Not Too Late: Changing the Climate Story from Despair to Possibility
Edited by Rebecca Solnit and Thelma Young Lutunatabua
Climate+ Challenge Book Club
March 13, 1 p.m. on Teams
The KPU Climate+ Challenge and the KPU Library invite you to join us for a virtual book club where we will be discussing Not Too Late: Changing the Climate Story from Despair to Possibility, edited by Rebecca Solnit and Thelma Young Lutunatabua. American author Rebecca Solnit is well known for her essay collections, tackling subjects from climate change to Indigenous rights to the joys of walking to the meaning of art. In Not Too Late, with her co-editor Thelma Young Lutunatabua, she gives us the case for climate hope.
The book is a collection of essays contributed by both Solnit and Lutunatabua as well as dozens of other people from around the world, all involved in the climate discussion. It’s easy to read, written in bite-size chunks, and makes the case for hope, which as Solnit argues, will be the driving force for change. Hope means a person can see a possible positive future, one they can help shape. Hope also comes with responsibility. “Hope is not like a lottery ticket you can sit on the sofa and clutch, feeling lucky. Hope is an axe you break down doors with, in an emergency,” Solnit writes in the book.
To learn more, pick up a copy of Not Too Late at the KPU library, and join us for the March 13 online discussion (link below), facilitated by KPU Journalism Instructor and former Vancouver Sun books editor Tracy Sherlock, who interviewed Solnit for Montecristo Magazine earlier this year. Questions? Ask Us or email Tracy Sherlock at tracy.sherlock@kpu.ca.
Event details: Climate+ Challenge Book Club
Book: Not Too Late: Changing the Climate Story from Despair to Possibility, edited by Rebecca Solnit and Thelma Young Lutunatabua
When: Wednesday, March 13, 1:00 PM to 2:00 PM
Where: Online, Microsoft Teams. Click here to access the event.
Event description: KPU Journalism instructor, Tracy Sherlock, will facilitate a book club discussion about the book. The discussion will be informal - your thoughts, ideas, and feelings relating to the book are all welcome topics!
Fire Weather: The Making of a Beast by John Vaillant
KPU Library and the KPU Climate+ Challenge invites you to join us for a virtual book club where we will be discussing Fire Weather: The Making of a Beast by local author John Vaillant.
Critics have called Fire Weather a “stunning account of a colossal wildfire” and a “panoramic exploration” of the rapidly changing nature of wildfire and our relationship to it. Weaving together an account of the 2016 Fort McMurray disaster with the legacy of this continent’s fossil fuel industries, Vaillant paints the shocking picture of a new kind of fire that is burning hotter and with more intensity than what we have previously known. Read against the backdrop of this latest fire season in British Columbia and around the world, Fire Weather is both an urgent call to action and a warning of this new destructive force.
Reading Fire Weather this summer, seeing reports of wildfires in Greece, Hawaii, Chile, Australia, and speaking to friends as they fled their homes in the Yukon and the interior of B.C. means this book’s topic is already a reality for too many people around the world. John Valliant’s writing hits hard - he looks at just how we got to this point, he is unequivocal about the role of fossil fuels, and he covers the risks we face. I look forward to discussing ways to integrate the content into student learning.” (Sue Fairburn, Design Faculty / Researcher)
John Vaillant is winner of the Governor General's Literary Award for The Golden Spruce and British Columbia's National Award for Canadian Non-Fiction for The Tiger. He has written for, among others, The New Yorker, The Atlantic, National Geographic, and The Walrus. Fire Weather was recently longlisted for the 2023 National Book Awards. John Vaillant lives in Vancouver.
We invite you to read or listen to the book in print, ebook, or audiobook format and sign up for the online discussion, facilitated by KPU Melville School of Business instructor Christina Shorthouse. Students and employees welcome!
Questions? Ask Us or email Sue Fairburn.
Event Details & Registration: Climate+ Challenge Book ClubBook: Fireweather: The Making of a Beast, by John Vaillant When: Wednesday, November 15, 2:30 PM to 3:30 PM Where: Online, Microsoft Teams. Click here to access the event. Event description: Wilson School of Design instructor, Sue Fairburn, will facilitate a book club discussion about the book. The discussion will be informal - your thoughts, ideas, and feelings relating to the book are all welcome topics! Please register below! | Image
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Past Climate+ Challenge Books
The Intersectional Environmentalist: How to Dismantle Systems of Oppression to Protect People + Planet, by Leah Thomas. Described as “an essential read” that will “give voice to a movement that will define a generation” and “essential brain food,” The Intersectional Environmentalist is a collage of history, inconvenient truths, first-person wisdom, and resources that demonstrate how “social injustice and environmental injustice are fueled by the same flame” and start people on the path of dismantling systemic oppression. It educates readers on the intersectionality of women’s rights, civil rights, social justice, and environmental justice, highlighting the movements and activists that have led up to our current moment. | Image
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The Ministry for the Future, by Kim Stanley Robinson. Described as "masterly"; and "extraordinary", the novel is an innovative blend of science fiction and non-fiction, describing a possible near-term future on our overheating planet and humanity’s attempts to deal with the multiple crises of climate change. On many "best of the year" lists, the book brings a human face to a number of the challenges of and solutions to the climate crisis. | Image
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Generation Dread: Finding Purpose in an Age of Climate Crisis, by Britt Wray. Described as “courageous,” “compelling,” and “extraordinary,” Generation Dread is part memoir and part guidebook. It charts a course through the myriad of emotions humans face when confronting the climate crisis and reveals how to harness them in connection with others to take action for a better future. It was a finalist for the 2022 Governor General’s award for non-fiction. Britt Wray, born and raised in Toronto, is a Human and Planetary Health Postdoctoral Fellow at the Stanford Center for Innovation in Global Health. Her research focuses on several intersections of mental health and the climate crisis – impacts on emerging adults and frontline community members, building socio-emotional resilience, and public engagement for improved mental and planetary health. | Image
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