Over the past few months, young changemakers have been gathering in our People, Planet, Pages book clubs to read and reflect on Not Too Late: Changing the Climate Story from Despair to Possibility, co-edited by Thelma and Rebecca Solnit.Â
We’ve explored what it means to shift the climate narrative from one of despair to possibility. Not by ignoring the reality of the crisis but by building our own collective capacity for courage, resistance, creativity and care.
In this Q&A, Thelma shares what keeps her going as a climate activist in politically turbulent times, why “low tide” moments can be spaces of revelation, how play and storytelling sustain her, and why diversifying climate storytellers is essential to building a movement that feels accessible and alive. She also shares powerful advice to curate our own “information diets” to include stories of resistance and hope, and why looking for courage in the world is in itself a practice.
This conversation is an invitation to keep going, to rest without retreating, to tell new stories, and to remember that even now, it’s not too late.
How do you keep going as a climate activist?
So much of what being a mom and being a climate activist has taught me is that muscle – that power of how do I keep on going? How do I keep on putting one foot in front of the other? How do I keep on fighting?
It’s really interesting in the Trump era. I see a lot of stories of people [saying] “I’m giving up, I’m moving out of the United States…” I am also an immigrant. I also live outside of the United States… I understand that urge. But we can’t. This is not an era where we can just throw up our hands and say, “I’m going to retreat.”
And so [we need to] make space for ourselves. Silence and recharging is important, we don’t want to burn out.But, you know, being a mom, you still have to make dinner. You still have to play. You still have to do all the things, even when you are so tired. And so I think my son has really taught me so much about that, how to keep on finding joy, even when I’m so angry and mad and exhausted.
What is your resilience ritual and how do you keep showing up with a smile on your face, you know, through these conversations?
I try to go on regular long walks [along the beach]. There’s a lot of meditation [involved] in walking, and I’ve been thinking this past year about the low tide.. That’s when you see things that you couldn’t usually see. That’s when you can traverse, go a little bit further and go places that you couldn’t go before… This year, globally, we are in a low tide. But this is also a time for revelation. It’s a time for traversing and making steps.
And my second [resilience ritual] is play… There is something really healing – at the end of an exhausting day, especially with all the politics – about just sitting down and playing Lego. Building and creating and clearing my head. [My son] loves anything that’s like building and creating. And then he’s also constantly asking me for stories… So we’re building up rituals around play and storytelling because they’re really helpful.
How do you imagine cultural tools like poetry and storytelling shaping climate action in ways that policies or stats aren’t, and how could we bring them forward?
In order to get a lot more people involved in climate, we need to do a lot more kinds of storytelling. And I think for so long, there’s been the same sort of group of people who’ve been the climate storytellers, but we really need a massive diversification of our climate storytellers.
My husband leads this group called the Pacific Climate Warriors and they’re a network of Pacific Islanders working in climate change. And they really are very culture-first. They’re tapping into their culture, their songs, their dances, their rituals, and really bringing them front and centre into the work that they do in order to make it more accessible and help people connect. I think they’re a really great example of how you make climate really accessible and engaging to people.
I think culture is a huge part of how we bring in a wider diversity of people. We really need thousands of new climate storytellers, taking information and finding new ways to engage people and make it more accessible to them.
What hope in the world keeps you going?
I think one of the interesting parts about building up the practice of hope is building up a practice of looking for the stories of hope… I think it’s so easy to only see the bad stories. And yet, if you then start [looking] for the good stories that are happening, then that’s so powerful to weave them into your information diet.
There’s so much organising and people power happening all across the world right now. We see the uprisings that have been happening in Bangladesh and Nepal, and in so many countries. People are standing up. They’re pushing back, they’re fighting, even against some really repressive systems…
There’s this huge movement of people saying no and pushing back… In the US, I’m seeing so much organising happening. With ICE coming into different cities – those cities are now sharing their information about how you push back and helping train each other.
There’s actually a project that Rebecca Solnit (co-editor of Not Too Late) and I are a part of with some of our other friends… It’s called Resist List. It’s about curating the stories of resistance happening in the US right now. And once you start looking for it, it’s everywhere. People are taking care of each other. People are standing up. There’s so much bravery. There’s so much courage. And so that really gives me hope.
So, I just encourage you to be aware of your information diet and find stories of hope that feed you as well.
If you’d like to join a hopeful community of readers to explore Thelma’s book together, join our next round of People, Planet Pages. Our next book club will gather online 4-6pm CET, every second Sunday from the 8th March. Follow the link below to find out more and sign up.
