# All We Can Save — Community Discussion Guide  A companion to *[[All We Can Save]]: Truth, Courage, and Solutions for the Climate Crisis*. Use this alongside the highlights to facilitate positive, connection-oriented conversations in small community groups. --- ## About Circles "Circles are designed to strengthen the 'we' in *All We Can Save*. Like a book club, but a cooler, deeper version—Circles use the anthology to ground a 10-session, small-group experience that thousands have enjoyed." (Created by Dr Katharine Wilkinson.) > "I'm astounded by how transformed and motivated I feel to do more after reading this book and participating in the Circle, and not out of fear but out of love." > "It literally changed my life and made me feel seen and heard in a way I never have before. I finally feel like I have a place in the climate movement." The official [[Circles programme](https://www.allwecansave.earth/circles)] runs across ten sessions, each mapped to a thematic section of the book. Our discussion guide below follows that same arc, with commentary and prompts adapted for informal local groups. ### The Ten Sessions | Session | Theme | Opening Line | |---|---|---| | 1 | **Begin** | *My heart is moved by all I cannot save: so much has been destroyed* | | 2 | **Root** | *A call, a welcoming, a place to ground / The foundation of Indigenous wisdom* | | 3 | **Advocate** | *How we hold the powerful to account / And (re)write the rules with all people in mind* | | 4 | **Reframe** | *Language and story, creativity and culture / Our means of making sense* | | 5 | **Reshape** | *Problems embedded in the contours / Of cities, transport, infrastructure, capitalism* | | 6 | **Persist** | *Standing for justice, for health, for the sacred / We don't have to do this alone* | | 7 | **Feel** | *Awake, aware, attuned / Hearts break, souls shake with anxiety* | | 8 | **Nourish** | *Soil, food, water, sky—inseparable / The foundations of our aliveness* | | 9 | **Rise** | *For a future that holds us, all of us / This is the work of our lifetimes* | | 10 | **Onward** | *There must be those among whom we can sit down and weep, and still be counted as warriors* | Official [session guides](https://www.allwecansave.earth/session-1), [facilitation tips](https://www.allwecansave.earth/facilitation-guide), and an [orientation video](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NVkpDRnP2Lo) are available on the All We Can Save website. Circles are licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International.  --- ## How to Use This Guide Each section below corresponds to a chapter or essay from the book. Read the relevant highlights first, then use the commentary and prompts to spark discussion. The goal isn't to arrive at expert answers—it's to help people connect their own lives, values, and observations to the climate conversation in ways that build hope and solidarity rather than despair. At the end you'll find twenty flash cards with memorable facts, figures, and discussion prompts. Print them out, cut them up, and use them as conversation starters. --- ## Begin — Eunice Newton Foote (p. 12) **Commentary:** Foote discovered the greenhouse effect in 1856—decades before Arrhenius is usually credited—and was written out of history. Her story reminds us that climate science has always been built by overlooked people, especially women and women of colour. A small group can use this to ask: who in our community is doing vital environmental work that nobody notices? Centre those voices. **Discussion prompt:** Think of someone locally whose connection to the land or environment goes unrecognised. What would it look like to amplify their voice? --- ## Calling In (pp. 25–30) **Commentary:** This section dismantles the idea that you need expert-level knowledge to contribute to climate action. You don't have to know everything about ppm or IPCC reports to matter. The ten tips from youth activists are practically a starter pack for any new group: join existing initiatives, communicate well, take care of each other, be intersectional, honour [[Indigenous]] knowledge, meet people where they are, and use accessible language. **Discussion prompt:** What has stopped you—or someone you know—from getting involved? Was it feeling like you didn't know enough? Share one thing however small that counts as climate action in your life. --- ## Reciprocity (pp. 33–39) **Commentary:** The [[forest]] metaphor—trees sharing nutrients through underground fungal networks—is perhaps the most powerful image in this book. Science once assumed competition was nature's rule; we now know cooperation is equally fundamental. [[Suzanne Simard]]'s research