What If We Get It Right? Quotes

“F*ck hope. Where's the strategy?”
― Ayana Elizabeth Johnson, What If We Get It Right?: Visions of Climate Futures

“Climate justice is joy because the climate crisis is violence.”
― Ayana Elizabeth Johnson, What If We Get It Right?: Visions of Climate Futures

“philosopher Joanna Macy has put it: It’s okay not to be optimistic. Buddhist teachings say feeling that you have to maintain hope can wear you out. So just be present…And when you’re worrying about whether you’re hopeful or hopeless or pessimistic or optimistic, who cares? The main thing is that you’re showing up, that you’re here, and that you’re finding ever more capacity to love this world because it will not be healed without that.”
― Ayana Elizabeth Johnson, What If We Get It Right?: Visions of Climate Futures

“Number three, when you look at future climate projections, remember that they are always dependent on a particular emissions scenario. So if you read some scary news article that says the entire Amazon could be gone by the year 2100, or the West Antarctic ice sheet could completely disintegrate, or we could be experiencing 180 days per year of marine heat waves in the Gulf of Mexico, take a step back and think about the underlying assumptions that projection is making about human behavior and human society. The future we get is always dependent on the choices that humans make.”
― Ayana Elizabeth Johnson, What If We Get It Right?: Visions of Climate Futures

“In a material sense, land is the source of food, the place where we build our shelters, where we gather, where we bury our dead, where we enjoy scenic beauty and healing from nature.”
― Ayana Elizabeth Johnson, What If We Get It Right?: Visions of Climate Futures

“It is not about the glory. It’s about the ripples. This is what progress often looks like: success without rewards.”
― Ayana Elizabeth Johnson, What If We Get It Right?: Visions of Climate Futures