The flying climate activist
Remember how I was working on a book and then I remained silent about it for a long time? It started more or less like this:
The book is about finding my voice in climate activism. I posted a few installments here on Substack and then started to pitch it to book publishers. Then, lots of things happened all at the same time, but before I can tell you, I need to go back a few years.
In 2020, I was asked to make cartoons during a live event for the Red Cross Red Crescent Climate Centre. What I didn’t know back then, is that this was because of a scientist and humanitarian called Pablo Suarez. He saw that our climate conversations need something other than data and discussions. It needs humor. He’s been getting cartoonists involved ever since and we’ve been working together on numerous projects over the years. By involving me in his work, he send me on a path to discover what climate activism means to me. We were just about to do another cartoon event and planning a week long retreat in Oxford this last summer. I was excited to tell him about my book project, that wouldn’t have been if it wasn’t for him. But then he unexpectedly and very prematurely passed away.
That same week, I got a response from a publisher: they would love to publish my book.
I’ve been trying to find ways to write about it to you, but quite frankly, I still don’t know what to say. It feels like he’s passed one of his many torches on to me, but I wonder if that sounds incredibly self important. I’m excited and proud to make this book and so sad he’ll never read it.
The Oxford retreat didn’t happen. Some incredible person moved mountains to be able to do it in her home country, South Africa, because we all knew Pablo would have wanted us to continue the work he started. I got some shit for getting on a plane. I decided to call my book ‘The flying climate activist’. It’s for Pablo who is no longer on this earth. And yes, I also talk about how unhelpful it is to shame people into thinking climate action is about all the stuff we’re not supposed to do.
Two more things about this. It’s not actually called ‘The flying climate activist’, but ‘De vliegende klimaatactivist’ because it’s going to be in Dutch. The publisher is going to try to find a publisher for an English version as well and if that plan doesn’t succeed, I want to crowdfund it like my previous book. Obviously, that will take some time.
It turns out, once you get a ‘yes’ it needs to be done by tomorrow. Or, in my case February 1st. So apart from feeling sad and confused, I’ve also been really busy since this summer and that’s why I haven’t been as active on here as I wanted to. I would like to share behind the scenes of the book making process, but I wonder what are the kinds of things that would interest you? Please reply to this email or comment below to let me know.
With love,
P.S. If you’d like to read the parts I’ve already posted on Substack, start here:
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