showed birch and Douglas fir literally feeding each other. If trees can do this, why can't human communities? **Discussion prompt:** Where have you seen cooperation rather than competition in nature around you? How can our group be a "sharing network"—passing on skills, tools, encouragement—to other local groups? --- ## Indigenous Prophecy and Mother Earth (pp. 44–57) **Commentary:** [[Indigenous knowledge]] systems have been preparing for this moment for generations. The Seven Fires prophecy isn't fatalism—it's guidance, offering a choice between two paths. [[Indigenous peoples]] worldwide are laying down their lives at pipeline sites and border crossings to defend the land. This section challenges us to centre Indigenous wisdom rather than treating it as an add-on. **Discussion prompt:** What traditional or ancestral knowledge about the natural world has been passed down in your family or community? How might we create space for Indigenous voices in local environmental decision-making? --- ## Emergent Strategy (pp. 71–72) **Commentary:** "The whole is a mirror of the parts." [[Complexity Theory|Complex systems]] arise from simple interactions—birds migrating without a central plan, each responding to the others. Octavia Butler wrote that [[civilisation]] is to groups what intelligence is to individuals: combining many minds for ongoing adaptation. Our small group IS an example of emergence. We don't need to be huge to matter. **Discussion prompt:** Think about how our group formed. Was there a master plan, or did it emerge naturally from people connecting? What simple interaction could spark something bigger? --- ## On Fire / Green New Deal (pp. 76–85) **Commentary:** Naomi Klein argues that piecemeal approaches are like training a water gun on a blazing fire—we need comprehensive transformation. The fossil fuel industry spent decades lying about climate science. Young people leading school strikes understand they've inherited not just climate crisis but economic insecurity, austerity, and algorithmic addiction. They're demanding new economics based on our limited carbon budget. **Discussion prompt:** What does "comprehensive change" look like at a local level? Our town can't pass a Green New Deal, but what policies or initiatives would address root causes rather than symptoms? --- ## To Be of Use / Marge Piercy (pp. 100–101) **Commentary:** Piercy's poem celebrates people who "jump into work head first"—not heroes or leaders, but ordinary people doing necessary work again and again. "A person for work that is real." This is the anti-individualism anthem at the heart of the book. Climate action isn't about grand gestures; it's about showing up, passing the bags along, moving in common rhythm. **Discussion prompt:** What "real work" are you doing right now that might feel small but matters? Share it without minimising it. --- ## Beyond Coal (p. 107) **Commentary:** Market forces won't phase out fossil fuels on their own—the industry fights too hard to keep its market share. Smart advocacy works even when [[politics]] and markets fail us. "We actually hold the reins of power—we just need to use them." This is an empowering reminder that ordinary people, organised, can shift economic realities. **Discussion prompt:** Where have you seen community pressure actually change a company's or council's behaviour? What gave people the confidence to act? --- ## Collards Are Just as Good as Kale (pp. 121–122) **Commentary:** Faith isn't separate from climate justice work—it's fuel. The Hebrews passage about "assurance of things hoped for, conviction of things not seen" captures what it means to work for a world you may not live to see. For many Black Americans, the church has been the organising centre for every liberation struggle, and climate justice is no different. **Discussion prompt:** What gives you the strength to keep going when the news is overwhelming? Is it faith, community, family, something else? --- ## Green New Deal for All of Us (pp. 147–149) **Commentary:** The top 1% have captured unprecedented political and economic power since the 1980s, decimating unions and wiping out generational wealth in communities of colour through deregulation. Fossil fuels don't just power our cars—they power everything from food production to Netflix streaming. Transitioning away from them will disrupt nearly every sector. The question isn't whether there will be disruption, but how we manage it: chaotically, or with a plan that protects workers and communities. **Discussion prompt:** If your job or local business depended on fossil fuels, what would a "just transition" look like for you? What support would you