Throughout the day, students had multiple opportunities to engage with Dr. Wilkinson, from audience questions after her remarks at an assembly in Klingenstein Concert Hall, to activities and discussion during classes, her time spent with Emma Green and the EcoLeaders (Emma Willard’s sustainability club and the red-tier student leaders who lead environmentally conscious initiatives across campus), and an interview with the student newspaper, The Clock. 

 

 

The themes of Dr. Wilkinson’s remarks centered around the inception of All You Can Save: Truth, Courage, and Solutions for the Climate Crisis and the absence of women in policy-making decisions, despite women often being at the forefront of the research and advocacy throughout the climate change movement. 

She began her talk with our alumna, Eunice Newton Foote (1836), and her until-recently overlooked work as the first scientist to identify the insulating effect of certain gases on the planet’s temperature. Core to Ms. Wilkinson’s starting point with Eunice was a curiosity about the backstory: where did the idea for this critical, core idea of global warming and climate change originate? 

That question led the rest of the assembly as Dr. Wilkinson tracked how All We Can Save came to be, because “in a time where we need much more groundbreaking, field-making, movement-shaping, world-changing work, we need to learn from the work that’s come before.”

That story begins partly in Dr. Wilkinson’s own experience as a teenager at The Outdoor Academy in North Carolina. Sharing her experience there, and the words in her journal: “I want to help the world, be connected with the Earth, and change the way I live.”

The journey to the book took several stops, but ultimately Dr. Wilkinson and Dr. Ayana Elizabeth Johnson, frustrated with an experience at a retreat for women leading climate initiatives where those speaking were mostly men, started the plan for their anthology. She detailed the process of matching writers, scientists, artists, and poets with different areas of expertise and topics, giving students a little bit of insight into the evolution of the All We Can Save Project. 

An interactive portion of the speech allowed community members to use their phones to participate in a survey, gauging where they feel involved (or not) in the climate movement. The community is concerned and wants to participate, but individuals struggle to figure out exactly where they might fit into such a movement. 

Throughout the day, this question of individual involvement and how to combat feelings of disillusionment that arise when considering climate activism. Often, Dr. Wilkinson’s answer echoed her speech and underscored the importance of community, that each person’s particular skills, talents, and interests can find a place to be useful and help combat feelings of fatigue, powerlessness, and apathy. 

 

 

“One of the really interesting things is that as we take action, we also end up feeling more empowered, especially when we take action together,” she said in response to student interviewers. “There's really good research that participating in collective action in some form leaves us feeling more energized and more in touch with the future that we want.”

In that same vein, Dr. Wilkinson spoke to The Clock about the important and exciting role schools can play in the climate movement. As places to experiment, schools at all levels can serve as places where students can investigate the way institutions work, how policies are written, and how decisions are made.

This is truly evident on the Emma Willard School campus, where Emma Green and the EcoLeaders partner with adult advisors and community members to help us be more aware of our impact on the environment, and to make our school a more sustainable place. 

Dr. Wilkinson ended her speech with a musing on a verse from the poem “Natural Resources” by Adrienne Rich:

 

My heart is moved by all I cannot save:

so much has been destroyed

I have to cast my lot with those

who age after age, perversely,

with no extraordinary power,

reconstitute the world.

 

We're excited to continue this conversation with families. In October, “All You Can Save” will become our Parent Book Club selection.