Solnit is eager to emphasise that motion on the local weather disaster can have “oblique penalties”—pointing to the story of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez for instance. Whereas working as a bartender, the U.S. congresswoman joined the Standing Rock protests, which befell in response to the deliberate development of the Dakota Entry Pipeline. Though the pipeline in the end went forward, the knock-on results for the environmental motion have been quite a few—with Ocasio-Cortez later occurring to suggest the Green New Deal in Congress. 

“One other one of many frameworks individuals have that makes them really feel defeatist is the concept in case you can’t see rapid, direct, apparent outcomes from doing one thing, it had no impression,” Solnit says. “And but, the best way that change truly occurs is usually sluggish, oblique, unpredictable;  it’s a must to stick round.“ 

One other frequent false impression that’s challenged within the guide is the idea that tackling the local weather disaster means adopting a shortage mindset. “Individuals suppose we reside in an age of abundance and local weather requires austerity,” Solnit explains, talking with the identical pinpoint readability with which she writes. “We stand that on its head in so some ways. We reside in an age of austerity: austerity of hope, austerity of group, austerity of fresh air and water. We reside in a world the place greater than eight million people a yr die simply from one side of fossil fuels, which is airborne particulates.“

Whether or not you’re already closely concerned within the local weather motion or a whole newcomer, the essays are an energizing learn that can undoubtedly provide you with hope—the energetic sort, not the passive sort—for the long run. The lasting message we must always take away? “Combat like hell, and don’t surrender,” Solnit concludes. 

Not Too Late, edited by Rebecca Solnit and Thelma Younger Lutunatabua and printed by Haymarket Books, is out now.