What Can I Do?
The Path from Climate Despair to Action
(Sprache: Englisch)
A call to action from Jane Fonda, one of the most inspiring activists of our time, urging us to wake up to the looming disaster of climate change and equipping us with the tools we need to join her in protest
In 2019, daunted by the looming...
In 2019, daunted by the looming...
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A call to action from Jane Fonda, one of the most inspiring activists of our time, urging us to wake up to the looming disaster of climate change and equipping us with the tools we need to join her in protestIn 2019, daunted by the looming disaster of climate change and inspired by Greta Thunberg, Naomi Klein, and student climate strikers, Jane Fonda asked herself one question: What can I do?
Jane Fonda, one of the most influential activists of our time, moved to Washington, D.C., and has since led thousands of people in demonstrations on Capitol Hill. In launching Fire Drill Fridays, Fonda teamed up with Greenpeace, leading climate scientists, and community organizers not only to understand what s at stake, but to equip all of us with the education and tools we need to join her in protest.
What Can I Do? isn t a wish list it s a to-do list. So many of us recognize the urgency in stemming the tide of climate change but aren t sure where to start. Our window of opportunity to act is quickly closing. And it isn t only Earth s life-support systems that are unraveling, so too is our social fabric. This is going to take an all-out war on drilling, fracking, deregulation, racism, misogyny, colonialism, and despair all at the same time. The problems we face now require every one of us to join the fight for not only our immediate future, but for the future of generations to come.
100% of the author's net proceeds from What Can I Do? have gone to Greenpeace
Lese-Probe zu „What Can I Do? “
Chapter OneThe Wake-Up Call
During Labor Day weekend in 2019, I was in Big Sur with my pals Catherine Keener and Rosanna Arquette. I have a history with Big Sur dating back to 1961, when I first ventured there by myself in search of Henry Miller. I had just read a pamphlet he wrote, To Paint Is to Love Again, and I wanted to meet him and talk. He wasn't there, but I ended up spending a week at the hot springs (later to become Esalen), and it was transformative.
Now here I was once again in need of transformation. I've been an environmental activist since the 1970s, installing a windmill at my ranch in 1978 and solar heating and electricity in my Santa Monica home in 1981, speaking at rallies, attending Greenpeace marches in both the United States and Canada, and later getting an electric car, stopping my use of single-use plastic, recycling, and cutting back on red meat. But I was still ill at ease. Existential angst? I had just learned that there are 2.9 billion fewer birds in North America than there were in 1970; I knew that sea turtles are strangling from tumors caused by pollution in the oceans; whales are found dead with fifty pounds of plastic in their bellies; polar bears are starving; 93 percent of children worldwide are breathing polluted air that is endangering their health; and untold numbers of people were living in the midst of oil wells and refineries that were causing them major health problems. But I hadn't really focused on what the scientists were saying. I knew we needed to reduce fossil fuel use and invest in clean energy alternatives, fast, but these things remained a disturbing reality sitting out there somewhere, removed from me. I hadn't taken it in and metabolized it. Instead, I would wonder if perhaps humankind deserved the fate it had created. I remembered what E. O. Wilson said decades ago, which I paraphrase: God granted the gift of intelligence to the wrong
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species. It should have gone to non-meat-eating creatures with no thumbs such as whales and dolphins. I agreed. Just get rid of us Homo sapiens ASAP and things will restore themselves.
But all the while, I knew this fatalist thinking was a cop-out, and I didn't like myself for it. I'd be reminded of the recent birth of my grandson, and my two older grandkids, and the many people out there fighting for a better planet. No, fatalism couldn't be for me. Yet I was compartmentalizing my grief rather than letting it into my heart.
Catherine Keener reminded me recently how, on the five-hour drive to Big Sur, she would go on an hourly rant: What can I do? Tell me what to do! Where are the leaders? I need someone to tell me what to do! I felt impotent, angry with myself for my inability to give her the answers she needed because I felt the same way. What can I do?
The very morning we left for Big Sur, I'd received an advance copy of Naomi Klein's new book, On Fire: The (Burning) Case for a Green New Deal. All my life, the exact book I needed without even knowing it had come to me at the perfect time and changed my trajectory. Here it was again. I began reading it the next day, and a quarter of the way through I was shaking with intensity.
Over time, I've asked myself what it was about Naomi's book that so affected me. One was the way she wrote about Greta Thunberg, the sixteen-year-old Swedish activist who, in 2018, started a movement called Fridays for Future that had inspired school strikes for climate action around the world, involving millions of students. I knew about Greta. A lot had been written about her, including that she was on the autism spectrum. But until Naomi, I hadn't understood what that had to do with the power of her connection to the climate crisis and the way she communicated about it. Naomi explained that unlike the rest of us, people with Asperger's don't look around and take cues about how to
But all the while, I knew this fatalist thinking was a cop-out, and I didn't like myself for it. I'd be reminded of the recent birth of my grandson, and my two older grandkids, and the many people out there fighting for a better planet. No, fatalism couldn't be for me. Yet I was compartmentalizing my grief rather than letting it into my heart.
Catherine Keener reminded me recently how, on the five-hour drive to Big Sur, she would go on an hourly rant: What can I do? Tell me what to do! Where are the leaders? I need someone to tell me what to do! I felt impotent, angry with myself for my inability to give her the answers she needed because I felt the same way. What can I do?
The very morning we left for Big Sur, I'd received an advance copy of Naomi Klein's new book, On Fire: The (Burning) Case for a Green New Deal. All my life, the exact book I needed without even knowing it had come to me at the perfect time and changed my trajectory. Here it was again. I began reading it the next day, and a quarter of the way through I was shaking with intensity.
Over time, I've asked myself what it was about Naomi's book that so affected me. One was the way she wrote about Greta Thunberg, the sixteen-year-old Swedish activist who, in 2018, started a movement called Fridays for Future that had inspired school strikes for climate action around the world, involving millions of students. I knew about Greta. A lot had been written about her, including that she was on the autism spectrum. But until Naomi, I hadn't understood what that had to do with the power of her connection to the climate crisis and the way she communicated about it. Naomi explained that unlike the rest of us, people with Asperger's don't look around and take cues about how to
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Autoren-Porträt von Jane Fonda
Jane Fonda is a two-time Oscar winner and an Emmy award winning American actress and a political activist. She sits on the boards of V-Day: Until the Violence Stops, the Women s Media Center (which she cofounded in 2004), the Georgia Campaign for Adolescent Power & Potential, and Homeboy Industries. She lives in Los Angeles.
Bibliographische Angaben
- Autor: Jane Fonda
- 2021, 368 Seiten, 4 Abbildungen, Maße: 14 x 21,3 cm, Kartoniert (TB), Englisch
- Verlag: PENGUIN BOOKS
- ISBN-10: 0593296249
- ISBN-13: 9780593296240
- Erscheinungsdatum: 06.09.2021
Sprache:
Englisch
Pressezitat
" What Can I Do? isn t a rhetorical question...The Oscar Award-winning actress and committed activist sounds the alarm on looming climate disaster, providing readers with actions they can take to create positive change in a world on the brink." USA Today"An informative guide to getting involved in the fight against climate change." Publishers Weekly
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