need? --- ## How to Talk About Climate Change (p. 161) **Commentary:** Don't start with science—start with what you have in common. If someone skis, talk about shrinking snowpack. If they're a parent, talk about the world their children are inheriting. Find the connection point first, then build outward. This is perhaps the most practical chapter for anyone who wants to have climate conversations without shutting people down. **Discussion prompt:** Think of someone in your life who doesn't engage with climate issues. What do you have in common with them? How could that shared interest be a bridge? --- ## Truth Be Told / Bell Hooks (p. 175) **Commentary:** "The function of art is to do more than tell it like it is—it's to imagine what is possible." Art doesn't just document crisis; it opens doors to futures we can't yet see. In a movement that often centres what we're against, art helps us articulate what we're for. **Discussion prompt:** What piece of art—a song, film, painting, poem—has shaped how you think about the environment or the future? How did it change something in you? --- ## Harnessing Cultural Power (pp. 178–183) **Commentary:** Monoculture deadens our collective potential—not just in farming but in storytelling. In 2019, only three TV shows dealt with climate change. The authors urge movements to include artists not as one-off entertainment but through long-term relationships: artist-in-residence programmes, co-designed protests, cultural activations. "Stand in the power of yes!"—imagine futures where power is justly distributed and humans live regeneratively with nature, then make those futures feel real through film, music, comics, and stories. **Discussion prompt:** What stories do we tell about our local area? Are they stories of decline and loss, or are there stories of regeneration and possibility that we haven't told enough? --- ## Becoming a Climate Citizen (pp. 188–190) **Commentary:** Citizenship is a sacred trust between individual and collective. The word has been weaponised by undemocratic forces, but ceding it entirely is surrender. [[Democracy]] isn't guaranteed to handle [[climate change]], but deep investment in day-to-day citizenship is our only hope. This means showing up at council meetings, voting locally, neighbours checking on neighbours during heatwaves—the unglamorous work of democratic life. **Discussion prompt:** What does "climate citizenship" look like in your street or neighbourhood? What's one civic action you could take this month? --- ## Wakanda Doesn't Have Suburbs (pp. 197–203) **Commentary:** Popular culture teaches us that wherever humans go, ecological devastation follows—from Mad Max to The Hunger Games. But this narrative is ahistorical. Societies have lived within ecological boundaries (Bhutan absorbs more carbon than it emits). Better storytellers make communities more cooperative—it's literally how humans survived harsh conditions. The book contrasts dystopian escapism (tech billionaires fleeing to Mars) with Black Panther's vision of Birnin Zana: organic skyscrapers rising from untouched forests, streets designed for lovers and friends not motor cars. **Discussion prompt:** What would an optimistic, ecologically integrated version of your town look like? Describe one specific detail—a street, a building, a park—that feels both futuristic and rooted in place. --- ## Heaven or High Water (p. 216) **Commentary:** "Resilience" and "sustainability" have become buzzwords that let officials pretend they're on top of things while doing the minimum. A friend sceptical of activist discourse put it perfectly: it sounds like "what's the least we can do to keep the party going?" Real preparation for sea level rise demands honesty about what's at stake, not PR campaigns. **Discussion prompt:** Have you noticed words like "resilience" or "net zero" being used in ways that sound impressive but don't commit to real action? What would genuine commitment look like instead? --- ## Buildings Designed for Life (pp. 233–236) **Commentary:** Biophilic design—"love of life"—isn't just about plants in offices. It's about reconnecting people to nature through the places we inhabit. For thousands of years, buildings expressed their people and responded to local climate, ecology, and culture. Indigenous homes worldwide heated and cooled naturally. Biophilic design asks: are people separate from nature, or part of it? Our buildings shape us and express our values. **Discussion prompt:** Think about where you spend most of your days—home, work, school. Does that space connect you to the natural world, or separate you from it? What one change would make a difference? --- ## Catalytic