Jonathan Safran Foer has a plan to tackle climate change \u2013 but he wants you to come up with your own.<\/p>\n
In conversation with Erica Wagner, former literary editor of The Times<\/em>, the writer discussed his latest book \u2013 a non-fiction work on climate change that is not so much a call to arms as a call to question.<\/p>\n \u2018The fact is\u2019, he says, \u2018our planet is warming because of human activity\u2019. He\u2019s right \u2013 97% of climate scientists agree with him. The logical conclusion is that human activity needs to change. This is difficult, though, isn\u2019t it? We are beset on all sides by criticism, and by guilt-tripping \u2013 if you\u2019re not a vegan, if you fly, if you drive, you personally are destroying the planet.<\/p>\n Foer believes that we need to be less hypocritical. We also need to stop expecting ourselves to become saints overnight, then giving up completely when this inevitably falls down.<\/p>\n Erica Wagner protests that she cannot imagine giving up milk in her coffee. Foer has a simple solution \u2013 don\u2019t. Give up something else instead. Cycle more. Don\u2019t eat meat on Mondays. \u2018Start with the places it\u2019s easiest\u2019. He is not on some holier-than-thou mission \u2013 he simply wants us to ask questions. That\u2019s how Wagner describes the book \u2013 We Are the Weather: Saving the Planet Begins at Breakfast<\/em> \u2013 Foer asks questions of himself. He asks what he can do, how he can change his life.<\/p>\n It gets easier as it gets easier \u2013 the more people reduce the amount of meat in their diet, the more vegetarian options will appear in shops and restaurants, and the easier it will become to eat less meat<\/em>.<\/p>\n He is adamant that we cannot do this alone. We are all going to succeed, or we are all going to fail. Foer damns the superiority and self-righteousness of the left for their part in creating a political gulf in what ought to be a unifying issue \u2013 \u2018what\u2019s more conservative than conservation\u2019, he jokes: this is not an issue that ought to be splitting along party lines. Individuals can do their part \u2013 must do their part \u2013 but that alone is not enough. Good will and good words, he says, are not going to get us anywhere quickly. We need action, in the form of pressuring corporations and governments. Exercising power as consumers and, most importantly, voting.<\/p>\n Foer is quick to correct Wagner\u2019s question about the book\u2019s central thesis \u2013 because climate change is not a thesis. It is a scientific fact, not up for debate, and it\u2019s important that we take this as our starting point. The four things humans do that have the most impact on the planet are eating animal products, flying, driving, and having children. Foer isn\u2019t asking us to stop doing those four things immediately. He\u2019s not asking us to stop doing those four things at all. He is simply asking us to ask questions \u2013 of our own life, and how we might adapt it. What our plan can be.<\/p>\n Erin McNamara<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Jonathan Safran Foer has a plan to tackle climate change \u2013 but he wants you to come up with your own. In conversation with Erica Wagner, former literary editor of The Times, the writer discussed his latest book \u2013 a non-fiction work on climate change that is not so much a call to arms as […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":45,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":[]},"categories":[16,283,18],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"yoast_head":"\n