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

Vancouver journalist Dembicki uses the life choices of a few millennials to explore his generation’s efforts to fight climate change. This focus on individual choices results in an unsatisfying work that doesn’t feel representative of the generation as a whole, despite the author’s insertion of general survey statistics. Dembicki readily identifies the fossil fuel industry—and its political supporters—as the enemy of life on Earth, so the decision by one of the millennials, the pseudonymous Bradley Johnson, not to work in that industry is hardly radical. Similarly, Peter Janes’s choice to live mostly off the grid on a small British Columbian island isn’t going to change material conditions for most people. Activists Phil Aroneanu, who aided efforts against Keystone XL, and Chloe Maxmin, a participant in the movement to persuade universities to divest from the fossil fuel industry, come across as stronger leaders. Dembicki powerfully elucidates the contrast between native people fighting against fossil fuel interests, including Elle-Máijá Tailfeathers, and the founders of Silicon Valley’s “sharing economy” who claim to honor aboriginal lifeways. Noteworthy figures such as Bill McKibben and Bernie Sanders also make appearances. Readers may be skeptical of Dembicki’s declaration that “a new vision of the future is taking hold” but he suggests a few ways that readers can make that future a reality. (Aug.)