Beginning to End the Climate Crisis
A History of Our Future
In Beginning to End the Climate Crisis Luisa Neubauer and Alexander Repenning show just how hard young people, who will pay the highest price if climate change goes unaddressed, are fighting to affect international political agendas.
Neubauer is the co-founder of the German climate-strike movement Fridays for Future, and Repenning also has activism experience via Right Livelihood. In this slim book, they personalize the fight for climate justice, discussing how they first became aware of the climate crisis and showing how they got involved, encouraging people to “stop making the same mistakes over and over again.” They imagine what the world of 2050 will be like if people don’t change, envisioning a “future that is no longer a promise.” They reflect on how everyone, no matter how conscious they are about their ecological footprint, can’t help but make some choices that contribute to warming the planet. And they share their experiences with lobbying powerful figures like former German chancellor Angela Merkel, urging them to take bold steps.
Alongside these compelling personal stories are cautionary tales from around the world. The case of the island nation of Nauru and its large phosphate deposits shows how short-term needs and economic incentives doomed the once-rich nation to poverty once the phosphate ran out. And there’s a rundown of early climate science, led by Charles Keeling and others, that reveals missed opportunities in the 1980s and 1990s to take international action on that science. The book recounts how past mistakes have snowballed to create the current crisis, and stresses how essential it is that people work to avoid similar mistakes.
Beginning to End the Climate Crisis acknowledges the challenge of affecting long-term change, but says that it’s important to keep trying.
Reviewed by
Jeff Fleischer
Disclosure: This article is not an endorsement, but a review. The publisher of this book provided free copies of the book to have their book reviewed by a professional reviewer. No fee was paid by the publisher for this review. Foreword Reviews only recommends books that we love. Foreword Magazine, Inc. is disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255.
