BOOK REVIEW
Our Biggest Experiment – an interview with climate activist Alice Bell In a change from her regular column, Claire Thirlwall interviews author and climate activist Alice Bell, who works at climate action group Possible, about her new book “Our Biggest Emergency – a history of the climate crisis.” Claire Thirlwall
Thirlwall Associates
In your opening chapter, you make the point that “one of the slippery things about the climate crisis is that is doesn’t hit people with a clearly identifiable thud.” From your research for the book and your work as a climate campaigner, do you have any techniques to persuade clients and colleagues of the urgency of taking action?
I think the trick to engaging people with climate change is to give them an opportunity to take meaningful action. It’s all too easy to look at the impacts of climate change and – even when they hit at their most horrifying (sometimes precisely then) – avoid looking it in the eye. If people feel they can be part of the solution though, that’s where long-term activism (and action) can be built. You feel like you have somewhere to take all that pain and fear and turn it into something productive, so it’s easier to let yourself really feel it and appreciate the problem. That’s the basis of everything we do at Possible), finding new opportunities for everyday people to be part of action on climate change.
Having read your book, it strikes me that most of the actions that have led to the climate crisis are due to the decisions of a relatively small group of influential and wellconnected individuals. Do you think that we now might have to rely on a similar group of individuals to find the solutions? We need to throw everything at the climate crisis. I think democratising our energy systems will be key to decarbonising – we need to offer people more of a stake in energy changes for them to support them at the sort of speed and scale of change we need. One of the things that really hit home researching the book is that the 67
