Are We Screwed?: How a New Generation is Fighting to Survive Climate Change

Description

A declaration of resistance, and a roadmap for radical change, from the generation that will be most screwed by climate change. The Millennial generation could be first to experience the doomsday impacts of climate change. It's also the last generation able to do something about them. With time ticking down, 31-year-old journalist Geoff Dembicki journeyed to Silicon Valley, Canada's tar sands, Washington, DC, Wall Street and the Paris climate talks to find out if he should hope or despair. What he learned surprised him. Millions of people his age want to radically change our world, and they are at the forefront of resistance to the politicians and CEOs steering our planet towards disaster. In Are We Screwed?, Dembicki gives a firsthand account of this movement, and the shift in generational values behind it, through the stories of young people fighting for their survival. It begins with a student who abandons society to live in the rainforest and ends with a Muslim feminist fomenting a political revolution. We meet a Brooklyn artist terrifying the oil industry, a Norwegian scientist running across the melting Arctic and an indigenous filmmaker challenging the worldview of Mark Zuckerberg. Are We Screwed? makes a bold argument in these troubled times: A safer and more equitable future is more achievable than we've been led to believe. This book will forever change how you view the biggest existential challenge of our era and redefine the generation now battling against the odds to solve it.

Geoff Dembicki has contributed to the New York Times, Foreign policy, Vice, the Atlantic, the Toronto Star, and the Tyee, the independent online publication where the idea for this book began as a series called "Are We Screwed?" He's received media fellowships from the Asia Pacific Foundation of Canada and the New York-based Solutions Journalism Network. Geoff lives in Vancouver, British Columbia. He was born in 1986.

In this spirited manifesto against the status quo, journalist Dembicki highlights the stories of Millennials who are combating climate change. . .Dembicki deftly analyzes and critiques many organizations that claim to be effecting change. . . and effectively demonstrates that Millennials do care about the future, so much so, that they are willing to fight for it. VERDICT Young and old activists alike will be inspired by this hopeful call for change. -- Starred Review * Library Journal * [Dembicki] offers a deft contemporary view of how the future will be impacted by millennials . . . As Dembicki aptly alludes, the collective voice does make a difference, and the social media savvy of the millennials is unparalleled . . . If you don't want your future to be in the hands of old white men, do read this evocative collection of stories about young people who are making a difference in environmental and political stewardship. * New York Journal of Books * [Dembicki's] profiles are wide-ranging and well-researched. He concludes that despite the presence of a climate denier in the White House, millennials are not going to be screwed--if they take action now. A hortatory call to arms for young people and a harsh critique of their ruling elders. * Kirkus Reviews * Dembicki tells a global story of youth in revolt, energized by fear of rising sea levels to reject the status quo in economics and government . . . While describing this group as progressive yet apolitical, [he] shows younger voters energized by policy positions but ultimately disappointed by elected leaders . . . Recommended for readers interested in the environment and the Millennial generation. * Booklist Online * [One of] the most talented young journalists I have worked with during my thirty years in the business. -- Monte Paulsen, Pulitzer Prize- and National Magazine Award-winning journalist [Dembicki's] reporting helped establish The Tyee as one of Canada's leading authorities on climate change and energy. -- David Beers, founding editor, The Tyee The answer to the question this fine book poses rests in the remarkable young people he chronicles: if they keep up the battle, we've got a fighting chance! -- Bill McKibben, author of THE END OF NATURE Screwed? It depends. Young people must stand up for their rights. But they also must know what to ask for. Dembicki provides a lot of help in figuring that out. -- James Hansen We're in dark times, but we aren't screwed yet, and this book showed me what we need to do to stay that way. -- Mac DeMarco, singer-songwriter Dembicki's book calls us all to work together to create a sustainable existence and provides a unique look into the hearts and minds of millennials across our continent as they try to stop our civilization's sharp turn toward the brink of extinction. -- Moumita Ahmed, co-founder of Millennials for Revolution The millennial generation is living in a time of great opportunity but-most importantly-in a pivotal moment to be better. Are We Screwed? tells the stories of the people and the generation who not only see the need to improve, but won't settle until they do. -- Paul Nicklen, co-founder of SeaLegacy and National Geographic photographer