As a 16-year-old in suburban Maryland, I was focused on rectifying injustices: my lack of unlimited car privileges, the soul-sucking drudgery of my minimum-wage job, and the offenses committed by anyone suggesting *NSYNC was better than the Backstreet Boys. One thing I was not focused on: the climate.
Thankfully for humanity, many of today’s teens and young adults are not quite so self-involved. Seventeen-year-old Swedish activist Greta Thunberg has become the most iconic example of youth climate advocacy. But she’s far from alone, and to get a better sense of her peers, we turn to a familiar voice.
United We Are Unstoppable is the first book by Race to Zero founder and Quartz alumnus Akshat Rathi, who spoke with 60 young activists in 40 countries about the climate fight and what’s at stake. Writes Rathi:
“Even as the world faces a different global threat in the Covid-19 pandemic, seeing these young people continue protests online, rebuffing attacks and accusations while remaining firmly grounded in science and humility, is proof that the movement is likely to endure.”
The book’s stories are powerful and myriad: a Curaçao native whose high school shuts its windows against airborne toxic chemicals from a nearby refinery. A 17-year-old in China who launched a tree-planting campaign to press her government on its climate goals. A young woman in Uzbekistan who worries about her nation’s access to fresh water.
Throughout, there are common threads: conviction, determination, and the inability to sit back as a catastrophe unfolds. “Climate change produces a sort of existential anxiety in me,” writes Brandon Nguyen, a 20-year-old from Canada. “I feel an overwhelming urge to change the course of society.”
What they said
Here are some of the most powerful quotes from United We Are Unstoppable:
🇨🇦 “Put yourself in my shoes. Imagine you’re my age. You can’t vote, and the leaders of your country aren’t doing their jobs. I want you to understand how scared I am; how I worry about my family every day; and how I have debated whether or not I should choose my education or my future.” —Cecilia La Rose, 16, Canada
🇸🇳 “We, the southern countries, produce less than 1% of global gas emissions but we are suffering the full brunt of the disastrous effects of climate change. So are we collateral damage? Do they not realize that we are all part of the same world?” —Ndéye Marie Aida Ndieguene, 24, Senegal
🇳🇿 “Kia kaha. Stay strong. I know it feels terrible and overwhelming, like there is no one else out there who cares, but know that I am out there. The best time to act was when we first found out about climate change. The second best time is now.” —Lourdes Faith Auhura Parehuia, 18, New Zealand
What the kids are into
- Parental support. Many of the young adults in United We Are Unstoppable spoke of reluctant support from parents who were worried about their level of focus on climate change. “My parents are a mixture of proud and concerned,” says Payton Mitchell in Canada. “They’re proud of me for overcoming obstacles and fighting for what I believe in, but they’re also worried I’m not taking my future seriously.”
- Respect from adults. Not being ignored is a constant theme among those interviewed. “A lot of people tend to brush me off because of my age,” says Theresa Rose Sebastian in Ireland. “They tell me that I am not mature enough to do something about climate change or even make a difference. But I have used this as more reason to make sure I am heard.”
- An Inconvenient Truth. Al Gore’s 2006 documentary was mentioned by a handful of the teens and young adults as one of the catalysts for their interest in climate change. As Rathi notes, “the film reportedly had a greater impact on public opinion about climate change than any scientific paper or report.”
Essential Reading
I asked your regular R2Z auteurs—Tim McDonnell and Michael J. Coren—to give me five other books I should read about climate change. They provided six (reporters!):
- Drawdown, The Book, edited by Paul Hawken. Written for those unafraid of a little technology, Drawdown outlines the best steps to preserve a habitable planet for our grandchildren, from microbial farming to wind turbines. It’s the clearest, most accessible summary of the solutions before us and, as a bonus, Project Drawdown is trying to make them a reality.
- A Sand County Almanac, by Aldo Leopold. In this meditation on a landscape recovering from the deprivations of humans, Leopold documents nature’s changes from a worn-out sand farm in the hills of Wisconsin. It considers what a thriving human life really looks like: “Now we face the question of whether a still ‘higher standard of living’ is worth its cost in things natural, wild, and free,” he writes. It couldn’t be more relevant today.
- Dark Money, by Jane Mayer. If you want to understand why the US government has lagged so far behind in responding to climate change, start here. Mayer, an investigative journalist for The New Yorker, provides a definitive history of Charles and David Koch, the billionaire brothers who have bankrolled think tanks and trade groups that leached climate denial and environmental deregulation into the American political system.
- What We Know About Climate Change, by Kerry Emanuel. The best short, simple introduction to essential climate science, by an MIT hurricane researcher who knows the field as well as anyone can. One key takeaway: The most fundamental questions about the geophysics of global warming—i.e., does CO2 cause the planet to warm—are pretty straightforward, and have been answered for a century. Read it in an afternoon, and you’ll be well-armed against any stray uncles who still think the facts are in doubt.
- American War, by Omar El Akkad. By now the physical impacts of climate change are familiar: droughts, floods, hurricanes. But what about the impact to a country’s social fabric? In a dystopian novel whose blasted landscape and characters will look familiar to Cormac McCarthy fans, El Akkad imagines a not-so-distant future in which a ban on fossil fuels becomes the most divisive issue since slavery—with similar results.
- Cadillac Desert, by Marc Reisner. “Water flows uphill toward money,” writes the author. He might as well have added oil. Resiner’s masterful history traces the development of the American West, and presages the battles to come over precious resources in stressed environments.
Summer reading
Books aren’t the only thing worth investing in: To read everything Quartz, consider becoming a member. It’s the best thing you can do to support our journalism. Enjoy 50% off your first year by taking advantage of our summer sale, a deal as hot as Death Valley in August.
Stats to remember
As of Aug. 19, the concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere was 412.15 ppm. A year ago, the level was 410.28 ppm.
Have a great weekend. Please send feedback and tips to tmcdonnell@qz.com and mjc@qz.com.