Saving Earth: Climate Change and the Fight for Our Future

Rhuday-Perkovich, Olugbemisola.  Saving Earth: Climate Change and the Fight for Our Future.  Farrar Strauss Giroux, 2022.

Pages:  200

Age Range: 12 and up

Genre: Nonfiction

Setting: This book tells of climate change and its effects all over the world.

Merits:

This book is logically arranged to explain the history of climate change from its discovery to its battle for change to save the world.  

Illustrations by Tim Foley are at times humorous and at others much like political cartoons.  They add a great deal to the text, especially when the political history renders the topic dry.

Throughout the book, quotes are displayed by many people - famous as well as young people trying to make their world safe for everyone.

The book represents great diversity by sharing not only the United States involvement and resistance to addressing the issues of climate change but by also showing how young people can make a difference when the politicians cannot agree.  The book focuses on how climate change is addressed in other nations as well as how it affects those less fortunate, especially black and brown people as well as indigenous peoples.

Despite the concerns of how climate change will affect people in the future and the negative political action to protect humanity, the book has a very positive message concerning young people by showing how many have already made a difference and by encouraging young people to keep working to make their world safer.

Unique Quality: 

The artwork and quotes are uniquely displayed; they call attention to important text, lighten the mood at times, and inspire readers by the thoughts and actions of those involved in the process of affecting change.

Another unique quality involves how key terms are explained to the reader.  One might think this book is only meant for young people, but adults can also benefit from these explanations.

Detractors: 

The only detractor seems to be the dry quality of the text at times, especially in showing the political back and forth movements in this international crisis.  

A Few Quotes:

Ch. 6, p. 67  “After the publication of the National Academy of Science’s 1979 report, the gas and oil company Exxon decided to create its own carbon dioxide research program.  Exxon wasn’t that focussed on how much the world would warm.  It wanted to know how much of the warming could be blamed on Exxon.

Exxon had been tracking the carbon dioxide problem since before it was Exxon.  In 1957, scientists from its predecessor, Humble Oil, published a study analyzing ‘the enormous quantity of carbon dioxide’ contributed to the atmosphere since the Industrial Revolution ‘from the combustion of fossil fuels.’”   (Is anyone else wondering about 1957?  Why has so little been done when evidence was shown all the way back in 1957?

Ch. 15 - p. 171 - “Isra Hirsi is also thinking of transforming the world.  At sixteen, she was one of the founders of the U.S. Youth Climate Strike.  ‘Getting young people out, going to state capitols, going to city halls, going to the nation’s capitol and talking about these things, that says something,’ she believes.  ‘That’s what we’re trying to do.  Change the conversation, not only about things like the Green New Deal but so much more.’”

Ch. 15 - p. 173 - “And the climate conversation is not just about health and recycling.  ‘For us, it’s about our islands sinking.  Our culture - all of it - would go away,’ eighteen year old Pone Aisea of Portland, Oregon, told the New York Times.  Aisea’s family is from the island of Tonga. Many families in her community have roots in places most vulnerable to the effects of the climate crisis.  So she and the students at her high school formed the Pacific Islander Club and in 2016 got the school board to adopt the resolution that called for including the climate crisis in the curriculum of Portland public schools.”

Plot:

This book tells the history of the fight to solve climate change from the early discoveries of what carbon dioxide emissions were doing to the ozone to the political battles to create laws to protect the environment.   Throughout the book, text tells of how other nations deal with the crisis as well as the political machination in the United States.  In addition, many environment groups are discussed and emphasis is placed on how climate change is being caused by the largest and wealthiest of nations but will also affect those who leave almost no carbon footprint.  The actions of young people are highlighted through the book to show that anyone can help in this battle to keep the planet healthy for its people.