Books

Finding the Right Energy to Tackle Our Existential Climate Dread

John Mitchinson finds an inspiring warmth in the reality-checking work of climate justice activist Mikaela Loach

It is with a certain amount of trepidation that I approach the life and writing of Mikaela Loach.

As an old white male Boomer, ever tempted by nuance and the long view of history, I am keenly aware I might be part of the problem that she has set her stall against.

Loach is one of the UK’s most high-profile and celebrated climate justice campaigners, with more Instagram followers than the residents of Nottingham (280,000) and two bestselling books to her name. In 2024 she was named a ‘top thinker’ by Prospect magazine. Not bad going for someone still in her twenties.

I needn’t have worried. By the time I reached the end of her 2023 bestseller, It’s Not That Radical: Climate Action to Transform Our World, I felt like I’d made a new friend. In it, she confesses that “there is a never-ending debate going on in my head: am I too radical or not radical enough?”