What the world can learn from Rachel Carson as we fight for our planet | Kim Heacox

With her brave book Silent Spring, Carson changed the course of US environmental history. We would do well to study her example

Glasgow is our last chance" has become a climate crisis mantra.

World leaders scheduled to meet soon at the United Nations Cop26 climate summit in Glasgow to discuss - and act upon - our global climate crisis face a huge task, as do those here in the US as they fine-tune the climate measures in the Biden administration's Build Back Better plan. All political measures up to now have been insufficient. The latest UN report on climate change issued a code red for humanity". And it's only going to get worse and probably irreversible - larger fires, extended droughts, more intense storms, and more environmental refugees, destabilized regimes and unlivable parts of our planet - if our carbon-based economy continues unabated.

A frequent contributor to the Guardian, Kim Heacox is the author of many books, including The Only Kayak, a memoir, and Jimmy Bluefeather, a novel, both winners of the National Outdoor Book Award. He lives in Alaska