All are Welcome in the Climate Movement In ‘All We Can Save’
Feminist caught up with Dr. Ayana Elizabeth Johnson, who alongside Dr. Katharine K. Wilkinson edited All We Can Save: Truth, Courage and Solutions for the Climate Crisis. The two climate leaders curated an anthology of writings by 60 women at the forefront of the climate movement who are harnessing truth, courage, and solutions to lead humanity forward.
‘To change everything, we need everyone,’ is the theme at the heart of All We Can Save. If feminism is a movement based on the liberation of all people, climate change must be a feminist issue. For too long women were left out of the climate action conversation, the book describes a renaissance where women are the power behind finding solutions today. The leadership needed ‘is more characteristically feminine and more faithfully feminist’, rooted in compassion, connection, creativity, and collaboration. Reviews say after reading All We Can Save you will walk away hopeful and inspired in the possibilities to save our planet.
Q: WHAT SPARKED YOUR INTEREST TO CREATE ALL WE CAN SAVE?
A.E.J.: Frustration and rage. There are so many brilliant, innovative, and effective women doing climate work whose expertise is ignored and whose work is not being resourced. If society continues to ignore these voices, we will simply fail at addressing the climate crisis. So, because my co-editor Dr. Katharine Wilkinson and I are dorks, we thought an anthology might help.’
Q: DESCRIBE YOUR PROCESS IN CREATING ALL WE CAN SAVE (I.E. WRITING, DESIGN, CHOOSING TOPICS, CURATION OF VOICES REPRESENTED)
AEJ: Step one was a spreadsheet. (That is often step one for our projects!) As we were curating the group of anthology contributors we sought diversity in a broad sense – race, age, geography, areas of expertise, etc. – so we had columns for each of those. Then we found Madeleine Jubilee Saito’s poignant art, which is the perfect way to open each section. Then we realized this book simply must have poetry interspersed throughout, and we went on a hunt for the perfect poems. And to include even more voices we added interstitial quotes from yet more women climate leaders. The book was supposed to be about 20 essays but it grew to 41 before our editing made us stop.
Q: HOW DID YOU FIND YOUR VOICE?
AEJ: Trial and error. And not being cool as a kid was a huge gift. When you totally give up on being cool and you realize how high the stakes are for the future of life on this planet, it’s much easier to just say what you think and feel. I also take constructive criticism very seriously and use it to hone the way I communicate.
Q: WOMEN ARE ONE OF THE MOST VULNERABLE GROUPS IN CLIMATE CHANGE, IN YOUR OPINION WOULD YOU AGREE? IF SO, WHY?
AEJ: Luckily, I do not have to rely on my opinion. It is robustly supported by evidence that women are disproportionately more vulnerable to climate change. This is true from New Orleans to Bangladesh. The most concise explanation is that climate change exacerbates existing inequalities, placing the most risk on those who are already vulnerable.
“It is robustly supported by evidence that women are disproportionately more vulnerable to climate change. This is true from New Orleans to Bangladesh. The most concise explanation is that climate change exacerbates existing inequalities, placing the most risk on those who are already vulnerable.”
Q: WHAT ADVICE WOULD YOU GIVE AN INDIVIDUAL LOOKING TO MAKE POSITIVE ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT IN THEIR LOCAL COMMUNITY?
AEJ: Do it! Decide what climate challenge you want to work on and what you, specifically you, can do to contribute to solutions. And don’t do it alone. Gather your crew, contribute to the efforts of an organization doing important work. And have fun with it – this is the work of our lifetimes and there’s no reason it needs to be miserable. Draw your own climate action Venn diagram if you think it would be helpful to sketch this out for yourself.
Q: WHAT DOES BEING A FEMINIST MEAN TO YOU?
AEJ: It means uplifting the voices of women doing important work on climate solutions, and throwing open the doors for more women to join us. This is a core element of the work of The All We Can Save Project, the nonprofit Katharine and I co-founded to carry forward the work that is unfurling from the anthology. The climate crisis is an all-hands-on-deck moment for humanity; it requires the full brilliance and ingenuity of our species. And that, obviously, must include women.
the EDITORS
Ayana Elizabeth Johnson (Left) Dr. Ayana Elizabeth Johnson, cofounder of All We Can Save Project, is a marine biologist, policy expert, writer, and Brooklyn native. She is founder of Urban Ocean Lab, a think tank for the future of coastal cities, co-host of the Spotify/ Gimlet podcast How to Save a Planet, and co-creator of the Blue New Deal.
@ayanaeliza
Katharine K. Wilkinson (Right) Dr. Katharine K. Wilkinson, cofounder of All We Can Save Project, is an author, strategist, teacher, and homegrown Atlantan, named one of 15 “women who will save the world” by Time magazine. Her writings include The Drawdown Review, the New York Times best-seller Drawdown, and Between God & Green.
@drkwilkinson
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