Barbara Kingsolver on Climate Change: 'What I Have to Offer is Words'

Barbara Kingsolver has been incorporating environmental concerns into her books since she began writing novels in 1988. Her 2012 novel Flight behavior explored how climate change might affect the monarch butterfly and the 2007 nonfiction book Animal, Plant, Miracle She recounted her family’s experience of eating only foods grown close to their home in Virginia.

She recently applied that skill to a new, much shorter genre: pledge writing. Coordinators for the American Climate Corps—President Joe Biden’s flagship green jobs program—invited Kingsolver to write the pledge that new members would recite when they were sworn in. “I told them, ‘This will be the first vow or commitment I’ve written since my wedding vows,’” Kingsolver said. Last month, the first 9,000 Climate Corps members pledged to uphold Kingsolver’s oath:

I am committed to bringing my skills, respect and compassion to work every day, supporting environmental justice in all of our communities.

I will celebrate the beauty and abundance of nature, on which we all depend, and commit to protecting it from the climate crisis.

I will build a more resilient future, where every person can thrive.

I will take my place in history, working with common purpose within the American Climate Corps on behalf of our nation and our planet, its people and all its species, for the better future we have in sight.

The new members have spread across the country to install clean energy, restore habitats and build trails. The Biden White House plans to employ 20,000 young people in the first year of the program, modeled after the Civilian Conservation Corps, which President Franklin D. Roosevelt launched in the 1930s to help the country recover from the Great Depression.

Kingsolver believes the reimagined version will also make history, calling it “one of the most exciting things happening in the country right now.” In a call with Grist, she discussed her vision for the American Climate Corps and how it connects to the themes of her novels: nature, empathy, and class. This interview has been condensed and edited for clarity.

Q. What was the thinking behind the language you used in your engagement?

A. In less than 100 words, I tried to summarize the most important elements of this initiative: it is about respecting and doing justice to communities, respecting and honoring the environment and our connection to it, and being part of history. I read it out loud as I worked, because a commitment is more like poetry than anything else. It has to ring true when spoken out loud, and it has to sound sincere. Like a wedding vow!

Q. You have said that you believe writing can foster social change. Is that part of why you wrote this text?

A. These are the words that are offered to me. This is my way of giving blood. I think that advocacy and literature are two very different things, and this was an opportunity for me to get into advocacy, which I am delighted to do. I feel that younger generations are feeling more and more anxious and paralyzed by the world that they are inheriting. And I have always believed that anxiety can be a paralyzer or a driving force that pushes you to work, and that you will go further and feel better if you put your anxiety to good use.

Q. I know you’ve been writing about climate change in your novels for a long time. What have you learned about how to communicate this topic in an accessible way?

A. I think the most important thing to remember, no matter who you are, whether you’re a policymaker, a novelist, a friend or a relative entering into a conversation, is that no one likes to feel judged. People get their information from sources they trust, and trust implies respect. So if you start a conversation by saying “idiot,” the conversation is already over.

I write with the assumption that my readers are all at least as intelligent as I am. I never speak in a condescending way, because I have no reason to. I may have information that others don’t have, or skills that others don’t have, and likewise, they have information and skills that I don’t have. So I approach it as a fair exchange. I think if more people remembered this on social media, the world would be a happier place.

Q. In Copperhead DemonIn your latest novel, a common thread is the way mining companies have exploited Appalachian communities. Can you talk about what inspired you to write about climate change, and whether the history of the region has anything to do with it?

A. I am a rural person. I grew up playing in the woods, unsupervised. The woods, the fields, the water, the river… all of that will always be part of my world. I don’t see the world as a place of interest and occupation reserved for humans. I see myself as a species among species. I studied biology, so I am aware that every breath I take, the oxygen I breathe, is made by trees. So that will always be part of my writing. It is part of my thinking, always.

Q. Poverty and class are often central themes in your books. As for the Climate Corps, part of its goal is to revitalize areas of the country that have long been neglected. What role do you hope it plays?

A. I think this is a really class-conscious initiative that encourages kids from all over the world, from all classes, from all geographic regions of the United States, rural or urban, to have the opportunity to engage in conservation, to engage in the future in this way, and to be really clear that enjoying the environment is not an elite privilege.