What if the answer to our planets climate crisis was a question?
And thats not necessarily motivating or inspiring for a lot of people, myself included, says Johnson.
I dont really spend a lot of my time thinking about the problem.
Landon Speers*
I spend all my time thinking about the solutions.
I mean, we have to understand the problem…
But then what do we do about it?
These are very real conversations.
You also bring together a collection of essays, poems, interviews, and art.
Of course, theres also things I wanted to say.
In many ways, this book is my mixtape.
Its like my anti-apocalypse mixtape.
Do you recommend people listen to the playlist from top to bottom?Oh, yeah.
Theres a method to it.
Dont listen on shuffle.
Some of them are songs from my childhood.
So theres some Nina Simone and others in there.
I hope that people will think about multiple things like, Why dont we have climate music?
Obviously, people are writing songs about climate, but theyre not really percolating up through culture.
Theyre not songs that we do karaoke to.
I hope people will be inspired to make their own anti-apocalypse playlist.
Like, what songs keep you going or inspire you or make you want to fight for the future?
I was like, Oh, this is not a normal climate book.
Theres salvage-punk, retro-futurist art in there that was commissioned for this.
We just dont have very many visions of what the future looks like if we get it right.
We do not have something to run towards in that way.
The title of the book is a question.
Its not an answer.
The book doesnt have the definitive answer to what getting it right looks like.
And I think the framing the what if?
Why dont I think about that more?
Why dont we have movies that show us that?
Why dont we have music about that?
Why cant I think of a piece of art about whats going on?
We all have our favorite architects and buildings and designers.
We are overhauling things, because its time, right?
Why dont we make it beautiful?
We get to decide these things as humans: what we build and how we build.
And to me, thats this sense of possibility that opens up is really exciting.
And thats not necessarily motivating or inspiring for a lot of people, myself included.
I dont really spend a lot of my time thinking about the problem.
I spend all my time thinking about the solutions.
But then what do we do about it?
We cant just stop there.
I didnt want to paint you the answer to this question.
I wanted you to feel like [you had] a little bit of a blank slate.
The cover is designed so that you have to hold Visions of Climate Futures to bring up the book.
[Johnson holds up the book and points to the quoted text at the bottom right corner.]
Typically the authors name would be on the bottom.
The hierarchy would be: title, subtitle, authors name.
And I really used footnotes to interject a little sass and side commentary in there.
It represents how I approach climate work.
The only reason I should make a book is if its a book no one else could make.
Its wildly diverging futures in terms of the greenhouse gasses in our atmosphere.
And so that is the stark contrast that we are facing.
Those are the stakes.
Or how people could engage here.
And I think [solutions journalism] helps people connect those dots.
And I think thats the whole point is like, How would I apply this in my life?
What would that look like?
Because its often not immediately obvious.
How are ourartists that are touringthe country dealing with these things?
How are venues dealing with these things?
How is this asafety issuefor people attending these events?
How does this ripple through the insurance industry, private insurance, etc.
You often discuss how racism is intertwined with climate change.
What we need is a leaderful movement.
That movements are fragile when theyre helmed by a single charismatic individual.
If you lose that person, you lose the momentum, you lose the cohesion.
And so we need many leaders.
That makes people want to roll up their sleeves and figure out how they can contribute.
And that, I think, is probably the sweetest thing that Ive learned in researching this book.
People just really care about making a safe world for the children of today and tomorrow.
Its not selfishness thats motivating people who are doing this work.
