Two books, a cool forest – and the question of how we save the world

Summer. Cool forests. Birdsong. And two books that won't let me go.

„Der Plan zur Rettung der Welt" (Nick Fuller Googins, "The Great Transition") imagines a future after the great climate crisis. Humankind has managed the turnaround – but only after enormous losses and profound social upheaval. The novel asks how much change is necessary to save the world, and who is willing to pay the price for it.

„Was wir wissen können" (Ian McEwan, "What We Can Know"), by contrast, looks more closely at our present: at all the knowledge that has long been available, at warning signs, denial, and the mechanisms by which people and societies keep postponing the action that is needed.

One book shows a possible tomorrow. The other asks why we don't act more decisively today. Both move between facts and literary sharpening – and both are frighteningly close to reality.

Switzerland, too, is no island: our glaciers are shrinking, heatwave summers are increasing, forests and ecosystems are under pressure. At the same time, we are among the countries with particularly high resource consumption, and we have the knowledge, the money, and the political means to actually change something.

The song "On n'a qu'une terre" by the Swiss rapper Stress fits this well – We have only one Earth. In it he imagines the gaze of our children and asks the painful question:

That question stays with me.

I don't have any grand answers. But I believe that change often begins on a small scale. I try to consume more consciously, not to waste food, to care for nature, to leave no litter behind, to put out water for animals in the heat, to keep my ecological footprint small, and to make decisions that place a little less burden on people, animals, and the environment.

That alone won't save the world.

But perhaps that is exactly where it begins: not waiting for "the others" to act, but starting where we ourselves can make a difference.

When I close these books and walk through a cool forest, I don't only feel worry. I also feel gratitude. And the wish that future generations may still experience this beauty too.