Capital (pp. 241–243) **Commentary:** The wealthiest 1% have carbon footprints 175 times higher than the poorest 10%. Yet concentrated wealth can also be a lever for change—investors seeking returns can be redirected towards climate solutions. Transformation starts small: shared intention, community approach, building competence. Carbon inequality must be addressed alongside emissions. **Discussion prompt:** How do we talk about money and wealth in our group without shame or defensiveness? What does financial justice mean in practical local terms? --- ## Mending the Landscape (p. 248) **Commentary:** Visualising environmental injustice makes it visible and empowers local advocates. The Mississippi delta sits in the crosshairs of oil extraction, environmental racism, and sea level rise. Maps, photographs, and drawings armed organisations like the Louisiana Bucket Brigade. Making harm visible is the first step towards mending it. **Discussion prompt:** What environmental injustices exist in our area that most people don't see? How could we make them visible—through art, mapping, storytelling? --- ## We Are Sunrise (p. 264) **Commentary:** "Do your work, then step back. The only path to serenity." From the Tao Te Ching. Constant striving without release leads to burnout. The climate movement needs people who can sustain their energy over decades, not sprint until they collapse. Stepping back isn't quitting—it's how you stay in the fight. **Discussion prompt:** How does your group prevent burnout? What practises help people rest without guilt? --- ## At the Intersections (pp. 269–274) **Commentary:** Climate justice cannot be separated from racial justice, economic justice, and health justice. Pharmaceutical [[corporations]] sued South Africa's government for trying to reduce drug prices while hundreds of thousands of Black people died of AIDS. The author calls for radical transformation: from drilling and burning to sun and wind; from waste to recovery and reuse; from genetic modification and shipping to local food production. Regenerative, cooperative systems that uplift all rights for all people. **Discussion prompt:** Pick one area—energy, food, waste—and imagine what a regenerative, locally-controlled version looks like in our community. Who would benefit most? --- ## Dear Fossil Fuel Executives / Fashion Industry (pp. 282–285) **Commentary:** Fashion's carbon footprint equals 8–10% of global emissions. Three-fifths of all clothes end up in landfill within years. The Rana Plaza collapse killed 1,134 garment workers—yet not one person from the brands whose clothes were made there was indicted. Fashion supply routes trace directly onto colonial shipping routes. Eighty percent of fashion's workforce are women of colour, most earning below a living wage. Fast fashion is fast extraction dressed as consumer choice. **Discussion prompt:** Look at what you're wearing right now. Do you know where it was made and under what conditions? What would "slow fashion" look like in practise for you? --- ## Sacred Resistance (pp. 291–297) **Commentary:** Much of the climate movement mirrors the systems it fights: [[hierarchical]], transactional, money-obsessed, individualistic. "Bringing in more people (and ultimately more dollars) seems to be the only acceptable theory of change." This section challenges us to build movements that embody the world we want—horizontal, generous, rooted in community rather than fundraising targets. Taking a stand with the land is accessible: "with our bodies, our choices, with whatever we can give." **Discussion prompt:** Does our group operate more like a corporation or a community? Where do we accidentally replicate the hierarchies we're trying to change? --- ## Public Service for Public Health (p. 304) **Commentary:** Climate change is not an equal-opportunity killer. Children bear disproportionate harm: heat stress causes preterm labour, four million kids develop asthma yearly from living near major roadways. If your child uses an inhaler, you understand climate change instantly. This reframes climate from abstract global statistics to immediate local health crisis. **Discussion prompt:** How does climate change show up in the health of children in our community? What local actions protect them most directly? --- ## Under the Weather / [[Ecopsychology]] (pp. 310–331) **Commentary:** This is perhaps the most emotionally resonant section. Climate grief, anxiety, and depression are real—and they're rational responses to a sick society, not individual pathologies. Glenn Albrecht coined "[[solastalgia]]": the distress caused by environmental change in your own homeland. Unlike nostalgia (sickness of being far from home), solastalgia is homesickness while still at home, watching it transform. The Anthropocene Dictionary Bureau creates words for feelings we've never had names for: "ennuipocalypse" (the end of the world as mundane rather than dramatic), "NonnaPaura" (wanting children but fearing the world they'll inherit). As one dissident psychologist put it: "If your heart is breaking, you're on my team." **Discussion prompt:** Do you have a word for how climate change makes you feel? If not, what word would you invent? Sharing these feelings normalises them and builds solidarity. --- ## Loving a Vanishing World (p. 349) **Commentary:** The "campsite rule"—leave things as you found them—is currently impossible as a species. But harm isn't distributed evenly. Most of the world's billions have done extremely little harm; their small footprints are the result of having no alternatives (wood for cooking because it's all they have, an old car because there's no public transport). Guilt-shaming doesn't work. What works is recognising that the vast majority of emissions come from systems and corporations, not individuals trying to get by. **Discussion prompt:** How do we talk about personal responsibility without shaming people who have limited choices? Where does individual action end and systemic change begin? --- ## Being Human / Naima Penniman (pp. 355–358) **Commentary:** Penniman's poem wonders if the sun debates dawn, if rain is scared of falling, if waves get discouraged crawling up the sand only to be pulled back. It humanises—literally animates—the natural world, reminding us that our relationship with nature isn't just utilitarian. We belong to it. This poetic sensibility is itself a form of climate resistance: refusing to see the world as mere resources. **Discussion prompt:** Spend a minute in silence noticing something in the natural world around you right now. Share one observation when you're ready. --- ## The Adaptive Mind (p. 366) **Commentary:** Psychological self-care is not a luxury—it's strategic. A stressed body and mind work less efficiently, get impatient and aggressive, and suffer health consequences. A balanced, resilient mind is kinder, more compassionate, alert, and effective. Practical advice: pause activism and news feeds, take walks, turn off phones, buy yourself flowers, maintain healthy routines, do something that brings immediate joy. You cannot pour from an empty cup, and the climate movement needs you well. **Discussion prompt:** What does self-care look like for you? Not the Instagram version—what actually helps you recharge? --- ## Solutions Underfoot (pp. 379) **Commentary:** "In nature, nothing exists alone." Rachel Carson's insight remains foundational. Ecology is about relationships—messy, interdependent, co-evolving over thousands of years. Those relationships are coming apart in decades. Soil is the skin of the Earth, supporting all [[agriculture]] and every terrestrial biome. Without it, humanity as we know it would not exist. **Discussion prompt:** Have you ever held soil in your hands and thought about what's alive in it? What would it mean to treat soil as sacred rather than as dirt? --- ## Black Gold (pp. 398–406) **Commentary:** George Washington Carver was a pioneer in regenerative farming—cover crops, mulching, diversified horticulture—decades before these became trendy. Colonisation, [[capitalism]], and white supremacy severed our connection to soil so we could rationalise exploiting it. Just twenty-eight years of European tillage reduced Great Plains productivity by 64%. Human-caused climate change started not just with factories but with ploughs stripping [[soil]] carbon. Meanwhile, Germaine Jenkins transformed food apartheid in Charleston's Chicora neighbourhood into Fresh Future Farm—a community-owned farm with an on-site grocery store on a sliding-scale system. Western science even confirms: soil bacteria Mycobacterium vaccae boosts serotonin production. Playing in the dirt is literally good for mental health. **Discussion prompt:** Is there space in your life to grow something—even herbs on a windowsill? What would it teach you about patience, seasons, and reciprocity? --- ## Water Is a Verb (pp. 410–417) **Commentary:** Water isn't just a resource—it's an active participant in regulating Earth's temperature through constant phase changes. Every 1% increase in soil organic matter holds an additional 20,000 gallons of water per acre. One tree on a sunny day transpires 26+ gallons of water, providing three times the cooling capacity of a five-star hotel room's air conditioning. "What we perceive as a lack-of-water problem is often