Eduardo Garcia - Things You Can Do: How to Fight Climate Change and Reduce Waste

Acknowledgments

From Eduardo:

Writing a book is a lonesome endeavor but also a team effort. In my case, Ive been extremely lucky to work alongside an all-women team. This book would not be in your hands if it wasnt for my agent, Maria Whelan, who chose to believe in me when I casually pitched her the idea for Things You Can Do at a Brooklyn beer garden in the summer of 2019. I also owe a lot of gratitude to my editor, Sarah Malarkey, and the Ten Speed Press team, who were incredibly patient, gave sharp editorial notes, and kindly shepherded us through the intricate process of putting this jigsaw of a book together. A big thank you to all the activists, experts, and entrepreneurs who agreed to be interviewed for the profiles and to those who provided valuable insight for the manuscript, such as Robert Jones from The Nature Conservancy and Dr. Diana Ivanova from the University of Leeds. I would also like to give thanks to family and friends for cheering me on along this long, winding path during a global pandemic, especially my sister Maru, who I know will be delighted to see the book in printed form, and Valerie Hamra, who helped me relieve book stress during numerous Prospect Park walks. Last but not least, I have to give special thanks to Sara because I could not dream of a better ally.

From Sara:

First and foremost I want to thank my family and friends, especially my dear friends Lulu Watson, Julie Bernouis, Kristen Garcia, and Caroline Semmer, for a lot of emotional support and encouragement whilst I worked on Things You Can Do during the first Covid lockdown. I want to thank my now friend, Eduardo Garcia, for asking me to work with him on such a meaningful and well-researched project and the Ten Speed Press team for guiding us on this incredible journey. Special thanks to Liz Casella for being a supportive friend and mentor during much of my time illustrating this book and allowing me to paint in her Los Angeles design studio when everything else was shut down. Finally, I want to thank the playgrounds and outdoor spaces around Los Angeles, where I sketched many of these pages, for entertaining my child when the schools were closed.

Things You Can Do

to bring systemic change

Fighting climate change is not only about making lifestyle changes. The fossil fuel industry is largely to blame for the climate crisis because it has deceived people by pretending that coal, oil, and natural gas do not cause global warming, even though it has known that to be the case for decades. Power companies could have switched to renewable energy long ago but instead decided to continue burning dirty fossil fuels, and carmakers could have transitioned to electric vehicles but chose to sell larger, more polluting cars in order to make more money. Politicians, meanwhile, keep issuing distantand vagueemission-reduction targets that they rarely meet. They also have long given taxpayer money to fossil fuel companies. Lifestyle changes can help reduce emissions, but to move toward a zero-carbon future we need to hold these bigger actors accountable and force them to ditch fossil fuels. For that, we need to engage in collective efforts that have stronger ripple effects.

Vote for politicians who support clean energy policies.

Call your representatives to demand climate action, and use social media to denounce polluters.

Join forces with your neighbors and work colleagues. Community will make you stronger!

Divest from fossil fuels.

Donate to environmental organizations that fight for a cleaner future.

Talk about climate solutions with family and friends.

Plant a tree.

Reducing your carbon footprint is a journey as much as it is a destination, and every small step matters. But if you want to really leap forward, these are the Things You Can Do that make the biggest difference.

About the Author and Illustrator

Eduardo Garcia has written news stories and features from more than a dozen countries in his more than fifteen years as a journalist. A native of Spain, Eduardo cut his teeth working as a Reuters correspondent in Guatemala, Bolivia, Argentina, Colombia, and Ecuador. Eduardo has written dozens of stories for the New York Times on how people can reduce their carbon footprint. Eduardo strives to lead a sustainable lifestyle and believes in using words to empower people.