In her TIME Earth Awards speech, Ayana Elizabeth Johnson urges us to replace passive hope with decisive, science-driven solutions.

I was asked to talk about hope. But I work on climate change and last year was the hottest year on Earth in human history. And Hurricane Melissa, supercharged by a Caribbean Sea that’s way hotter than it should be, just smashed into Jamaica, the island my family is from, with record-breaking winds. So what I have to say is: F-ck hope. What’s the strategy? What are we going to do so that we don’t need hope?

Take it from me, a scientist: yes , things are dire, and yes, it’s because humans have burned fossil fuels and burned forests — scientists agree on this. To be clear, most of the blame for this climate crisis goes to the greedy fossil fuel executives

See Full Page