an inability to keep water in the ground—a symptom of soil that's lost its carbon." The solution isn't engineering; it's life: life to transport water, life to regulate heat, life to seed rain, life to slow moving water so it infiltrates. From earthworms to beavers, creatures create the conditions for water to linger and soak in. **Discussion prompt:** What's one thing you could do to help water stay in the ground where you live? A rain garden? Less paving? Planting trees? --- ## The Seed Underground (p. 418) **Commentary:** We occupy edges—between forest and field, wild and cultivated, urban and rural. Edges are exciting places of balance: needing both ecology and economy, weighing input against output. Seed savers and small farmers working these edges hold knowledge that industrial agriculture has forgotten. **Discussion prompt:** Where do you live at an "edge"—between town and countryside, tradition and modernity, different cultures? What unique perspective does that give you? --- ## An Offering from the Bayou (pp. 431–434) **Commentary:** "Climate change is not the problem. Climate change is the most horrible symptom of an economic system that has been built for a few to extract every precious ounce of value out of this planet and its people." This reframing is essential. We must honour the rights of nature, advance human rights for all, and transform from a disposable, individual society into one that sees our collective, long-term humanity. Your survival requires shared liberation. **Discussion prompt:** If climate change is a symptom, what's the disease? How would treating the root cause look different from treating symptoms? --- ## A Field Guide for Transformation (pp. 438–451) **Commentary:** Government policy created this crisis—politicians subsidise fossil fuels while blocking clean energy. The U.S. [[The Military-Industrial Complex|military]] emits more greenhouse gases than Denmark. No one can unilaterally choose to live in a low-carbon economy; the goal is structural change, not self-purification. Bill McKibben: "'Hypocrisy' is the price of admission in this battle." [[Mary Oliver]]: "May I be the tiniest nail in the house of the universe, tiny but useful." Don't demand your personal circle be pure before you start working on community and policy. That day will never come. Dig in today. **Discussion prompt:** What's one policy change at local council level that would meaningfully reduce emissions? How do you get involved in pushing for it? --- ## Mornings at Blackwater / Mary Oliver (p. 452) **Commentary:** Oliver's poem offers permission: "The past is the past, and the present is what your life is, and you are capable of choosing what that will be, darling citizen." Come to the pond, or the river of your imagination, or the harbour of your longing. Put your lips to the water. Drink. This is spiritual sustenance for the work ahead. **Discussion prompt:** Where is your "Blackwater Pond"—the place, practise, or person that restores you when the world feels heavy? --- ## Community Is Our Best Chance (p. 475) **Commentary:** "When disasters happen, the person right in front of you is your best chance at survival." This is the book's ultimate thesis distilled into one sentence. Not governments, not corporations, not technology—the person beside you. Building community around solutions is the single most important thing we can do. **Discussion prompt:** Who is the person right in front of you? What do they bring to this work that you don't? What do you bring that they don't? --- ## Onward (pp. 480–481) **Commentary:** Each word in the title carries weight. "All" speaks to wholeness—nothing left out, everything connected. "We" centres community as the answer. "Can" speaks to sheer determination: possibility still exists, documented in data and imprinted in life's persistence despite all odds. "Save" is the act itself. We unravel as one or regenerate as one. The task is to face a seemingly impossible challenge and act in service of what is possible. **Discussion prompt:** Go round the group. Finish this sentence: "What I can save is _________." --- ## Flash Cards — Facts, Figures & Discussion Prompts Print these out, cut them up, and use them as conversation starters or memory aids. Each card has a fact on one side and a discussion prompt on the other. --- **Card 1** - *Front:* In 1856, Eunice Newton Foote discovered that carbon dioxide traps heat in the atmosphere—decades before anyone credited with this discovery. She was the first woman in climate science. - *Back:* Who in our community is doing important work that goes unnoticed? How can we centre overlooked voices? --- **Card 2** - *Front:* Research