Under the Sky We Make

themselves. Once they're gone, living memory of Clara will wane and eventually the stories they shared of her will disappear too. Clara's life, as real and as vivid and important as mine or anyone else's, will fade into the background of the human tapestry. But her carbon will outlast us all.



I don't know the name of Clara's mother's mother's mother. She would have been born in black-soil country sometime around 1800, so I can guess that she was part of a big family, all of whom worked hard on the farm. I like to imagine them playing music around the fire at night. But here's one thing I know for sure: A portion of the carbon sent skyward from the wood they burned to stay warm-and the carbon they released plowing the rich black soil-is still in our air today, and it will be for at least the next three hundred generations.



I don't know what Clara was thinking when she decided to risk the perilous journey to a new land and leave behind everything she knew. I don't know how much thought she gave to her potential descendants and the life they would have as a result of her choice, or how much she was motivated by her own more immediate desires. Nevertheless, she set in motion a chain of events that shaped my life, giving me more choices, more freedoms, more privilege. I'm deeply grateful to her as a good ancestor.



Everyone alive today is skywriting the most important legacy of their lives in atmospheric carbon. Long after our names and faces and deeds have faded from living memory, long after any genetic or creative or physical or digital traces of us are gone, this carbon legacy will define us in the minds and stories of our distant descendants. It will literally define the terms of their lives: where they can live, how they can make a living, what kind of civilization and nature surround them. We will be remembered for our carbon legacy by far more people than we'll ever share a meal with or know by name.



Carbon Is Forever



"A diamond is foreve

relentlessly brings things down to the personal level....Libraries wondering if they really need another title on climate change should rest reassured; this is a realistic, accessible, and clarion call for change...Students will enjoy Nicholas's wry observations and appreciate her approachable insights as well as her "key take-aways" from every chapter." --Booklist (starred)

Lund University climate scientist Nicholas delivers a user-friendly survey of the current state of the knowledge on climate change Readers looking to save the world and humanity should take an interest in this harm-reducing program. Kirkus
 
[Nicholas] makes a hopeful, clear-eyed, and at times hilarious guide to effecting radical change in our society and culture starting with our own lives. New York Public Library

An antidote to climate nihilism. [It] address[es] the tangled roots of the current environmental crisis but also explain[s] the global necessary to move toward a carbon-free future. Outside

In these pages, Dr. Kimberly Nicholas takes us by the hand to explore our most important questions about the climate crisis: What s happening? What next? And most importantly how do I leverage my power to help make things better for everyone, for generations to come? Educational and galvanizing, this book is part memoir, part exposé, part warm conversation with a friend and it is a soul-stirring call to action. --Dr. Lucy Kalanithi, Clinical Associate Professor of Medicine, Stanford University, and widow of Paul Kalanithi, author of When Breath Becomes Air

"A beautiful book wise, painful, transformative about all that we might still save. Reading it forced me to dig deep within myself, to try to find answers to what I cared about most, what I believed. " Jayson Greene, author of Once More We Saw Stars