Lessons From All We Can Save
This post expands upon an earlier Instagram post.
This post is going to start out with too much “me” but read on, because it’s just a prologue to a powerful book I want to share with you.
After last summer’s climatic disasters, I put a meager post out on the internet (if you are receiving this in your inbox, thanks, you are probably among its few readers!). A year later, following an even more overwhelming summer of climate news and a report confirming that we are still on the wrong path, it’s even more urgent that leaders at every level of society act swiftly and boldly to prevent the worst effects of climate change.
Call it déjà vu, but as we again turn the corner into fall—as my summer malaise recedes and a little more vigor returns—I've again been itching to write something on our climate troubles: something useful, something that might inform, inspire, and encourage others to hopeful action (and, bonus, channel my anxiety in a more useful direction).
But I’ve found I don’t have much to say right now that adds anything new. That’s partly because "all the right words on climate have already been said."1 Partly it’s because I’m tired. And partly because there is much, much greater wisdom out there on this topic.
That’s one of the lessons learned from All We Can Save: Truth, Courage, and Solutions for the Climate Crisis.
This book helped me through the summer.
All We Can Save launched just over a year ago and its subtitle is exactly what it delivers—in the form of short essays, poems, and art, all by women climate leaders. A foundational text of what we can only hope will be a “feminist climate rennaissance” (which people of any gender can take part in), it presents approaches to our planetary troubles “rooted in compassion, connection, creativity, and collaboration.”
Among the lessons its authors taught or retaught me:
The need for rest and care;
Relationships of care (including with oneself) are critical to healing this crisis;
Collective action is the only safeguard from a scary future but requires all our individual gifts;
Climate change is centrally about protecting human lives;
“Burnt-out people aren’t equipped to serve a burning planet … [so] the well-being of our hearts and souls must be reestablished to their rightful place as relevant, essential” (from Susanne Moser’s essay);
The power of storytelling and imagination to create possibilities alongside tech;
The climate struggle requires an unflinching, fierce commitment to protecting life.
This is a purposely quick list, because nearly every page of the book ended up underlined. There is so much packed into each author’s tight essay. I commend the book to anyone curious about what part they can play in a hopeful future.
And visions of a hopeful future are so needed. Especially with plenty of bad news, some wrongly conclude we are doomed. But we are not doomed unless we collectively take the path of doomism.
No such path exists in All We Can Save. Clear-eyed acceptance of where we are? Yes—the Truth part of the subtitle. And with it Courage, which doomism lacks, and of course Solutions—ranging from biophilic building design, creative campaigning, ocean farming, finance, art, policy, conversation, etc. A three-legged stool, built by forty diverse, powerful contributors. I’m thankful there are so many brilliant people like them doing beautiful work out there.
At times when overwhelm threatens to numb, I will go back to work like this. This book invites more collaboration, less competition; more equality, less ego; more care, more compassion, less callousness; more joining of head and heart; and less talking, more listening. I’ve got work to do on all of these, and especially in the spirit of the last one, I’m glad for the gentle reminder—even in the process of putting this post together—that there is a plenitude of wisdom available to all of us seeking more life-giving ways on earth.
Not everyone can or needs to make climate their main focus, but most of us want to be part of creative solutions and a more life-giving future—and that can look a lot of ways. Here are some of my quick takeaways from the book that I hope translate to your own realms of changemaking:
Find your community/collective.
You don’t have to do it all; your specialty will find its place in the larger tapestry.
Diversity leads to increased honesty and creativity.
Amid complexity, look to the leadership and value the skills of women.
Find your piece of the work and trust others are doing their little pieces.
We often don’t need to reinvent the wheel as much as we need to recover wisdom.
To play the long game, attend to feelings and tend to relationships.
Don’t let ego get in the way; there is plenty for everyone to do.
Joy and rest are integral.
Sometimes, it’s best to just get out of one’s own head and listen → learn → act with others (whether in the pages of a book or live).
All We Can Save is an excellent book for holding together inner and outer forms and engagement; in this case, ways of being human during slow-moving environmental upheaval: learning the situation, working through the enormity of the problems cognitively and emotionally, deliberating on approaches, and then finding ways to be involved in the outward solutions in the world. All in community, of course.
Thanks for reading. If you’d like to discuss the book, or how to find your place in engaging its topics, I’d love to hear from you.
Further Resources
One of the most powerful parts of the anthology is the way it models diverse skill sets and approaches to healing this crisis. It demonstrates how people from many backgrounds can find ways to meaningfully contribute. Here are some resources specifically on that (that don’t require reading the book!):
This How to Save a Planet episode “We Can’t Solve the Climate Crisis Without Gender Equality” covers why women in positions of climate leadership is and will be essential to healing the planet. This episode is hosted by the co-editors and co-conveners of the book’s all-star cast: Dr. Katharine K. Wilkinson and Dr. Ayana Elizabeth Johnson. Fascinating and fun.
Patagonia recently posted All You Can Do, a short, wise, practical interview with the co-editors.
One of the volume’s co-editors, Dr. Ayana Elizabeth Johnson, developed a Venn diagram for how you can find a place in doing your joyful bit for the climate. See here (Instagram).
The other co-editor, Katharine K. Wilkinson, had this in TIME this summer: The Climate Crisis Is a Call to Action. These 5 Steps Helped Me Figure Out How to Be of Use. It zeroes in on top resources.
From the All We Can Save anthology, the editors launched a project by the same name to support women climate leaders. Why? “The status quo is not working...To date, conventional climate leadership has centered the voices and ideas of White men, an imbalance that falls short in both fairness and efficacy.” Read more here.
This is an excellent book for group discussion. Check out the All We Can Save circles to read and discuss it with others around the world. (Last month I had the chance to lead a discussion through a local bookstore and environmental group, and learned a lot!)
For a more visual experience, see Madeleine Saito Jubliee’s lovely comics (which feature throughout the anthology, and above).
The author of this phrase, Sarah Miller, references her Miami essay, which features in All We Can Save and is also available online: Heaven or High Water. Miller has moved on but it’s still a witty piece on cognitive dissonance and pretending to be a luxury homebuyer.