shows female legislators more strongly support environmental laws—and stricter laws. When parliaments have greater women's representation, they're more likely to ratify environmental treaties. - *Back:* Are the people making environmental decisions in our area representative of the whole community? What would more inclusive decision-making look like? --- **Card 3** - *Front:* [[Suzanne Simard]] proved that birch trees and Douglas fir trees share carbon through underground fungal networks. Trees literally feed each other. - *Back:* Where do you see cooperation rather than competition in nature? How can our group be a "sharing network"? --- **Card 4** - *Front:* The Indigenous Seven Fires prophecy describes our current moment: a choice between two paths—one leading to unity and peace, the other to destruction. Not fatalism, but guidance. - *Back:* What ancestral or traditional knowledge about the environment has been passed down in your family or community? --- **Card 5** - *Front:* Fashion is responsible for 8–10% of global emissions. Three-fifths of all clothes end up in landfill or incineration within a few years of being produced. - *Back:* Look at what you're wearing. Do you know where it was made? What would "slow fashion" mean for you practically? --- **Card 6** - *Front:* Glenn Albrecht coined "[[solastalgia]]": the distress of watching your own homeland change due to environmental destruction. Homesickness while still at home. - *Back:* Do you have a word for how climate change makes you feel? If not, what word would you invent? --- **Card 7** - *Front:* Every 1% increase in soil organic matter holds an additional 20,000 gallons of water per acre. Healthy soil is healthy water management. - *Back:* What's one thing you could do to help water stay in the ground where you live? --- **Card 8** - *Front:* One tree on a sunny day transpires over 26 gallons of water—providing three times the cooling capacity of a five-star hotel room's air conditioning. - *Back:* Where in your neighbourhood could planting trees make a tangible difference to heat and comfort? --- **Card 9** - *Front:* George Washington Carver pioneered regenerative farming—cover crops, mulching, diversified horticulture—decades before these became mainstream. He was a Black scientist whose contributions were long minimised. - *Back:* What would it mean to treat soil as sacred rather than as dirt? Is there space in your life to grow something? --- **Card 10** - *Front:* The wealthiest 1% have carbon footprints 175 times higher than the poorest 10%. Climate crisis is deeply entangled with economic inequality. - *Back:* How do we talk about wealth and emissions without shaming individuals? Where's the line between personal responsibility and systemic change? --- **Card 11** - *Front:* "In nature, nothing exists alone." — Rachel Carson. Ecology is about relationships, and those relationships are coming apart in decades after thousands of years of development. - *Back:* Think of a relationship in nature near you—birds and hedgerows, bees and flowers, foxes and farmland. How is it changing? --- **Card 12** - *Front:* Four million children worldwide develop asthma each year simply from living near a major roadway. Climate change is a child health crisis. - *Back:* How does climate change show up in the health of children in our community? What local actions protect them most directly? --- **Card 13** - *Front:* "When disasters happen, the person right in front of you is your best chance at survival." Community is our best defence against climate impacts. - *Back:* Who is the person right in front of you? What strengths do they bring that complement yours? --- **Card 14** - *Front:* "The function of art is to do more than tell it like it is—it's to imagine what is possible." — bell hooks - *Back:* What piece of art—a song, film, poem—has shaped how you think about the future? Share it with the group. --- **Card 15** - *Front:* "Do your work, then step back. The only path to serenity." — Tao Te Ching. Sustainability in activism requires rest. - *Back:* How does your group prevent burnout? What practises help people rest without guilt? --- **Card 16** - *Front:* "May I be the tiniest nail in the house of the universe, tiny but useful." — Mary Oliver. You don't need to be pure or perfect to contribute. - *Back:* Go round the group. Say one small thing you've done recently that counted, however minor it felt. --- **Card 17** - *Front:* The Permian extinction 252 million years ago killed the vast majority of life on Earth. It took 8–9 million years to recover. We're now seeing trajectory towards Permian levels of atmospheric carbon. - *Back:* Facts