lawyers, activists, teachers and more, this book packs urgency, shedding light on the experiences and insights of women climate crisis activists. They state explicitly where we were yesterday, where we are today and what we need to do in order arrive at the ideal tomorrow.
It’s a sorely needed glimmer of hope—a reminder that there is a way out of this mess: collective action.
“We cannot make enough headway on the climate problem by working at the individual level. We need to organize our efforts,” writes University of California, Santa Barbara energy expert Leah Stokes.
To quote the recently-departed Ruth Bader Ginsburg, “Fight for the things you care about, but do it in a way that will lead others to join you.”
All We Can Save does that. Consider it required reading.
April 1, 2021
Everybody and their friends should read this.
Written by people that are actively working for all of us, to avoid the climate crisis.
I'm inspired and want to contribute to the solutions as well.
Our planet is in such a critical moment right now. The longer we take to make significant changes, the harder it will. This is the deciding decade for our future - and realistically, it hasn't started great for us humans - so I'd say karma...
We have a decision to make: take action or be a bystander.
I know we all have busy lives, many responsibilities, and probably not the financial means to invest in some expensive green solutions.
But we all have a few minutes to sign petitions addressed local/provincial/state/federal governments. Find one or two trustworthy environmental local or national organizations and sign their petitions (subscribe to their newsletter to receive news of every new call to action they organize).
It's been proven that 3.5% of a population can make an impact and drive change. Any little bit that you can do counts.
This is not the main takeaway from this book. There are many inspiring stories and many ways that the contributors to this book make an impact every day.
But while reading it, I realized I needed to find my own ways to make a contribution. The above mention of signing petitions is just the first step I'm taking, and trying to incorporate in my life.
Written by people that are actively working for all of us, to avoid the climate crisis.
I'm inspired and want to contribute to the solutions as well.
Our planet is in such a critical moment right now. The longer we take to make significant changes, the harder it will. This is the deciding decade for our future - and realistically, it hasn't started great for us humans - so I'd say karma...
We have a decision to make: take action or be a bystander.
I know we all have busy lives, many responsibilities, and probably not the financial means to invest in some expensive green solutions.
But we all have a few minutes to sign petitions addressed local/provincial/state/federal governments. Find one or two trustworthy environmental local or national organizations and sign their petitions (subscribe to their newsletter to receive news of every new call to action they organize).
It's been proven that 3.5% of a population can make an impact and drive change. Any little bit that you can do counts.
This is not the main takeaway from this book. There are many inspiring stories and many ways that the contributors to this book make an impact every day.
But while reading it, I realized I needed to find my own ways to make a contribution. The above mention of signing petitions is just the first step I'm taking, and trying to incorporate in my life.
January 12, 2021
This is a beautiful, one-of-a-kind book. Self-described as both "a balm and a guide," All We Can Save is a spiritually-grounding, yet mobilizing, medley of diverse and brilliant women at the forefront of combating the climate crisis.
Doctors Ayana Elizabeth Johnson and Katharine K. Wilkinson seamlessly wed essays from scientists, journalists, and activists with poetry from towering figures like Alice Walker and grounding illustrations from Madeleine Jubilee Saito.
At its core, this is a movement book, and contemporaneous movement books are hard to come by. We are at an inflection point in the climate crisis and this book occupies space both as a mobilization tool for today and important documentation about this movement for the future. Doctors Johnson and Wilkinson – along with all the contributors to this work – know we won't be able to save everything, but they want the future to know that some of us did our damndest to try.
Doctors Ayana Elizabeth Johnson and Katharine K. Wilkinson seamlessly wed essays from scientists, journalists, and activists with poetry from towering figures like Alice Walker and grounding illustrations from Madeleine Jubilee Saito.
At its core, this is a movement book, and contemporaneous movement books are hard to come by. We are at an inflection point in the climate crisis and this book occupies space both as a mobilization tool for today and important documentation about this movement for the future. Doctors Johnson and Wilkinson – along with all the contributors to this work – know we won't be able to save everything, but they want the future to know that some of us did our damndest to try.
October 23, 2021
I’m all for women and minorities; but this book wants to solve climate change without the help of white males … except their money.
Yes. I agree, climate change is a HUGE problem, it’s bearing down on us at lightning speed and we are still so clueless as a society. We ALL need to work together to curb climate change (which was mentioned repeatedly and then immediately discounted white males).
If I were a white man, I would say FU and buy a gas guzzler.
