What If We Get It Right?: Visions of Climate Futures Hardcover – September 17, 2024

From Mark KleimanWhat If We Get It Right Ayanna Elizabeth JohnsonThis book represents a view of the world that is based upon scientific proof. Its objective is the need for a healthy balance between the individual needs of all life forms and their relational needs to maintain existence on this planet. My background, first as a scientist and later as a lawyer, social scientist and finally mediator, brought me to the same conclusion. The proof is that since everything in the universe is made up of energy, it is the nature of energy with its simultaneous individual and relational qualities that dictates the creation of all material in the universe including all life forms. The degree we maintain a balance between these two characteristics at every level from the elements to life itself dictates our future existence.This book describes the nature of all life on this planet, humanity’s place and the dynamics of how it is evolving. As the dominant life form, we have gained the ability to impact it in the most profound ways. This book describes the way we are threatening the existence of all life forms as we allow the dominance of individual needs and desires of our species to destroy the balance of all life forms including ourselves.What is most extraordinary about the book is that its major focus is not one of pending doom but rather how there are ways to reverse this process. Dr. Johnson interviews individuals round the world working to do so. From the pollution of the seas whose waters are the basis of life to the exhaustion of our forests and dirt leading to elimination of species and the nutrients that are the constituents of our food we have upset the balance to the degree that our health and ability to survive as a species is threatened.What Dr. Johnson does is to present through the voices of those who are doing the work, how we need to have the humility to see not only our contribution but how the very nature of all life gives us the blueprint for our salvation. She not only does this by having those who are working towards this end describe their accomplishments, but also, shows how our history as a species demonstrates that our very existence today is based upon the degree our species maintained a balance with the environment they lived within.Finally, she lays out strategies that have been successful and need to be expanded to educate, demonstrate, and legislate the way to regain this balance and with it the health of our species and this planet. This is both wakeup calls and a pathway to participate in the solution. With it we hope that this primal collective effort will be a substitute and framework for the political conflicts that threaten us in other ways. This book is both important and meaningful as it takes on the most urgent issue our civilization faces.

This was encouraging to read, I heard the author speak on NPR so wanted to read her book. She put a ton of research into this.

This is the book that we all need to be reading right now. Whether you’re new to climate solutions, a seasoned expert, or someone who really never saw yourself as part of it... get your butt in here and start reading (and doing)! I gained so much insight in each interview, and as I continued to read I realized how the previous conversations helped me listen deeper to the next ones. This collection of conversations provides practical and thoughtful solutions that we all can get around. Is it hard work? Of course it is. Can we build community and spread some joy doing it. Of course we can. Thank you Ayana and Company.

The variety of well written content makes this a very interesting book! Interviews, lists, poetry, etc. also make this a very useful book for sharing information & ideas with others.

I got this as a gift. The author is developing a vision of what a carbon neutral future could look like, which has been something most climate scientists haven't articulated well up to this point. The book presents a lot of new possibilities and provides readers with easy to understand explanations of the complex interplay between ecosystems and Earth's climate. My only criticism is in regards to some foul language in a few places. It would be helpful to their cause if authors of non-fiction and especially scientists could better resist the urge to indulge in the occasional cussing. Shame on the editor for not insisting those instances by the author (and some interviewees) were removed. Yes, it's a serious, dramatic issue. Yes, it helps to provide emphasis, but it also makes it less accessible to younger or more sensitive readers and removes an important collection of ground breaking ideas from public and private classrooms.

My sweetheart recommended this book to me during our second date and gave me a copy to read. By the time I finished reading the prelude and the introduction I had fallen in love. With the book. And with the person who shared it with me; and with the possibilities it shows are achievable if we get it right.It’s rare to find such a wonderful mix of practicality, imagination, wonky insight, inquisitiveness, wit, joy and keen style in one book. Reading it was deeply enjoyable. It left me convinced that the future could be an incredible place to live, and it gave me a sense of the lengthy to-do list that humanity (you & me & everyone) needs to work through if we’re going to ward off apocalypse and build the world we want.There’s even a playlist to rock out to while we work!

Most climate books make me want to crawl into a bunker, but this one is a JOY while still delivering amazing intel. It starts with a treasure hunt and then just gets better and better. I wish I could’ve been at the book launch that Jason Sudeikis (Ted Lasso) hosted with Ayana. I think you should get it, to read in pieces or even just to leave in your house as conversation topic and to make you look smart.

Buy a well written book that confronts the climate crisis head on, while working with the assumption that we have all the science we need to fix the problems.