A Bigger Picture

In A Bigger Picture, Vanessa Nakate exposes the shortcomings of our global discussions around climate change, which consistently envisage the environmental crisis as a problem for future generations. Such an image is only possible through the erasure of the voices of people living in the Global South, where environmental disasters are already having a devastating impact on communities, and especially on women.

This is one of the great injustices of the climate crisis: those who have contributed the least to its creation are now suffering its consequences most severely. Despite this, people from the Global South - and people of colour from across the world - are often expunged from the picture of climate activism, as typified by Vanessa's own erasure from a press photograph at Davos in 2020. As she explains, 'we are on the front line, but we are not on the front page.'

Witnessing the destructive effects of global warming in her own community propelled Vanessa to become the first climate striker in Uganda at just twenty-one years old, despite risks to her personal safety. In this exceptional book, she traces the links between the climate crisis and anti-racism, feminism, economics and even extremist radicalization, revealing how our best hope of saving our planet is to work together across continents.

In telling the inspiring personal story of how she found her voice, Vanessa shows readers that no matter your age, location or skin colour, you can be an effective activist.