Rituals for Climate Change

A Crip Struggle for Ecojustice

by Naomi Ortiz

Rituals for Climate Change Book Cover

Rituals for Climate Change Review by Brittany Torres Rivera, Notre Dame University

Disability justice and ecojustice are rarely considered together but are in constant conversation in our world. Rituals for Climate Change: A Crip Struggle for Ecojustice, combining poetry and the lyrical essay, doesn’t contain just one point of view but encompasses dialectical perspectives which often exist in contradiction to each other. A disabled person is in need of plastic cups and concerned about the overwhelming plastic in our ecosystems. Ortiz expands on and complicates who is seen as an environmentalist and what being in relationship with the land can look like.

This book is an offering to explore the spiritual question of how to witness. It serves as a companion to those also grappling with the difficult and often unanswerable questions posed by climate change in the borderlands. By exploring the ways body, mind, and cultures both clash with and long for ecojustice, Rituals for Climate Change offers an often-overlooked perspective on climate-grief, interdependence, and resilience. Disabled people know how to adapt to a world that is ever changing without considering them.

What People Are Saying

"Ortiz braids rich lyrical poetry with poignant personal stories to explore eco-grief, ableism, and interdependence with nature. A restorative balm and rallying cry to coax us out of complacency and into interconnectedness..." Review by Win- Sie Tow
"Rituals for Climate Change is a meditation on listening, searching, supporting the ecosystem around us … of what is in control, beyond control, and how to honor life. An exploration into poems sung to the land we lean on." Review by J. Davis
Rituals for Climate Change calls readers to witness and love an endangered world.  Ortiz’ words pulse with life and longing, with the brilliance of disability culture, interdependence, and the desert’s own depths. -Julia Watts Belser
Ortiz demonstrates deep crip wisdom. As a disabled Latina, their words made me feel seen. Through a gamut of emotions they reminded me of how critical it is for us to be in good relationship with Mother Earth now more than ever. -Lisette E. Torres
"Generously and deliciously, Naomi Ortiz takes readers into the folds of life in the Sonoran Desert border zones, and shares ‘a wobbly set of Crip hacks.’ Ortiz uses humor, passion, and ceremony to invite us into their world." Review by Petra Kuppers

Disabled people know how to adapt to a world that is ever changing without considering us.