Book Review: What If We Get It Right?: Visions of Climate Futures by Ayana Elizabeth Johnson

In this essay, interview, and art collection, Johnson shows us what it means to flip the script on the impending climate crisis and fall in love with the future we wish to create.

5/5 Stars

This book had been on my TBR for a very. very long time. It came out in 2024, and I had almost picked it up so many times throughout the years. The release of the paperback version this past April finally forced me to read it, and I found myself incredibly happy to have dipped my toes back into the formal environmental movement through this book.

Ayana Elizabeth Johnson, marine biologist, policy expert, and conservation strategist, guides readers through our modern climate problems and their myriad of solutions by interviewing friends who, like her, see the future as something to get excited about- a far cry from what is usually said about the world of tomorrow. With data and science to back her up, Johnson and her colleagues investigate the viability of friends forming cooperative farms, how to break into the ocean farming business, and the next big blockbuster hit, an eco-focused rom com. She brings along attorneys, architects, indigenous activists, and more as she demonstrates again and again that policy and cultural shifts here and now are worth it for the beautiful future of balance and justice that we as a society not only should picture, but should demand as our right. We deserve it!

This book was hopeful and eye-opening, if a little dated. That is a crazy thing to say about a book only two years old, but a lot has changed in that time. I was incredibly inspired by all the scientific and activism-related leaps we have achieved since the book was first published, and a bit heartbroken by the political and policy changes in that time that will hold us back for the near-term. Nevertheless, this was a very holistic and realistic look at the challenges across various aspects of life under capitalism and with the looming threat of climate change while still expressing excitement and positivity when looking at the years to come. I consider it a must-read, both as a scientist but also as just a random human being on the planet these days.