The Memory We Could Be

“Voskoboynik’s book offers an exhilarating introduction to our ecological crisis, what caused it, and how we can imagine a better future.” —Jason Hickel, author of Less Is More The Memory We Could Be moves beyond the sterile, technical language around climate change and ecology to humanize the abstraction of global warming and bring different voices into the conversation. Drawing on sources from anthropology to hydrology, botany to economics, agronomy to astrobiology, medicine to oceanography, physics to history, the author weaves a lyrical and powerful story of our relationship with nature. The book has three parts: “Past” addresses memory. Our inability to comprehend our staggering present partly lies in our ignorance of our staggering past. We peer into the black box of history to understand how we got here. We go on a journey across the roots of our ecological crisis, from the Roman Empire to the forests of Burma, from Congolese rubber plantations, to Colombian oil fields. “Present” illustrates how climate change is shaping our world today, explores how it relates to poverties and inequalities, and equips readers with a set of intuitive instruments to understand climate impacts. “Future” looks at alternatives and strives to illustrate in human terms the world we could lose and the world we can win. It asks what we can do and develops a transformative vision of a more ecological and equitable economy. The Memory We Could Be is vital reading for all of humanity. “A gripping review of where we’ve been, where we are, and where we may be headed.” —Michael E. Mann, author of The New Climate War