A memoir of activism and entrepreneurship amid the fossil fuel divestment campaign at Harvard University.
When they met as juniors at Harvard, Kenyan clean energy entrepreneur Tom Osborn and American climate writer Eve Driver did not get along. While a trip to Kenya over winter break sparked an unlikely friendship, it was tested back on campus amid the college’s fossil fuel divestment campaign––which Eve joined, and Tom opposed. In fresh voices that are raw, funny, and lyrical, the two take turns telling the story of their rocky but transformative friendship, which gripped and changed both of their minds.
What We Can’t Burn shines a spotlight on the chasm in first-hand experiences, tactics, and hopes between two people from vastly different backgrounds and circumstances on the sibling issues of climate change and renewable energy. The result is a poignant story of coming of age in a generation divided about how to safe itself, and a testament to the power of humor and dialogue to bridge divides in the global climate movement.
“Few things I’ve ever read have done a better job of getting at the complexity of the climate fight: how we need to do many things, at the same time, and without stumbling over each other!” – BILL McKIBBEN, author of The End of Nature; founder of Third Act
“This book is essential reading – it gives us an important opportunity to understand the way to catalyze the change we need to make the world a better place.” – KENNEDY ODEDE, TIME100 Most Influential People of 2024; New York Times best-selling author of Find Me Unafraid
"A powerful reminder that no one changes the world alone." – MICHELLE NIJHUIS, author of Beloved Beasts: Fighting for Life in an Age of Extinction
“What a ride—gritty and intricate and important . . . It’s inspiring." – JAMES ENGELL, Gurney Research Professor of English, Faculty Associate of the Salata Institute for Climate and Sustainability, Harvard University
“Raw, honest, and tapping into the soul of a generation, this book should be required reading for students – and folks of all ages – around the world.” – CANYON WOODWARD, author of Dirt Road Revival: How to Rebuild Rural Politics and Why Our Future Depends on it.
“Finally, a climate book that feels new and different! . . . What We Can’t Burn is a moving memoir for readers both young and not-so-young who are grappling with how to make real change.” – HOLLY JEAN BUCK, author of Ending Fossil Fuels: Why Net Zero Is Not Enough.
“A compelling, deeply honest look at the hard work involved in moving away from fossil fuels.” – LEAH STOKES, Associate Professor of Political Science, University of California Santa Barbara, author of Short Circuiting Policy
“It’s rare to see a book that actually tackles competing conceptions of political economy in good faith—and does so not only with intellectual sophistication, but with interpersonal complexity . . . This book will prove a useful gem to those working through what they believe—and what they might have to learn to believe—for making another world possible for us all.” – TAWANDA MULALU, author of Please make me pretty, I don’t want to die: Poems
"The profound conversation that has been missing from the climate justice movement . . . This is necessary reading for anyone who cares about our planet because it has the potential to open minds and hearts, catalyzing us towards transformative change.” – CRYSTA BLOOM, storyteller and land activist, Soul Fire Farm
EVE DRIVER is a writer and strategist focused on the energy transition. Her writing has been published in the Tusculum Review, Harvard Magazine, Grist, Mongabay, Quartz, and Undark, and she has spoken on panels sponsored by the Better Future Project, Uprooted and Rising, and the Gull Island Institute. She has worked as a journalist in Nairobi, a strategy consultant in New York, and as a climate policy advisor at the U.S. Department of Energy.
TOM OSBORN is a community-oriented entrepreneur and co- founder of the Shamiri Institute—a public benefit organization that develops and scales mental healthcare to young people across Africa. He is a 2021 TED Fellow and global Forbes’ 30 under 30 social entrepreneur, and has won numerous national and international awards for his work, including the World Deliver Social Entrepreneur of the year in 2016 and the Donors’ Circle for Africa Energy Prize.
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