All We Can Save: Truth, Courage, and Solutions For The Climate Crisis - Ayana Elizabeth Johnson
All We Can Save: Truth, Courage, and Solutions for the Climate Crisis Hardcover – 15 December 2020
by Ayana Elizabeth Johnson (Author)
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NATIONAL BESTSELLER . Provocative and illuminating essays from women at the forefront of the climate movement who are harnessing truth, courage, and solutions to lead humanity forward.
"A powerful read that fills one with, dare I say . . . hope?"-The New York Times
NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY SMITHSONIAN MAGAZINE
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 .Regine Clement .Abigail Dillen .Camille T. Dungy .Rhiana Gunn-Wright .Joy Harjo .Katharine Hayhoe .Mary Annaise Heglar .Jane Hirshfield . Mary Anne Hitt .Ailish Hopper.Tara Houska, Zhaabowekwe .Emily N. Johnston .Joan Naviyuk Kane .Naomi Klein .Kate Knuth .Ada Lim n .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 Villasenor .Alice Walker. Amy Westervelt .Jane Zelikova
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Print length
448 pages
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Ayana Elizabeth Johnson
Dr. Ayana Elizabeth Johnson is a marine biologist, policy expert, writer, and Brooklyn native. She is founder of Urban Ocean Lab, a think tank for the future of coastal cities, and founder and CEO of Ocean Collectiv, a consulting firm for conservation solutions. Recently, Dr. Johnson co-created the Blue New Deal, a road map for including the ocean in climate policy. Previously she was executive director of the Waitt Institute, developed policy at the EPA and NOAA, served as a leader of the March for Science, and taught as an adjunct professor at New York University. Dr. Johnson earned a BA from Harvard University in environmental science and public policy and a PhD from Scripps Institution of Oceanography in marine biology. She publishes widely and blogs for Scientific American. Her public speaking has included TED, the Smithsonian, and the United Nations. Elle named her one of “27 women leading the charge to protect our environment.” Outside magazine called her “the most influential marine biologist of our time.” Her mission is to build community around solutions to our climate crisis. For more: ayanaelizabeth.com and @ayanaeliza.
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Katharine K. Wilkinson
Dr. Katharine Wilkinson is an author, strategist, teacher, and one of 15 “women who will save the world,” according to Time magazine. Her books on climate include the bestselling anthology All We Can Save (2020), The Drawdown Review (2020), the New York Times bestseller Drawdown (2017), and Between God & Green (2012). She co-founded and leads The All We Can Save Project with Dr. Ayana Elizabeth Johnson, in support of women leading on climate, and she co-hosts the podcast A Matter of Degrees, telling stories for the climate curious with Dr. Leah Stokes. Previously, Dr. Wilkinson was the principal writer and editor-in-chief at the climate solutions nonprofit Project Drawdown. She speaks widely, including a TED Talk on climate and gender equality with nearly 2 million views. A former Rhodes Scholar, Dr. Wilkinson holds a doctorate in geography and environment from Oxford. Find her @DrKWilkinson.
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Paul G. Ward
4.0 out of 5 stars The Climate Crisis is a Leadership Crisis
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 22 February 2021
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This book contains a wonderful collection of mostly well-written essays on our planetary crisis. However, if you are a while male with a passion for planetary wellness, you may want to skip the foreword presented by apparently anti-male feminist editors, which could dissuade you from reading the essays and learning many valuable lessons from inspirational female writers. Maybe the climate crisis is not gender neutral and maybe the dominant public voices on the climate crisis have been white men, but disparaging men, many of whom exhibit both masculine and feminine characteristics, may not promote a truly collaborate approach. Yes, the climate crisis is a leadership crisis, and certainly requires more characteristically feminine leadership but let’s make this a collaborate rather than a divisive aspiration.
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sunniva
5.0 out of 5 stars A masterpiece!
Reviewed in Germany on 3 May 2021
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this book was truly lifechanging, especially our book circle that was brought alive through these pages! feeling very grateful for all these phenomenal women and their voices. thank you for this masterpiece!
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Randy D
5.0 out of 5 stars Save What We Can
Reviewed in Canada on 15 October 2020
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Looking at climate change from the ground up. People putting their heart into changing the way things are done to save what we can.
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Jeannine
4.0 out of 5 stars Excellent
Reviewed in Canada on 18 February 2022
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I bought the book as a gift. She finds it excellent.
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Pascal Hugo Plourde
5.0 out of 5 stars Powerful and wonderful
Reviewed in Canada on 9 January 2021
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A must read. My best ready of 2020.
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Sep 02, 2020Andrea McDowell rated it really liked it
Shelves: groundhog-day, climate, 2020, feminism, green
*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.) (less)
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H.
Jan 14, 2021H. rated it liked it
Shelves: climate-change
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. (less)
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Anna
Sep 16, 2020Anna rated it it was amazing · review of another edition
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. (less)
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Nick DeFiesta
Sep 27, 2020Nick DeFiesta rated it it was amazing
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. (less)
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Jennifer (Insert Lit Pun)
Apr 20, 2022Jennifer (Insert Lit Pun) added it
Here 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
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Tom Scott
Dec 22, 2020Tom Scott rated it it was amazing · review of another edition
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. (less)
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Steve
Jul 26, 2021Steve rated it it was amazing · review of another edition
Shelves: non-fiction, favorites, climate-nature-anthropocene
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). (less)
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Sam Griffiths
Dec 28, 2020Sam Griffiths rated it it was amazing
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. (less)
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Leah
Sep 14, 2020Leah rated it it was amazing
Shelves: women, climate
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. (less)
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Andreana
Oct 07, 2020Andreana rated it it was amazing
Shelves: sustainability, women, non-fiction
A truly essential read for anyone thinking about the future of the planet! Three cheers for more feminine leadership in the climate crisis.
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b.andherbooks
Mar 31, 2022b.andherbooks rated it it was amazing
Shelves: essays, poetry, non-fiction, book-club, desk-reference
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." (less)
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Michelle Kim
Oct 04, 2020Michelle Kim rated it liked it
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. (less)
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Alissa
Sep 20, 2021Alissa rated it liked it
Shelves: race-and-justice, feminism
Lots of gems, education, and inspiration but also lots of essays that read like nonprofit marketing pamphlets and I’m allergic to that.
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Bryan Alexander
Jan 18, 2021Bryan Alexander rated it really liked it
Shelves: gender, feminism, climate-change
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:
in the city
one finds it simple to conceive nothing
but a system, and nothing but a world of men. (Joan Naviyuk Kane, "The Straits," 170)
Another 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)
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 men
of Earth
to gracefully
and gratefully
stand aside
& let them
(let us)
do so (335)
The "so" is saving the Earth through collective action. This isn't a surprise, given the collection's gynocentric purpose.
Recommended. (less)
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