Book Review: ‘All We Can Save’ anthology radiates hope for the future of the climate crisis
A read-over of All We Can Save carried me through a winding path of hope.
The anthology — co-edited by Dr. Ayana Elizabeth Johnson and Dr. Katharine K. Wilkinson — is a collection of essays and poems, connected by admirable quotes and illustrations, written by 60 women climate leaders, who each firmly holds a place at the forefront of the ‘female climate renaissance.’
Independently serving in their own unique roles — scientists, activists, artists, architects, lawyers — they are all working toward the same end goal: To create a better, cleaner planet for future generations.
The intention to include perspective from Black and Indigenous communities on a topic in which they are often silenced is powerful.
The book is introduced with an essay by Johnson and Wilkinson that beautifully reflects on the climate feminist movement. It began with Eunice Newton Foote’s breakthrough, they recalled, nearly 170 years ago.
Often overlooked as the pioneer climate scientist (with the credit mostly given to Irish physicist John Tyndall, who concluded the same research three years later), Foote theorized in 1856 that changes in carbon dioxide could affect the earth’s temperature.
Rather than presenting her discovery at the American Association for the Advancement of Science, it was read aloud by secretary of the Smithsonian John Henry for reasons which weren’t explained. Then, it was published in the same issue of the American Journal of Science and Art as Tyndall’s paper on color blindness.
As Johnson and Wilkinson pointed out in their essay, even then, “the same patriarchal power structure that oppresses and exploits girls, women, and nonbinary people (and constricts and contorts boys and men) also wreaks destruction on the natural world.”
Yet climate change isn’t felt equally by all genders.
Feeding off existing vulnerabilities and injustices, women, girls and the impoverished — 70% of which are women — are disproportionately affected by global warming, more often dying from the climate crisis than men.
But even with these devastating facts, it is comforting — a breath of fresh air and a weight lifted — to see in print how these structures are being upended every single day. It’s refreshing to see how women are ripping through and tearing up the very foundation these structure were built on.
The introductory essay by the two co-editors details the spectrum of solutions proposed collectively by the book’s contributors. The book presents constructive feedback and offers perspectives from a variety of experiences and backgrounds.
It suggests advocacy strategies and technical solutions, including regenerative ocean farming and soil techniques. It connects with the reader through personal stories and emphasizes the threat of climate change through poetry.
A call to action by Xiye Bastida, who wrote a narrative essay titled ‘Calling In,’ outlines the climate crises she’s lived through: drought and flooding while growing up in Mexico and Superstorm Sandy when she moved to New York City.
“It’s all the same problem,” she emphasized.
Bastida casts light on the importance for all generations, religions and ethnicities to join the movement and pushes for a complete paradigm shift, while providing a practical guide on how to make a meaningful impact in the climate activism movement.
She suggests keeping open dialogue about “greenwashing” and “greentrification” and inviting Indigenous peoples with knowledge of the land to planned events.
Meanwhile, Heather McTeer Toney’s personal essay ‘Collards Are Just as Good As Kale’ confronts the silencing of Black climate activists by Mainstream Americans and points out how it directly contradicts that these environmental crises — a fundamental civil rights issue — are unjustly impacting communities of color.
McTeer Toney explains that Black individuals have always had a symbiotic relationship with the environment; how the land their ancestors worked on was the “very same space where they lived" and the land their mothers toiled was “often the place where they also gave birth.”
“Many people think of ‘environmentalists’ as White people hugging trees, and of ‘the environment’ as the forest or jungle as opposed to their own backyard. My relationship with the natural world, my people’s relationship is a swirl of gratitude, trauma and spiritual connection. My Black, southern, rural ancestors connected to land and soil in ways that are both good and bad but almost always, and most of all, powerful. Black folks have always had a deep and physical connection to the environment … Yet our voices are constantly ignored on matters concerning climate impacts and environmental protections,” she wrote.
Toney calls for the inclusion of voices from communities of color, which statistically, appear to be more concerned about the crisis than predominantly White communities, because they are also more frequently impacted.
The spectrum also includes Janine Benyus’s essay about Earth’s natural partnership, describing the relationships between trees and plants that work together to help each other grow. And in her essay about how popular culture could bring a fresh audience to the climate activism movement, Favianna Rodriguez writes “imagine hip-hop songs that say ‘F–k the polluters’ or Indigenous storytellers being nominated on every Oscars slate.”
In “For Those Who Would Govern,” Joy Harjo poses a list of questions to be asked before trying to lead the charge, including whether they “follow sound principles” or “know the histories and laws” of their principalities.
But most importantly, she wrote: “Do you have authority by the original keepers of the lands, those who obey natural law and are in the service of the lands on which you stand?”
All We Can Save brings a variety of perspectives and experiences to the climate fight. And with these ideas come new solutions. And with new solutions is a feeling of hope from knowing that the answer exists. We’ve just got to commit to them.
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