Writing And Talking About Climate Change

AS CLIMATE CHANGE gradually, and then not so gradually engulfs us, we are going to be talking about it more and more, more and more is going to be written about it, and you are going to hear ever more about it. Also, we are all going to experience it, firsthand. The fact that it is real, is here to stay, was caused by us and can be dealt with by us will become so apparent as to be endeniable. Resistance to the reality of human made climate change is crumbling, predictably. Most of the books about cliamte change so far have been written by male scientists, which is perfectly fine. It probably benefits us all, however, to get as many diverse perspectives as possible on this incredibly important topic, including that of women. Two recently published books on climate change by female authors both make such fundamental, illuminating, semminal observations about climate change and its relationship to the human species that the female point of view is now gloriously available to anyone and everyone. "Under the Sky We Make: How To Be Human In A Warming World", by emminent climate scientist Dr. Kimberly Nicholas, of Lund University in Sweden, presents a persuasive, hopeful, optimistic outlook on climate change, from a sociological point of view She seeks to dispell the false notion the in a world dominated by money and corporat owe, the individual is helpless and ineffective. She convincingly demonstartes numerous ways in which we can all make a difference by changing our own lives, and by participating in organized social change. "Diversifying Power: Why We Need Antiracist, Feminist Leadership On Climate and Energy", by energy expert Jennie Stephens, approaches the topic from the top down, rather than the bottom up. She argues that in order for society as a whole to effectively address climate change and stop it, society will have to establish completely new leadership, world wide, leaders independent of corporate control, leaders not owned by the plutocracy, leaders who can successfully integrate social and economic justice into climate and energy policy. And all this is very true, of course. Humanity is not going to address and effectively deal with climate change under the present leadership, which is inextricably intertwined with the fossil fuel industry. Large scale popular working class movements demanding social, econoimc, and climate justice will ahve to emerge and sieze power from the corporate elite, our current masters. Power is never handed over willingly; it must be seized, and this is done in a democracy with powerful, well organized political movements. We the people must insist on investment in mass public transportation, health care for all, sustainable agriculture, greater political and economic equality, gender, ethnic, and racial equality. The stark reality is this: we can still save ourselves, and the planet, from climate change. But doing so will require dramatic, fundamental, sometimes painful changes in our lives, all of our lives. This cannot be done by embracing backward looking conservatism, clinging to some romantic notion of the past, resisting all change, and aspiring to backwards rather than forwards.