“I was asked to talk about hope tonight, but I work on climate change, and 2024 was the hottest year on Earth in human history,” said Ayana Elizabeth Johnson in her acceptance speech.
Using forceful language, Johnson said mankind needs more than hope to successfully combat change. “What's the strategy? What are we going to do so that we don't need hope?”
Johnson, who is the Roux Distinguished Scholar at Bowdoin College, was speaking at an event in New York recently after being presented with a TIME Earth Award for her efforts to address the climate crisis. The award is given annually by Time magazine to “individuals whose actions have had an indelible impact on global efforts to address one of the most pressing crises facing our planet: climate change.”
The marine biologist, policy expert, writer, and teacher said there are already solutions out there, including the use of solar and wind power to make cheaper electricity: “There's no magical technology we need to wait for, and we are making progress, but we need to move much faster,” she stressed.
“Every tenth of a degree of warming we prevent, every inch of sea level rise we avoid, every increasingly unnatural disaster that we prevent, every species we save, every bit of nature we protect and restore—it all matters,” added Johnson, who founded Urban Ocean Lab, a think tank for the future of coastal cities.
Past recipients of TIME Earth Awards include former New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg, former US Secretary of State John Kerry, UN Secretary General António Guterres, and the actor and activist Jane Fonda. Click here to read more and watch a video of Johnson’s acceptance speech.
Last year Johnson launched her latest book, What If We Get It Right? Visions of Climate Futures, a compilation of essays and conversations infused with data, poetry, and art.
