network weaver, writer, organizer, consultant, org development nerd + climate justice advocate
available now!
This Book Will Save the Planet: A Climate-Justice Primer for Activists and Changemakers
With this third title in the NYT #1 best-selling Empower the Future series, you’ll gain a deeper understanding of climate change and climate justice.
Our planet is in crisis. The ice caps are melting, sea levels are rising, wildfires are raging… and those most affected by global warming are marginalized communities across the globe.
But all is not lost – there’s still time for each and every one of us to make a difference.
Through the lens of intersectionality, author Dany Sigwalt lays out the framework for how we can come together to fight climate change, and how we can work to put people over profit. The planet is not protected if all its inhabitants are not; the people are not protected if the planet they inhabit is not.
What People Are Saying
“If a single book could hope to save the life support systems of Planet Earth while advancing equity and justice, this stunning volume by Sigwalt and Durand is the one. In compelling and unapologetic clarity, the author breaks down the root causes of climate chaos and asks us to imagine a future where all of us can thrive. Supported by elucidating graphics, the book clarifies complex concepts like emissions inequality, climate gentrification, and mutual aid in ways accessible to young people. Centering the needs of Indigenous, Black, disabled, poor, and queer folks, THIS BOOK WILL SAVE THE PLANET is a refreshing primer on the path forward to a livable and just global future.”
— Leah Penniman, co-founder, Soul Fire Farm and author of Farming While Black
"I can't imagine a more straightforward guide to this moment on earth. This book is 'radical' in the sense that it gets to the root of the problem, by taking power seriously. But most people reading it will recognize its solutions as eminently sensible, practical, and indeed joyful. It will liberate your thinking!"
— Bill McKibben, founder, Third Act
...A vibrant study of one of humanity’s most significant threats, This Book Will Save the Planet explains the core principles of climate justice, shows how solidarity and mutual aid can change the world, and encourages readers to use their privilege to stand up for other people.”
-Michael Svoboda, Yale Climate Connections
“I wished I had this book when I was a teenager! It would have saved me years of struggle to make sense of the deeply unjust, unequal world we live in. Dany Sigwalt explains with gentle wisdom what global climate catastrophe is really about, at its root - not a crisis of technology, but a crisis that inevitably arises from systems of domination, and that can't be truly addressed without dismantling these systems. Best of all, this book leaves the reader with hope that transforming these systems with our collective power, while not easy, is possible and within reach.”
— Basav Sen, director, Climate Policy Project at Institute for Policy Studies
“In this eye-catchingly illustrated book in the Empower the Future series, author Sigwalt boldly and compellingly shows that ‘climate change doesn’t sit apart from inequality. Climate change is the outcome of inequality.’ Throughout the book, she uses stark statistics and persuasive arguments to urge young people to fight for climate justice. After explaining how and why our climate is changing due to greenhouse gas emissions, Sigwalt defines what climate justice is and says that to reach it, ‘we need to understand the unjust systems that underpin most of our societies. And we need to work together to make new paths that include everyone.’ Short chapters address climate stories and climate tipping points. The book delves into ways to avert climate collapse as well as the effects of identity and privilege, capitalism and corporations, and housing and migration, and it offers calls to action in resisting fossil fuels and in building resiliency and community, both as individuals and collectively. Sigwalt’s own first-hand experience with a climate disaster that exposed social inequality adds another perspective. This resource is complemented by further reading suggestions, a glossary, and notes on the text. Illustrator Durand’s bright digital illustrations and the activities suggested at the end of each chapter will spur young readers to action. ”
— Starred Review in ALA Booklist, Sharon Rawlins
“The youth leaders who are really doing amazing work now…there’s Dany Sigwalt and Emira Woods at Green Leadership Trust.”
-Yessenia Funes, The Frontline
about dany.
If you know anything about me, it should be that I grew up in Washington, DC. I started working in the climate justice world because I saw the disproportionate impact that the climate crisis was set to have on people in my and other marginalized communities. I cut my organizing teeth providing solidarity childcare for housing rights advocates in DC, fighting against the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and with the Occupy DC movement. Growing up bearing witness to rampant gentrification and loss of cultural identity in DC, which has the widest racial wealth gap in the country, I fight for liberatory climate justice because I understand that the only way to combat this crisis is to reset our economic systems away from extractivism, which created the climate crisis to begin with.
writings
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How to Prevent Burnout Among Black Movement Leaders
What is actually a widespread, sector-wide problem has been pushed behind closed doors and turned into a private problem for individuals to solve using their personal resources. The truth is, burnout among Black activists and the organizational refusal to address it has serious implications for who remains in leadership roles and, therefore, how and if social justice movements are able to build the possibilities of a future beyond rapidly escalating climate catastrophe and fascism.
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Growing BIPOC Youth-Led Climate Movement Is the Force Occupy Could Have Been
Hundreds of activists gathered this week at Washington, D.C.’s Freedom Plaza for the People vs. Fossil Fuels mobilization — 10 years ago to the week that I set foot in the same place as the Occupy D.C. encampment had begun.
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It’s Climate Justice or “Climate Security”: We Can’t Have Both
Aligning climate change with a national security approach stands in direct opposition to a climate justice framework. A national security framework to address the climate crisis, fueled by defense contractors who are financially aligned with fossil fuel interests, threatens all people across the planet, but most acutely in regions that are already intensely impacted by militarism on top of the ravages of food and water insecurity, and forced displacement due to natural disasters.
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Climate Activists: Here’s Why Your Work Depends On Ending Police Violence
We live in a world where government agents can kill hundreds of people a year, without the whole system being held accountable. When the crisis presents the opportunity for billionaires to extract even more wealth from people and the planet, how can we expect that same government to be accountable to climate change?
media
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IRA, BIL, and Justive40, Advancing Climate Justice and Community-Led Solutions: Opportunities & Challenges
Marcene Mitchell, Senior Vice President of Climate Change, WWF-US
Crystal Upperman, Senior Manager for Government and Public Services, Deloitte
Dany Sigwalt, Managing Director, Green Leadership Trust
Peggy Shepard, Co-Founder and Executive Director, WE ACT
Dr. Robert Bullard, Founding Director, Bullard Center for Environmental and Climate Justice
Elizabeth Lien, America Is All In Program Lead and Senior Director for Federal Climate Policy, WWF-US
America Is All In, U.S. largest climate coalition representing a whole-of-society effort to advance climate action convenes a group of climate justice and equity experts for a panel discussion around how to leverage U.S. policy landscape to advance climate justice and deliver benefits for disadvantaged communities. The panel will elaborate on opportunities and challenges for IRA, BIL and Justice40 to meet the climate justice agenda.
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Regrounding: Fighting Colonialism Through Collective Healing
Founder of Rising Hearts, Jordan Marie Daniel and Power Shift Network's Co-Executive Director, Dany Sigwalt discuss colonialism, Black Indigeneity, and healing justice.
be in touch
i’m excited to hear from people and organizations working to decolonize the climate movement, build equitable organizational cultures, and build a new generation of leaders for our movement. send me an email at dany@danysigwalt.com or fill out this form to start a conversation!