There was a lot of positive talk in this book, but not many concrete suggestions. I liked the section about the water pumps in Florida; where real estate agents just gloss right over the problem. Funny, on the surface, but not sure what the solution is … don’t buy land in Florida …
I suggest the following books on climate change: The Sixth Extinction by Elizabeth Kolbert, The Book of Hope with Jane Goodall and Healthy Planet by Fred Hageneder.
Yes. I agree, climate change is a HUGE problem, it’s bearing down on us at lightning speed and we are still so clueless as a society. We ALL need to work together to curb climate change (which was mentioned repeatedly and then immediately discounted white males).
If I were a white man, I would say FU and buy a gas guzzler.
There was a lot of positive talk in this book, but not many concrete suggestions. I liked the section about the water pumps in Florida; where real estate agents just gloss right over the problem. Funny, on the surface, but not sure what the solution is … don’t buy land in Florida …
I suggest the following books on climate change: The Sixth Extinction by Elizabeth Kolbert, The Book of Hope with Jane Goodall and Healthy Planet by Fred Hageneder.
January 1, 2022
Beautiful, motivating, encouraging, knowledge-bearing - I'm very glad this book exists. A collection of women across generations, races, industries, and walks of life, each adding their stamp and perspective on the the climate crisis. Only critique is that there were some repetitive narratives, and I wish the solution section was more robust. Hoping this collection can walk so the next climate feminism book can run.
January 24, 2021
Wow!! It’s extremely rare that climate content leaves me feeling hopeful and inspired, this book is full of ideas, solutions and ways forward - all I want is to make Ayana Elizabeth Johnson proud 🥲
June 23, 2023
I loved this book of essays - they were full of solidarity and super cool science and reverence and an immense amount of unyielding love.
I thought the selections were balanced and expansive; as with any book of essays some were better than others ofc but as a whole I felt like this was what I’d been missing to re tie me to the purpose of my work and to shake off some of the cynicism. Thinking a lot about farming and nature and suburbia
Learned the word NonnaPaura which means the desire to have children mixed with a fear about the world they’ll inherit - I think moments like this were most profound to me in the book because of the amount I felt seen. The whole Feel section was my favorite, followed by the ones about plants/farming
Favorites were under the weather and home is always worth it, though many more made me pause after reading them. Feeling awake and I want to talk about this.
My favorite quote from one of the poems, to be of use, brought to me first by a coworker:
“The pitcher cried for water to carry
and a person for work that is real”
I thought the selections were balanced and expansive; as with any book of essays some were better than others ofc but as a whole I felt like this was what I’d been missing to re tie me to the purpose of my work and to shake off some of the cynicism. Thinking a lot about farming and nature and suburbia
Learned the word NonnaPaura which means the desire to have children mixed with a fear about the world they’ll inherit - I think moments like this were most profound to me in the book because of the amount I felt seen. The whole Feel section was my favorite, followed by the ones about plants/farming
Favorites were under the weather and home is always worth it, though many more made me pause after reading them. Feeling awake and I want to talk about this.
My favorite quote from one of the poems, to be of use, brought to me first by a coworker:
“The pitcher cried for water to carry
and a person for work that is real”
February 17, 2024
I’ve done it!! I finally read All We Can Save after hearing about it right when it came out. It took me several weeks once I got it on loan from the library but it was so worth it!
This book has given me hope I didn’t know was possible when thinking of climate change and the plethora of climate-related crises we face. We have all the solutions we need and are living at the most crucial time and everything we do matters, because the difference of a tenth of a degree of warming does make an overall difference in what world we will live in.
I feel invigorated in my pursuit of climate-saving work and inspired by the dozens of essayists (and millions of people around the world) who are out there making crucial change. While I of course got sad at times when reading and reflecting on the depth and scope of the problem, I pushed through in reading, knowing that I was also gaining such perspective. Everyone should read this book and should do what they can with their community to tackle the climate crisis! We cannot give up!
This book has given me hope I didn’t know was possible when thinking of climate change and the plethora of climate-related crises we face. We have all the solutions we need and are living at the most crucial time and everything we do matters, because the difference of a tenth of a degree of warming does make an overall difference in what world we will live in.
I feel invigorated in my pursuit of climate-saving work and inspired by the dozens of essayists (and millions of people around the world) who are out there making crucial change. While I of course got sad at times when reading and reflecting on the depth and scope of the problem, I pushed through in reading, knowing that I was also gaining such perspective. Everyone should read this book and should do what they can with their community to tackle the climate crisis! We cannot give up!
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