2024 Festival:
October 21–27

85. Not Too Late: The Climate Conversation

85. Not Too Late: The Climate Conversation

This event will have auto-generated Closed Captions accessible by mobile phone at bit.ly/vwfcaptions.

It’s at the forefront of our minds and an issue that effects us all. What can we do to truly engage with this pivotal moment for humankind and our planet? Three of the most revered contemporary non-fiction writers speak about the climate crisis… and what comes next. Acclaimed public intellectual Rebecca Solnit most recently co-edited Not Too Late: Changing the Climate Story from Despair to Possibility. Chris Turner’s How to Be a Climate Optimist won the Shaughnessy Cohen Prize for Political Writing and offers a “blueprint for a better world.” Meanwhile, John Vaillant’s Fire Weather is a must-read of 2023 and beyond, unflinching in its exploration of our rapidly changing relationship with fire. Whether you feel stuck in a cycle of despair and helplessness, or are actively fighting against the crisis and need a recharge of hope, this is an essential conversation for all. Moderated by Matt Galloway, host of CBC’s The Current.

This event will be recorded for broadcast on CBC Radio’s The Current.

Event Participants:

Matt Galloway

MATT GALLOWAY is the host of The Current on CBC Radio One. He has been with CBC Radio for more than 15 years, and has anchored CBC Radio’s coverage of the Olympic Games on several occasions.

Rebecca Solnit

REBECCA SOLNIT is the author of more than twenty books, including Orwell’s RosesHope in the DarkMen Explain Things to MeA Paradise Built in Hell: The Extraordinary Communities that Arise in Disaster; and A Field Guide to Getting Lost. A longtime climate and human rights activist, she serves on the board of the climate group Oil Change International, and the advisory boards of Dayenu and Third Act.

Chris Turner

CHRIS TURNER is a three-time nominee and one-time winner of the National Business Book Award, and a finalist for the Governor General’s Literary Award for Nonfiction (The Geography of Hope). He has long been one of Canada’s leading voices on climate change solutions and the global energy transition. His feature writing has earned ten National Magazine Awards, and he is the author of five books on technology, energy and climate. He lives in Calgary with his wife, the author Ashley Bristowe, and their two children.

John Vaillant

JOHN VAILLANT’s acclaimed, award-winning nonfiction books, The Golden Spruce and The Tiger, were national bestsellers. His debut novel, The Jaguar’s Children, was a finalist for the Rogers Writers’ Trust Fiction Prize and the International Dublin Literary Award. Vaillant has received the Governor General’s Literary Award, British Columbia’s National Award for Canadian Non-Fiction, the Windham-Campbell Literature Prize, and the Pearson Writers’ Trust Prize for Nonfiction. He has written for, among others, The New YorkerThe AtlanticNational Geographic, and The Walrus. He lives in Vancouver.