Thunberg book to offer holistic approach to world crises

In “The Climate Book” Thunberg has assembled more than 100 contributors, from scientists Johan Rockström and Katharine Hayhoe to economist Thomas Piketty and novelist Margaret Atwood.

She says: “I have decided to use my platform to create a book based on the current best available science – a book that covers the climate, ecological and sustainability crises holistically. Because the climate crisis is, of course, only a symptom of a much larger sustainability crisis. My hope is that this book might be some kind of go-to source for understanding these different, closely interconnected crises.”

The teenager will share what she has learned from her own experiences of climate activism. In particular, she discusses the prevalence of greenwashing, revealing the extent to which we have been kept in the dark about the issue. Greenwashing, also called “green sheen”, is defined as a type of marketing spin in which green public relations and green marketing are deceptively used to persuade the public that an organisation’s products, aims and policies are environmentally friendly.

Thunberg names this as one of society’s biggest problems but also our greatest source of hope, because she believes that once we are all given the full picture we will be able to act.

“Right now we are in desperate need of hope,” she says. “But hope is not about pretending that everything will be fine. To me hope is not something that is given to you, it is something you have to earn, to create. It cannot be gained passively, through standing by and waiting for someone else to do something.

“Hope is taking action. It is stepping outside your comfort zone. And if a bunch of weird schoolkids were able to get millions of people to start changing their lives, just imagine what we could all do together if we really tried.”

Since 2018, when Thunberg, then 15, started her now famous school strike, she has been calling for stronger action to be taken against the climate crisis. She has become a worldwide celebrity and figurehead of the environmental activist community, including as the youngest Time Person of the Year in 2019 and being nominated three times for a Nobel Peace Prize.

Her previous three books are two co-authored by her parents and sister, “Scenes from the Heart” and “Our House Is on Fire”, and a collection of speeches, “No One Is Too Small to Make a Difference”. The new book is set to be her most comprehensive work yet, pulling together ideas and knowledge from experts with a view to “equip us all” to make positive change.

“The Climate Book” is due to be published by Penguin in the UK on October 27, 2022, with a US release planned for early 2023. Chloe Currens, Thunberg’s editor at Penguin, says: “Greta has proven herself to be one of our finest and most galvanising new writers. In a series of sharp, insightful and impassioned chapters, which knit the book’s different parts together, she shares her own experiences and responds to what she’s learned.”

Currens went on to call “The Climate Book” unique and “alive with moral purpose”. It “aims to change the climate conversation forever”, she says.