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Greta
Thunberg. The Climate Book.
Penguin, 2023.
Ms.
Thunberg grouped the essays of her anthology into five parts, and each
Part into three to five parts, writing an introduction for each of the
eighteen parts, each an admirable essay of its own.
Part
One: How Climate Works
Greta:
‘To solve this problem we need to understand it.’
‘’The science is as solid as it gets.’
‘This is the biggest story in the world.’
Two:
How Our Planet Is Changing.
‘The
weather seems to be on steroids.’
‘The
snowball has been set in motion.’
‘It
is much closer to home than we think.’
Three:
“How It Affects Us”
‘The
world has a fever’.
‘We
are not all in the same boat.’
‘Enormous
challenges are waiting.’
Four:
What We’ve Done About It.
‘How
can we undo our failures if we are unable to admit that we have failed?’
‘We
are not moving in the right direction.’
‘A
whole new way of thinking.’
‘They
keep saying one thing while doing another.’
Five:
What We Must Do Now.
‘The
most effective way to get out of this mess is to educate ourselves.’
‘We
now have to do the seemingly impossible.’
‘Honesty,
solidarity, integrity and climate justice.’
‘Hope
is something you have to earn.’
Here
is one paragraph from her first essay in Part Five. “I firmly believe that the most
effective way for us to get out of this mess is to educate ourselves and
others. . . . Because once you
understand the situation we are facing, once you get a sense of the full
picture, you will more or less know what to do. And—perhaps just as importantly, you
will know what not to do. “
(324).
Katherine Hayhoe
(52): “The [next] step we can each take is simple: use our voices to
catalyse action by telling everyone we know how climate change affects us
all and what we can do, together, to make a difference.”
Like Naomi Klein
and Katherine Hayhoe, Greta and the authors of the essays in her anthology
offer no easy solution, no magic.
Naomi Klein’s This
Changes Everything: Capitalism vs. the Climate (2014) is divided into
3 parts that keep her message front and simple. Part One, We live in a dying world
which most of us were complicit in killing. It’s too late to stop climate change,
but we can avert the worst. But (Part
Two) not by magic, miracles, miracle makers, not by green
billionaires. So (Part Three) we must change
ourselves, change our system, resist
the worst, be climate warriors, blockade the polluters, divest from the
deniers and deceivers, move from extraction to renewal.
END OMNI CLIMATE MEMO MONDAYS, #153, NOVEMBER
13 , 2023
“Deforestation in Brazilian Amazon Fell 68% in April Compared With
Last Year.” May 13, 2023. "Still a lot more to do but this is the impact of electing an environmentalist like Lula over a
right-wing populist like Bolsonaro," said one observer. Elect candidates who understand the situation we are facing, who
possess a sense of the full picture, who know more or less what to do. And—perhaps just as importantly, who
know what not to do.
THE GREAT
UKNRAVELING by Kelly Mulhollan
Could have been
born when the Mastodons roamed
When we all made
do with sticks and stones
But instead, I
showed up just in time
For the great
unraveling. . . .
And I’m searchin’
all over for the silver lining
Mostly in the
dark, but I keep on trying
Looking for the
light in a world gone blind
Trying to hold on
to some piece of my mind
Maybe we’ll get
there just in time
For the great
turning
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