Gadea Lara pinpoints the Youth Climate Movement, led by Greta Thunberg, as a turning point for public interest in the environment, specifically climate. Although there was a rich history of climate activism before it, this seemed to make a deep impression in the audience. Furthermore, the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic soon after, with its subsequent lockdowns and social distancing, meant that more people now had the time to devote to topics of interest. As Gadea Lara puts it, “the confinement due to the pandemic forced us all to reflect on these essential topics.” Gadeas Lara and de Ambrosio were faced with the same situation: the interest from their audience was far larger than they expected. They eventually had to limit the number of members, as they both agree on the importance of manageable groups to foster discussions — a too large group of people means that a percentage of them will be left unheard. And the discussion is the point: she mentions that due to the pandemic, “my international trips were cancelled, but I needed to converse with others about these concerns.” It is through discussion that ideas coalesce, and action begins to take place. Ultimately, action is the goal of an environmental book club is always to inform in order to transform. Gadeas Lara points out that every book is a starting point, that it should “inform to raise awareness and trigger action.” Do the members of environmental book clubs have anything in common beyond this need? According to Gadeas Lara, not much: the Club de Lectura Climática has members who practice different professions, who are different ages and belong to diverse communities. The only other commonality a lot of them seem to share is a desire to reconnect with books, to once again get in the habit of reading. Because that’s what it comes down to: at the end of the day, it’s impossible to read about the environment without simultaneously reading about humanity. The two are so intrinsically linked that one must affect, and be affected by, the other. This is why, although Club de Lectura Climática is ostensibly only about climate, they are reading about the refugee crisis, about global nutrition, about people. Environmental book clubs may seem like a niche type of book club, but they’re not. One might argue quite the opposite: they’re the most global type of book club there is.
