All We Can Save Truth, Courage, and Solutions for the Climate Crisis

The editors drew together a really strong cast of VIPs from the climate movement. The best chapters brought forward their perspectives into incisive observations that I don't think we hear about anywhere else. There were some weaker chapters but I don't really fault anyone for this. If I had to diagnose why some chapters didn't work, it seems there was some trouble making sure the writers were advancing a specific argument beyond simply describing their work in environmental justice.

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.