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In 2019, Carola Rackete became publicly known for docking the sea rescue vessel “Sea-Watch 3” in Italy and thereby challenging a national decree that contradicted international obligations to engage in sea rescue. Due to this act of civil disobedience and her public confrontation of the Italian far right and the structural racism of the EU’s Fortress Europe policy, Carola became a powerful symbol for people seeking to take practical action for a world based on justice and equality.

Carola has worked in the polar regions since 2011 and holds a degree in natural resources management. Consequently, her book shows how the ecological crises we are facing today are rooted in social and political power structures. The book details moments of the rescue mission but also connects the dots to forced migration and the urgency of our environmental predicament. Overall, it is a call to engage and act, to become part of initiatives and movements struggling for social and environmental justice.

This version of the book includes a new afterword focused on centring justice and human rights in nature and biodiversity conservation – a topic often overlooked by climate activists in the Global North.

This book is also available in other languages:

German: Droemer-Knaur, Handeln statt Hoffen, (11/2019)
Italian: Garzanti, Il mondo che vogliamo, (11/2019)
Spanish: Ediciones Paidós, Es hora de actuar (01/2019)
Catalan: Ara Libres, És hora d’actuar (02/2020)
Dutch: Uitgeverij Pluim, Tijd for actie, (02/2020)
French: L’Iconoclaste, Il est temps d’agir, (09/2020)
Brazilian: Arquipelago Editorial, É hora de agir (01/2021)

All proceeds from the book are donated to a legal support fund for people on the move, managed by Borderline-Europe e.V.

The authors

Carola Rackete, born in 1988, studied nautical sciences in Elsfleth (Germany) and conservation management in Ormskirk (UK). She has visited Antarctica over 8 of the last 10 years while working on polar research vessels for the German polar research institute AWI, the British Antarctic Survey, and for Greenpeace. Between 2016 and 2019, she volunteered for sea rescue NGOs in the Central Mediterranean and was arrested as captain of the “Sea-Watch 3” vessel in 2019. Currently, her activism is focused on justice in nature conservation and connecting the dots between climate and anti-racist movements.

Anne Weiss, born in 1974, is an author and environmental activist. One of her last books in German was Generation Weltuntergang – Eine Geschichte des Klimawandels.

Hindou Oumarou Ibrahim, born in 1984, is an environmental activist and geographer. She is the coordinator of Association Femmes Peuples Autochtones du Tchad (AFPAT) and served as the co-director of the World Indigenous Peoples’ Initiative and Pavilion at the UN climate conferences in 2015, 2016, and 2017.

Further articles

What Privilege Means in the Climate Crisis Fight – New York Times – December 2021

How can the climate movement escalate to shift power? – with Payal Parekh – medium – August 2021

Seid Sand im Getriebe – with Momo – taz – September 2021

Is the Antarctic Treaty a cause for celebration? – The Ecologist – June 2021

Climate Apartheid will only lead to more deaths in the Mediterranean – The Guardian – September 2021

Videos

Save trees and refugees – TEDx Amsterdam – December 2019