Climate Disruption and Personal Health—A Conversation about Watershed: Attending to Body and Earth in Distress

In her book Watershed: Attending to Body and Earth in Distress (2021, University of Minnesota Press), author Ranae Lenor Hanson poses the question: What if we cared for the strained earth as tenderly as we care for a human body in a medical crisis? Using the metaphor of diabetes to explore the climate crisis, Hanson weaves stories from her climate-refugee and urban climate-affected students with those of Minnesota watersheds that have provided a nurturing web for her life. In this article, four former students whose stories appear in the book reflected on their reactions to Watershed.