As her book, It’s Not Just You, is shortlisted for the Wainwright Prize, Tsui speaks to Mission about how we should be talking about – and acting on – the climate crisis.
There is a lot to say about Tori Tsui. She’s a climate justice lead for Earth Percent (Brian Eno’s climate foundation), has sailed to COP25 – sponsored by Stella McCartney – starred in Billie Eilish’s documentary and, most recently, her debut book, It’s Not Just You, was shortlisted for the Wainwright Prize. Of course, she was also featured in Mission’s latest issue. Though it would be easy to spend time listing Tsui’s accomplishments, her focus is on other conversations – most pressingly, the climate.
Since her book came out last year, Tsui tells Mission, she has seen a larger “emphasis on the importance of more radical messaging” in regards to the climate emergency. Though understanding how our individual actions affect the environment is undeniably important, she explains, “It becomes tricky when we spend more time nitpicking over minute consumer behaviors as opposed to focusing on the big culprits like the oil and gas industry.”
Her new role as a Senior Advisor with the Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty engages with this focus. The treaty initiative is part of a wide-scale, international effort to – quickly – make the changes that are key to mitigating climate change, such as transitioning to renewable energy and ending the expansion of coal, oil and gas. “It builds on decades of calls and campaigns for a fossil fuel phase out and fair energy transition by government, civil society, Indigenous, grassroots and other leaders – particularly from the Global South – and aims to compliment other movements tactics such as divestment, debt relief and fossil fuel bans”, Tsui says.
It shows that there are collectives refusing to sit back and assume the goals of the Paris Agreement will simply be met without continued pressure: “While the Paris Agreement set a crucial global climate target, many governments – including self-proclaimed climate leaders – have continued to approve new coal, oil and gas projects even though burning the world’s current fossil fuel reserves would result in seven times more emissions than what is compatible with keeping warming below 1.5ºC.” As well as fostering the international cooperation that is necessary to achieve the goals of the Paris Agreement, the treaty has provided her with another essential component of climate activism: “a lot of hope”.
“While the Paris Agreement set a crucial global climate target, many governments – including self-proclaimed climate leaders – have continued to approve new coal, oil and gas projects.”
Tsui’s book, It’s Not Just You, attempts to foster this hope in others, as well as focusing on how the various ‘crises’ associated with the present day – climate and mental health among them – are intrinsically linked. The book argues that “capitalism is making us unwell, the climate crisis is as a result of all systems of oppression and that it is these systems of oppression which have given rise to the climate crisis as we know it.” Making tough arguments and talking honestly about difficult topics can be hard to do in a manner that isn’t entirely demoralizing or, frankly, unappealing to readers. Tsui told Mission that making sure her arguments stayed true to the grave reality of climate change while also being stomachable for readers was “a huge consideration when writing the book. Trying to toe the line between accessibility and rigor is tricky, though not mutually exclusive. Realistically the book had to be commercially viable enough to sell as it was acquired by one of the ‘Big Five’ publishers, but I was pretty set on making sure it maintained strong messaging.” The title of the book was purposefully a nod to how-to-guides, which might imply individual, isolated changes, “when in reality it is a book fundamentally about system change.”
It’s Not Just You is intentionally challenging, but still optimistic, as Tsui ensures “the reader is guided gently through different concepts that perhaps get a little more radical as the book goes on.” And readers have responded well to this: “I’ve had so many people message me saying that they’ve referenced my book in their dissertations, only to go on and do really well!” The popularity of Tsui’s book emphasizes its title – swathes of readers are showing not only their concern, but their commitment to protecting our earth from a point of even deeper crisis.
“I didn’t expect to receive any accolades for my first book, so to have this [Wainwright Prize] nomination and to be named a Waterstones book of the year is pretty crazy.”
The critical reception has been no different, much to Tsui’s surprise: “I didn’t expect to receive any accolades for my first book, so to have this [Wainwright Prize] nomination and to be named a Waterstones book of the year is pretty crazy.” Buoyed by the success of her first book, she is currently working on her second, which she describes as “a real passion project.” If Tsui’s activism demonstrates anything, it’s that her passion projects are not solo endeavors, and, in the case of wanting to make the world a better place, it’s not just you.
All images courtesy of Tori Tsui.
