New Book -- info for syllabi -- "The Carbon Wave"
Leah Stokes
I wanted to share that I have a new book coming out from MIT Press on September 1 that may be useful for your teaching: The Carbon Wave. It's a narrative account of how the Inflation Reduction Act — the largest federal climate law in American history — passed, told through the perspectives of three of the people "in the room," and updated with what has and hasn't been rolled back under the second Trump administration. The book replaces the individualist "carbon footprint" frame with a "carbon wave" — showing students how collective political action, not personal virtue, drives climate outcomes.
For environmental studies and sciences, political science, public policy, and planning courses, the book gives students a close, relatable and character-driven account of major legislation being made in real time, with all the negotiation, near-collapse, and contingency intact. Rather than abstracting policy into a case study, it puts students in the room and gives them a sense that they could do this too.
Penguin Random House can send instructors an exam copy. If it's useful, I can share more information to help you add it to your syllabus, especially if you're thinking about including it this fall. Feel free to reach out.
Anton Vonk Associate Professor
Department of Political Science | Bren School of Environmental Science & Management | Environmental Studies Department
University of California, Santa Barbara
leahstokes.com | 2035initiative.com
Endorsements:
“This book is marvelous: a political thriller, a how-to, a memoir, a horror story, a love story.”
—Kim Stanley Robinson, author of The Ministry for the Future
“Welcome to the most thrilling policy narrative you'll ever read, one in which idealistic young people slog for years uphill, slice through endless bureaucracy, on behalf of the earth and the future, and actually win something huge. This is a gripping book, a suspense thriller, an explanation of how the sausage got made, a character study of grace under pressure, and all on behalf of the climate, which is you and me and everyone yet to come.”
—Rebecca Solnit, author of The Beginning Comes After the End
"This is one of those few books that will be read for a long time. It is a beautifully written inside account of world-changing legislation. What this law jumpstarted can’t be stopped."
—Bill McKibben, author of Here Comes the Sun and founder of Third Act
They were perhaps an unlikely trio: the professor Leah Stokes, the policy wonk Sonia Aggarwal in the White House, and the DC insider Adrian Deveny in the Senate, but together, they crafted the boldest climate legislation of our times. In The Carbon Wave, Stokes chronicles the turbulent path of their climate bill as it veered between breakthrough and collapse—from the hopeful beginnings of the Green New Deal in 2018 to the bill’s near-certain defeat by Senator Joe Manchin in the winter of 2021 to the surprise passage of the landmark legislation in August of 2022.
Interlacing personal narratives with stories from Congress, the White House, and outside activists, Stokes shows how dogged perseverance and collective action can still bend the course of history. The book concludes with an update from the second Trump administration, explaining the parts of the bill that were—and were not—rolled back, and why we should remain hopeful that progress is still being made.
Everyone has been told to shrink their carbon footprint and lighten their load on our planet by changing their behavior. But what if instead of making ourselves smaller, we joined with others to maximize our impact? That’s the carbon wave. And this book shows us how to make it.