By Marceleen Mosher
All We Can Save: Truth, Courage, and Solutions for the Climate Crisis, edited by Dr. Ayana Elizabeth Johnson and Dr. Katharine K. Wilkinson, is an anthology for anyone looking to turn away from the brink of disaster and toward a life-affirming future for all of Earth’s inhabitants.[1] The collection brings forward the feminist voices of people at the forefront of the climate movement, weaving together creativity and science through essays, poems, and art that face the existential threat of climate change head-on while illuminating a way out of our current mess with energy, humility, and a spirit of collective action. The reader is guided through an intellectual, cultural, and emotional experience of the problems of climate change across a myriad of perspectives and communities—from scientists and scholars to community activists and policymakers—leaving readers with a sense of inspiration and empowerment.
In eight thematic sections—Root, Advocate, Reframe, Reshape, Persist, Feel, Nourish, and Rise—these activists, scholars, farmers, policymakers, and artists bring a fresh and vital look at the climate crisis that will help readers to name their despair (maybe nostalgia or eco-anxiety, maybe something else), connect to the soil beneath their feet, and give them a nuanced and interconnected perspective on an issue that touches every living thing on the planet. The collection addresses the real-world impacts of climate change while acknowledging the differences in how individuals and communities around the world experience these effects. Unlike typical narratives of climate change that focus on a Western, often individualistic political or economic perspective that may evoke hopelessness, these personal stories inspire a sense of possibility, empowering readers with a sense of agency in climate activism.
“All We Can Save: Truth, Courage, and Solutions for the Climate Crisis,” edited by Dr. Ayana Elizabeth Johnson and Dr. Katharine K. Wilkinson, is an anthology for empowerment in the face of climate change. Image courtesy of The All We Can Save Project.
The anthology’s main strengths lie in its diversity of perspectives and its focus on solutions. My work in the world of climate activism is largely centered on how we communicate about climate change and its impact on human health—I’m swimming in the academic and journalistic perspective. I’ve been reading works by Naomi Klein,[2] Katharine Hayhoe,[3] and Susanne Moser[4] for years, and their additions to this anthology are outstanding. However, it was the authors I’d never come across and the perspectives I was unfamiliar with that moved me the most—they reinvigorated my drive for this work. Favianna Rodriguez calls the climate movement out for leaving storytellers, artists, and people of color out of the major climate change narratives in “Harnessing Cultural Power.” She makes her point with a powerful metaphor of stories as stars coalescing, becoming constellations, revealing patterns, and shining brightly to inspire others to connect dots and shift narratives—to disrupt what doesn’t serve us. She calls on us to harness the power of culture for climate action, to pass the mic to artists and people of color and let the power flow. Kendra Pierre-Louis exemplifies this beautifully in her counter-narrative about climate change in “Wakanda Doesn’t Have Suburbs,” conjuring an image of a highly technologically advanced and sustainable society, a brilliant and beautiful alternative to what we’ve been conditioned to accept as inevitable—technology requires ecological destruction—and making it feel as though this alternative is within reach. And Rhiana Gunn-Wright energizes climate policy in “A Green New Deal for All of Us.” Consistent among these essays is the power of story, the power of imagination, and the power of each one of us—as ourselves and together—to confront climate change.
It is worth acknowledging that with a great diversity of perspectives in a text comes a greater degree of demand on its readers, especially those accustomed to a linear, single-narrative approach to writing. Those who embark upon this journey should do so with intentionality so as not to be overwhelmed by the number of authors and the variety of styles in the writing, but rather embrace the gift of such a broad view of this uniquely human (and messy) challenge we’re all facing. I recommend that readers appreciate each essay as it is, whether it is written in a style you’re accustomed to and already value or is something you’re less familiar with. This style is purposefully fragmented—unified through the thematic organization of the essays—to diversify its voice.
In service to the agency they inspire in readers, the editors have curated and cultivated a wealth of resources on their website, allwecansave.earth, where they welcome “climate doers, thinkers, and feelers” to utilize a rich selection of resources. From a deep-learning program called “Climate Wayfinding” or resources to build climate advocacy within a community to resources for educators in their classrooms, these resources are meant to “nurture deep, sustained, and courageous climate engagement” for anyone, ensuring that the energy inspired by reading is supported by resources for action.
All We Can Save: Truth, Courage, and Solutions for the Climate Crisis is a prescient read for all. It’s a clarion call for the climate action movement to embrace its intersectional nature and the strength of diversity, to center itself on empowerment, and to foster and celebrate collaboration. This collection of essays is a source of inspiration and can serve as a guide for all—especially those of us feeling a sense of powerlessness, hopelessness, or apathy. There is still much we can save and so much worth saving.
Footnotes
[1] Ayana Elizabeth Johnson and Katharine K. Wilkinson, eds., All We Can Save: Truth, Courage, and Solutions for the Climate Crisis (One World, 2020).
[2] Naomi Klein is a well-known investigative journalist who has written about climate change in multiple books. Her latest, with Rebecca Stefoff, is How to Change Everything: The Young Human’s Guide to Protecting the Planet and Each Other (Tundra Book Group, 2022). To learn more visit her website naomiklein.org.
[3] Katharine Hayhoe is a climate scientist and author. Her book, Saving Us: A Climate Scientist’s Case for Hope and Healing in a Divided World (Atria/One Signal Publishers, 2021), highlights strategies for communicating about climate change. To learn more, visit her website katharinehayhoe.com.
[4] Susanne Moser is a geographer and social scientist who edited Creating a Climate for Change: Communicating Climate Change and Facilitating Social Change with Lisa Dilling (Cambridge University Press, 2007). To learn more, visit susannemoser.com/research.communication.php or listen to this podcast episode: communicatingclimatechange.com/podcast/creating-a-climate-for-change-with-susanne-moser.
Recommended Citation
Mosher, Marceleen. 2024. “All We Can Save.” Open Rivers: Rethinking Water, Place & Community, no. 27. https://doi.org/10.24926/2471190X.11745.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.24926/2471190X.11745
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