Dr. Ayana Elizabeth Johnson Is Saving the Planet, One Dance Step at a Time

There are few things I want to think about less than global warming, pollution, and how humanity is revealing itself to be one lousy houseguest. After the depression comes the guilt, followed by getting defensive: Don’t blame me for the boiling oceans. I always schlep my cardboard to the curb! What more do you want?

Dr. Ayana Elizabeth Johnson and her philosophy of climate activism are exactly what people like me need. Her new book, What If We Get It Right? Visions of Climate Futures, isn’t a Pollyanna “oh, it’ll all work out” fantasy—the dangers of inaction are very real. Still, it takes a much softer approach when engaging with people who want to see our planet survive but don’t yet know what the heck they can do to help. It’s a blend of interviews with experts, visual art, poetry, and links to an anti-apocalypse mixtape, as well as a kind of workbook in which readers are encouraged to create their own personalized climate-action Venn diagram.

The Brooklyn-raised, Harvard- and UC San Diego–educated marine biologist, cofounder of Urban Ocean Lab and the current Roux Distinguished Scholar at Maine’s Bowdoin College, could have simply read excerpts from her new work at her book launch on Tuesday night. Instead, Johnson decided to bring its spirit to life with a (slightly zany, not entirely glitch-free) variety show at the Brooklyn Museum’s Cantor Auditorium.

With co-emcee Jason Sudeikis, whose attitude toward climate change was pithily summed up in one joke—“I enjoyed watching the movie Dune. I don’t want to live there”—Johnson welcomed a murderers’ row of climate superstars who reminded the capacity crowd that all hope is not lost. Activists like Xiye Bastida, Bren Smith, the White House Environmental Justice Advisory Council’s Jade Begay, and several others came out to the classic Chicago Bulls psych-up track “Sirius,” by the Alan Parsons Project, as the crowd of deeply engaged climate stans hooted and hollered. Quite frankly, some of their messaging got a little lost in the excitement, which Sudeikis likened to a roll call of “the Environment Avengers.”

Also onstage was NASA alum Dr. Kate Marvel, who went head-to-head with comedian Wyatt Cenac in a fake game show called “Earth vs. Mars,” hosted by former Daily Show correspondent Roy Wood Jr. In this little sketch, Wood posed questions to Marvel, representing planet Earth, and Cenac (who killed, by the way), representing Mars, and tried to determine which of the two planets best suited humanity’s needs. This led to the revelation that colonizing our neighbor may sound like a fun challenge—and there was no shortage of Elon Musk zings—but Earth is really where it’s at.

Indeed, I can’t recall ever hearing the phrase “shout-out to earth!” so many times in a single evening. (Policy expert Jean Flemma also bellowed a fine “give it up for the oceans!” at one point.) The affair was kicked off with a rousing live performance by environmental educator Hila the Earth and her They Might Be Giants–esque anthem “Earth Gone Give It to Ya.” When she and a colleague hit the stage to rap in globe and sun costumes, I hardly noticed that their number was based on a tune by DMX, who pleaded guilty to animal cruelty in 2002 and 2008. (You can’t have everything.)

Other highlights included supermodel Cameron Russell hitting “the runway” as a heat pump and offering environmental aphorisms like “nothing looks as good as renewable energy feels.” There was music and poetry, and a hula-hoop performer named Perrin Ireland did her thing while reciting facts about the mating habits of albatrosses. A magician named Nicole Cardoza did that trick where the hoops don’t look like they will intersect, but then they do, which was certainly symbolic of something—and also a good segue to the aforementioned Venn diagram.

The big finish was a Dance Dance Revolution competition between Johnson and Sudeikis, refereed by Amber Tamblyn, with the added twist being that their game console was somehow hooked up to the internet and every dance move they completed sent a text message to a voter, reminding them to think about climate activism for the upcoming election. I wasn’t 100% sure how that worked—my phone didn’t buzz, at least—but by this point the show had been going for nearly two hours and I wasn’t going to demand a peer review.

As I exited the museum, having partaken in a complimentary margarita in an (uh-oh) single-use plastic cup, I decided to keep the good karma going. I put on Johnson’s Spotify playlist, which includes a lot of good tunes that make perfect sense—like Sam Cooke’s “A Change Is Gonna Come,” Bill Withers’s “Lovely Day,” and the Hollies’ “The Air That I Breathe”—but also tracks like Rihanna’s “Bitch Better Have My Money” that maybe have a climate aspect I’ve never noticed before. More importantly, I reflected for a moment about my personal fossil fuel consumption and, despite having a bit of a trek back to Queens, took the subway instead of ordering a Lyft. Shout-out to earth!