After working in Hollywood for the past 20 years as a writer, director, and entertainment executive, Stephen Erickson set off to find real solutions to the climate crisis. Erickson first developed a passion for environmental and animal rights while studying at UCLA, and now, with his new book, The Great Healing, he has returned to that passion by bringing together extensive research and his gifts as a storyteller. Through a cast of engaging human and animal characters like “Earl the Worm,” “Thomas Q. Piglet,” or Arch Villain “Big Ag,” Erickson explores the science and the “Five Compassions” he believes we all must embrace in order to save the planet.

What led you to write a book about climate change?

Global warming, during our lifetime, threatens to bring about the end of our Anthropocene Epoch—and us along with it. Today, over 1 million species of plants and animals are facing extinction. Things are going to get worse, much worse. There is a climate archvillain, an industry responsible for 57% of all carbon emissions: It’s Big Ag (Industrial agriculture + factory farming). I wrote this book for all of us but particularly for my children, for millennials, and for Generation Z—because they need to mobilize in a big way immediately to protect what remains of their opportunity to one day raise families in a stable society and an environment fairly similar to the one we now enjoy—as opposed to being trapped in a sweltering, ugly calamity.

What are the Five Compassions you describe in your book?

There is only one way to significantly draw down carbon from our atmosphere. The Five Compassions [provide] that one solution rapidly and at necessary scale. They are Compassion for Animals, for Self, for the Land, for Community, and for Democracy. Compassionate activism can create the Great Healing—the healing of our planet, the halting of the ongoing sixth great extinction, and the preservation of as many species and living creatures as possible.

How did you approach writing something accessible?

Through my years as a scriptwriter and an entertainment executive creating marketing copy for hundreds of programs, I’ve learned how to tell an engaging story. The challenges faced by “exquisite creatures”—both human and nonhuman—reveal the immensity of the threat facing each one of us—and its urgency. Their stories emotionally engage the reader.

What was your main goal in writing this book?

Courtesy of the authorThe most important goal of this book is to expand awareness far beyond the “choir” of the most pressing issue of our time. The book has to dive deeply into climate and agriculture science. I worked hard to make science engaging, even interesting. Awareness is the first step toward compassionate activism.

What do you hope people will realize by the end of The Great Healing?

How serious our climate emergency is. That we are now facing humanity’s greatest challenge. Together, we are entering the fight of our lives—a fight for our lives. And without immediate action we may not prevail. That the path to achieving this solution rapidly and at necessary scale is the Five Compassions. That we will realize we are part of a special generation: We can create the future we want to see. If we don’t act, there will be no future for the next generation. By finding our voices and using them, we can participate in what will become the most important cause of all of humanity’s endeavors to date. We have the power. More than we realize.

Rhett Morgan is a writer and translator based in Paris.