Here’s an exercise for you: Imagine the trajectory of our current climate crisis.
You probably don’t have to imagine too hard what this future will look like as we see it playing out in the present: cities ripped apart by massive hurricanes, thousands displaced by wildfires, lives consumed by extreme heat. All this is enough to make a man freeze with fear.
But there is a flip side to this terror.
Such a universal problem inherently requires innovative solutions and adaptation of epic proportions. So here’s another exercise: close your eyes and think, what would a world be like that not only took the climate crisis seriously but looked at it as a challenge?
Envisioning a better future in the face of serious climate threats may seem like lofty daydreaming, especially when we consider the inaction of our world leaders. But Ayanna Elizabeth Johnson, a marine biologist and climate policy wonk, has spent most of her career dreaming up and coming up with climate solutions — and she knows that nihilism and avoidance will get us nowhere.
In his recently published book, What if we get it right? A view of the climate future, Johnson tackles how we can change the way we live, think and work to prevent the worst of climate change. He expertly weaves his conversations with scientists, artists, and activists to create a practical and accessible guidebook to the full range of possibilities for a more just future—even for the most environmentally concerned.
“Danger and possibility coexist,” he wrote in the book. Of course, he’s well aware of what a big environmental mess our world is in, but you can’t live in his worst-case scenario for long. “We’re pretty fucked,” Johnson told Vox in his September interview gray area“But there’s a lot we can do for a better possible future.”
Johnson is particularly adept at speaking to those who know the climate crisis is real but have a tendency to bury their heads in the sand at the thought of such a massive existential crisis. Although he’s open about the state of our world’s environmental health, he speaks and writes with a powerful clarity — whether it’s conversing with climate advocates on his behalf. book tour Or breaking down big environmental questions as a podcast co-host How to save a planet.
Johnson’s understanding of our instinct to run away from climate problems made it imperative for him to explore possibilities to address them and take action beyond protesting or voting. These are important systems, Johnson believes, but broader ones that don’t necessarily mesh well with our individual experiences, skills, and interests.
For Johnson, a Brooklyn native who calls the ocean his love before it becomes his career, it looks like co-founding. Urban Ocean Lab (UOL) in 2018. The nonprofit think tank specializes in research on U.S. coastal cities — places that 1 in 5 Americans make phone calls at home and often vulnerable to some of the worst environmental disasters – and developing just, realistic policy recommendations for these regions
One such recommendation is UOL’s Climate Preparedness Framework For coastal cities. It is a comprehensive collection of more than 70 actions that coastal communities can implement to better adapt to current and future climate risks, such as working with community-based organizations to strengthen disaster preparedness plans and housing relocation programs for low-income residents and people of color. to develop Living in climate-protected places.
The Caribbean in particular has a special place in Johnson’s heart – his late father hails from Jamaica, whose Suffering from water pollution and overfishing. “To me, ocean conservation is part of cultural conservation,” she writes after reflecting on her father’s life between Jamaica and New York City. “We’re losing something more fundamental than food: a way of life.”
It makes sense that Johnson also worked to improve the waters around these islands. Before founding UOL, he led an ocean management policy project called the Blue Halo Initiative at the Waite Institute, where he served as executive director. starting Barbuda In 2013, Johnson focused on community engagement, interviewing hundreds of fishermen and residents to develop policy recommendations to better conserve the water and the species within it. Exactly one year later, Barbuda Council signed into law A set of ocean zoning principles to protect underwater ecosystems and ensure sustainable fishing. These efforts were soon replicated in Montserrat and Curacao.
Johnson’s respect for the ocean and the career he built has also permeated the American political arena. In 2019, the Green New Deal, a set of proposed progressive climate policies, was supported by left-leaning candidates up and down the ballot. It had only one problem with Johnson: it left our oceans almost entirely. “I was annoyed by the brief transfer of the ocean to the Green New Deal resolution — a single, vague reference to the ocean,” Johnson wrote. What if we get it right?
That summer, Johnson co-authored an op-ed in Grist on the subject big blue gap And what solution to fill it with. Later that year, Johnson was approached by Sen. Elizabeth Warren’s 2020 presidential campaign to help write Blue New DealAn official policy platform for the Warren campaign. It was an extensive list of actions such as expanding marine protected areas, building climate-smart ports and holding Big Agriculture accountable for water pollution. When Johnson later met with Warren, he wrote: What if we get it right? That he “told me that the plan got the most excited mention in his selfie lines.” And when Joe Biden won the Democratic nomination and election, his administration became the first to form a federal Ocean Climate Action The plan — which includes elements similar to the Blue New Deal — came after dozens of businesses and organizations (including UOL) pressured the White House to do so.
There are many studies that show that being in nature helps our physical and mental well-being, so it is not surprising that preserving our environment is important to many people. A word that Johnson often uses and embodies is “biophilia”: the love of nature and life, and, in his words, “a powerful driving force for conservation.”
With that in mind, I have one more exercise for you: Think of moments you’ve experienced biophilia. Maybe you’ve once walked through a lush forest, swam in a pristine lake, or seen nearby snow-capped mountains. Perhaps you have encountered one of the millions of amazing creatures that live in this ecosystem. But how can one retain this sense of biophilia if so many ways in our lives destroy its essence?
All the more reason not to let our worries get us down and try to fix it instead, just like Johnson did. his extensive expertise in climate policy; a deeply empathetic and inclusive lens for climate solutions; And his unwavering, infectious biophilia made him a bold visionary to pursue climate space.
How appropriate is the lover of the sea making waves.
