Saved My Life

I'm a 30 year old that has dealt with tremendous climate despair, anxiety and suicidal ideation since childhood. I learned to repress these feelings more or less, but it kept me from participating in the climate movement for fear of releasing this Pandora's box of overwhelming emotion. Last year after the sky turned orange due to wildfires near my home, I knew for my own emotional survival somehow I needed to join the movement and I also knew that my entry needed to be grounded and heart centered if I were to do it sustainably.

Enter this book. I grabbed my friend (a climate activist) who was one of the few people I had been able to commiserate with on climate anxiety and we did the All We Can Save Circle together over a period of 3 months. The experience was transformative and I am really and truly finding my place in the movement because of it. It helped me see the true kaleidoscope of roles that needed filling (as a disabled artist, I needed to see that diversity of roles), it helped me realize I was not alone, it validated my fears and in the same motion uplifted me.

Not only did it help me begin my climate activism, but it also helped me unravel a heavy knot of grief and guilt and I've carried since childhood. It left me valuing my own precious human life in a way that I never have before.

4 people found this helpful

For some, but not for me

I tried, I really did, but I only made 3/4 of the way. The slow lofty paste of narration and lack of solutions in the book both depressed me and put me to sleep. The book stays a lot in the “feels” of how climate change has emotionally effected each writer, which again is depressing. Yes, climate change sucks, we know this, but less get to fixing it. Lastly, aside from Jane Fonda (who is badass) , Julia Louis-Dreyfus and Alfre Woodard’s defiant or comically sarcastic tones while narrating, I would have thought it was that same depressed person reading the whole book. Might be for some but just not for me.

2 people found this helpful

Micro Reviews for All Essays

I quickly realized that some essays were written better than others, and decided to break down my review into micro-reviews. I missed some, but tried to review most individual essays (not the poems). Overall, I think it might be best to find a summary of each of the essays and read the ones that you find interesting… These essays cover a wide range of topics, and my opinion is to focus on learning and taking action on the climate subject you feel the most passionaite about. The average of all of my reviews landed at just above 3 stars. Hope this is helpful.
**Essay 1** - 1/5 Not a unique story, uneventful and not the best intro essay (actually had to take a break)
**Essay 2** - 5/5 informative and warmly narrated
**The big picture** - 5/5
**Indigenous people and Mother Earth** 4/5 - engaging narration and provides an insightful look into the needed cohesion between indigenous people and the modern world. However, call to actions are bit intangible outside of “consult with native peoples.”
**A handful of dust** 5/5 - Fascinating look into the futile efforts of humanity attempting to control natural climate to reverse the damage done by generations past. A gloss over of the fragility of climate of Mother Gia.
**November** - 4/5 What is emergent strategy - what is a single human’s role in mankind’s emergent strategy against climate change? Reminded me of sci fi “one-mind” stories
**On fire**- 2/5 Generic summary of the climate crisis with a focus on the youth climate change calls to action…. So yes, of course Greta is mentioned here.
**Litigating in a time of crisis** - 3/5 scrappy climate fighters can make a big change (in court if scrappy = legally trained lawyer)
**Beyond Coal** - 5/5 A comprehensive covering of the progress we have made in removing coal plants and the work that still needs to be accomplished.
**Collards are just as good as kale** - 1/5 Not actually about collard greens vs kale. About black farming and environmental justice in the American south. A bit too generic to be interesting. Highlights a few black women leaders in climate action.
**the politics of policy** - 4/5 There was an opportunity to make this an woven story of Detroit communities impacted by toxicity in the air and climate policy…. But it leaned too heavily on the latter. Lightly touches on the blue new deal.
**A green new deal for all of us** - 4/5 Policy is power and policy needs to include underprivileged people.
**Truth be told** - 5/5 Climate change from the perspective of a journalist who tried writing neutrally from both a liberal and conservative media source. Interesting to see American’s apathetic response towards climate writing no matter what political lens it was coming from
**Heaven or high water** -5/5 best in the book, expertly narrated and an engaging story (not a lecture like some of the others)
**Buildings designed for life** - 5/5 Yes to the message here! Especially US architecture… our giant rectangular and unchallenged skyscrapers are not truly challenging to design or engineering… let’s make our buildings and cities green.
**Catalytic Capital** - 4/5 Sure, can get on the bandwagon of this messaging… capitalism can forge the path to the green economy. But at its very core, if the greenhouse economy continues making rich people richer faster than the Greene coming can…. Than we are all screwed. I’ve been trying to get my parents (upper middle class) to buy an electric vehicle for years.
**Mending the Landscape** 2/5 - Like reading a PowerPoint presentation on landscape design. Also a little self-praising.
**At the intersections** 2/5 repetitive
**Under the Weather** - 3/5 A but depressing…
**Adaptive mind** - 1/5 Easy to drone this one out… not engaging and preachy.
**A field guide for transformation** 3/5 - Are any CEO’s reading this book?? If not, you can probably stop because it only matters if a few people decide they don’t want their children living in a burning planet.
**Like the Monarch** 3/5 the US needs Latino (immigrant) disaster recovery to clean up our own climate messes. Also explores how climate change is impacting how animals and humans immigrate around the world.
**community is our best chance** - 1/5 A personal story that doesn’t quite expand to the bigger picture