like this can feel overwhelming. How do you hold big scary information without shutting down? What helps? --- **Card 18** - *Front:* "Climate change is not the problem. Climate change is the most horrible symptom of an economic system built for a few to extract every precious ounce of value from this planet and its people." - *Back:* If climate change is a symptom, what's the disease? How does treating root causes look different from treating symptoms? --- **Card 19** - *Front:* Biophilic design—"love of life"—reconnects people to nature through buildings. For millennia, architecture responded to local climate, ecology, and culture. Then we forgot. - *Back:* Does the space you're in right now connect you to the natural world? What one change would help? --- **Card 20** - *Front:* "All We Can Save." All = wholeness. We = community. Can = determination. Save = action. Each word carries the weight of the whole mission. - *Back:* Finish this sentence: "What I can save is _________." --- ## What Can We Do vs All We Can Save "What can we do" implies a search for individual fixes—recycle more, switch lightbulbs, go vegan. It centres the self as problem-solver and tends towards a check-list mentality that burns people out. "All we can save" is different: it acknowledges limits (we cannot save everything), centres collective action ("we" not "I"), and accepts that some things will be lost while others are worth fighting for together. The title comes from Adrienne Rich's line "My heart is moved by all I cannot save"—the work begins with accepting what you can't control and pouring energy into what you can. Here are twenty concrete actions drawn from the book, ordered from personal to systemic: 1. **Talk about it.** Katharine Hayhoe's research shows the single most impactful thing you can do is have climate conversations with people you know. Find common ground first, then build outward. 2. **Join something that already exists.** Don't start from scratch. Join a local environmental group, mutual aid network, or community garden. 3. **Build relationships with the people beside you.** When disasters hit, your neighbour is your best chance at survival. Know them before you need them. 4. **Grow something.** Even herbs on a windowsill. Reconnects you to seasons, soil, and patience. Germaine Jenkins went from food pantries to a community farm this way. 5. **Plant trees where you can.** One tree transpires 26+ gallons of water daily—three times the cooling capacity of a hotel room's air conditioning. 6. **Help water stay in the ground.** A rain garden, less paving, compost—all increase soil's ability to hold water and carbon. 7. **Play in the dirt.** Soil bacteria Mycobacterium vaccae boosts [[serotonin]]. Gardening is literally good for mental health. 8. **Slow your wardrobe down.** Fashion accounts for 8–10% of global emissions. Buy less, buy secondhand, repair what you have. 9. **Show up at local meetings.** Council decisions on planning, transport, and energy shape far more emissions than any individual lifestyle choice. 10. **Vote locally.** School boards, city councils, county commissioners decide on building codes, public transit, and waste policy. 11. **Push for policy change.** Subsidies for fossil fuels block clean energy. Contact representatives about specific legislation. 12. **Support workers in transition.** A just transition means coal, oil, and gas workers get retraining, pay, and dignity—not abandonment. 13. **Centre Indigenous voices.** Indigenous knowledge is foundational to addressing the climate crisis. Support land defence movements and listen first. 14. **Include artists in the work.** Not as one-off entertainment but as long-term partners. Art imagines futures that data alone cannot. 15. **Tell better stories.** Counter dystopian despair with visions of regenerative, place-based futures. What would an optimistic version of your town look like? 16. **Name your feelings.** Solastalgia, climate grief, eco-anxiety—having words normalises the experience and builds solidarity. You're not broken; the situation is. 17. **Rest without guilt.** "Do your work, then step back." Burnout helps no one. Self-care is strategic, not selfish. 18. **Amplify overlooked voices.** Eunice Newton Foote was erased for generations. Who in your community is doing vital work nobody sees? 19. **Demand structural change, not personal purity.** You can't unilaterally choose a low-carbon economy. The goal is changing the system, not perfecting your own life. 20. **Be the tiniest nail.** Mary Oliver: "tiny but useful." Show up consistently, however small your contribution feels. Cumulative action is how systems shift. ---