A brief but important book from former Taoiseach Mary Robinson, this book doesn't get too deep into the science of climate change, but focuses instead on giving voice to the voiceless who are directly impacted by it.

Author Mary Robinson was the first woman president of Ireland, serving from 1990 to 1997; afterward, she served as United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights from 1997 to 2002. She was also an honorary president of the global development charity Oxfam.

In November of 2016, Robinson was in Marrakech for UN climate change talks; Donald Trump’s election seemed like proof that America was retreating into apathy about the environment. She was determined to “forge ahead, with or without the United States,” and in Climate Justice she and journalist Caitríona Palmer profile admirable individuals who are coping with climate disasters in vulnerable areas and pointing the way to a sustainable future.

From cattle farmers in Chad to the Yupik people who fish Alaska’s west coast, the people most affected by climate change are generally those who are least equipped to deal with it due to poverty and a lack of political representation. Robinson and Palmer highlight inspiring stories of ordinary people who are making a difference for the environment—especially women who have become “agents of change.”

These include women like Vu Thi Hien, who works on forest preservation in Vietnam, and Australian skincare entrepreneur Natalie Isaacs, who tackles plastic waste. After Hurricane Katrina, Sharon Hanshaw of Biloxi, Mississippi, became an “accidental activist,” founding Coastal Women for Change to draw attention to the unfairness of how low-income survivors were treated.

Robinson always keeps one eye on the future. She ponders how climate change will affect her grandson’s generation and regrets her own carbon footprint. Instead of blaming governments, she believes we must all take responsibility for our environmental impact; she offers simple strategies such as cutting meat consumption. Living sustainably is a universal goal in Robinson’s envisioned “‘people first’ platform.”

I really enjoyed this accessible and inspiring look at climate change, its affects around the globe, and its intersection with poverty and inequality. Told mostly through stories on how various "everyday people" around the world are doing their own work to halt and reverse the devastating effects of climate change, Mary Robinson (former president of Ireland and UN High Commissioner for Human Rights) makes this issue personal and relatable, and while she does raise the alarm at the current and potential future issues arising from climate change, she also highlights solutions both big and small.

A timely and powerful read about the state of the world - literally. Former President of Ireland, Mary Robinson, uses her extensive political and diplomatic experience to implore readers to think of people we will never meet, but whose very lives and livelihoods are in jeopardy based on how we conduct our own. If you feel conflicted while and after reading this book, it's time to assess our complicity and make lasting changes to reverse what harm we've already done.