1 person found this helpful

Six stars

If I could I would write this book with six stars. There are 60 inconvenient truth in this book. I’m glad there were at least two that addressed my climate depression, because it is getting harder to live with the sense of inevitability that all the signs portend.

My hat is off to the wonderful women who assembled this anthology. There is so much to learn and so much to do.y

1 person found this helpful

You Want To Listen

A lot of people are afraid of the subject matter: climate change. It seems depressing and hopeless. This book will give you joyful concrete steps of building community and taking inspirational action by raising your voice. No matter how small, everyone’s climate justice actions and involvement will create, mitigate, and help with adaptation for a better world. Global cooperation, inclusivity, organizing, ingenuity, elbow grease, celebration, singing and dancing are all part of the solutions!

1 person found this helpful

Essential, educational, empowering

The essays in this book are beautifully written and an important reminder of how critical community and diversity are in our ecosystems (whether in “nature” or in human institutions, as well as in their interplay). We need to pay attention to these leaders and do our own part to bring ourselves and our communities back into equilibrium with the natural world we depend on. We must become citizen lobbyists for this crisis!

1 person found this helpful

every policy maker should heat this

This is a very important book that every policy maker should read. It is by turns terrifying and heartbreaking as well as beautiful. It is an unflinching look at what we are doing to our only home.

The climate is a hot mess…and so is this book.

Long before reading this book, I have believed that climate change is the greatest self-imposed threat that humanity has yet faced. In reading this book, I was hoping to find inspiration and/or actionable suggestions for addressing climate change. Instead, I found a ranting, rambling, and conceptually muddled hodge-podge that seems to be a first draft of some sort of anarcho-communist-anti-masculinist manifesto. Instead of sowing righteous anger, the editors and some of the authors reap self-righteous acrimony. Other authors present material that is simply dull and trite. Instead of weaving stories and studies together into a deep narrative, connecting the problems we face to a detailed framework for solutions, those involved with this book present an unsorted pile of gloom, doom, buzzwords, and idealistic catechisms. I can’t remember the last time I was this disappointed by a book. If you really want to get a clear picture of the realities and potential solutions concerning climate change, check out books by Naomi Oreskes, Naomi Klein, Michael Mann, and hopefully others that I have not yet read.
Note: the audiobook narrators were great, but that's beside the point.

Phenomenal

Beautifully and powerfully narrated essays.
A very necessary listen and call to action.

Well done.

Mothering Mother Earth

This collection of raw, real, inspiring, encouraging, empowering essays lives up to its telling - and hopefully foretelling - title: "All We Can Save". Each word of this title brought fully to life and given rich, powerful meaning by the motherly voices of women at the heart of the heart-full movement to reverse global warming and create a thriving, just, regenerative world that works for, yes, "All". Grateful for this catalytic book and these amazing allies to Pachamama - our common home.