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Every time I read the words of Willow Defebaugh, I feel hope. I remember that despite the very real climate crisis we are facing, all is not lost, and that this fascinating planet we’re fortunate enough to call home is worth saving. Offering a sense of wonder and optimism amid a daunting climate emergency is what Defebaugh does best—and her debut book, The Overview: Meditations on Nature for a World in Transition, released on January 25, is no exception.
“When I look at the story of life on earth, it’s a never-ending story of resilience, of life moving forward and finding a way, shrinking and collapsing, expanding and blooming,” Defebaugh explains of what inspired her to write the book. “As humans, we are not separate from that.”
As the co-founder and editor-in-chief of Atmos, a nonprofit biannual print magazine and digital platform at the intersection of climate and culture founded in 2019, Defebaugh has also spent the past four years writing a weekly newsletter that reflects on deep ecology. (Also known as spiritual ecology, it’s a philosophy connecting science and spirituality that regards humans as an inseparable part of the natural world.)
Defebaugh’s new book is an anthology of 100 essays originally published in the newsletter, here arranged under four themes as she considers the core principles of deep ecology: reverence, balance, evolution, and healing. Replete with breathtaking nature photography, The Overview reflects on the many lessons we can take from nature while on our own, personal journeys of continuous transformation.
One essay, for example, considers the slow and highly complex metamorphosis of certain insects, such as dragonflies, to reflect on the importance of incremental evolution in the climate movement and our lives more broadly. “We grow imperfectly, incompletely,” she writes. “I’m talking about the subtle shifts, the months of molting, swimming beneath the surface, wondering what it’s all for—until the moment arrives when you rise above the water only to realize that all the while you thought that you were drowning, you were learning how to fly.”
Over the years, Defebaugh explains, her weekly meditations have run parallel to her own story of metamorphosis as a trans woman. “In some ways, I wrote [these essays] for myself, to help me navigate the last four years of my life, which have been a time of immense change,” she says. “Each week was about looking at a different lesson from the tree of life that I could tether myself to—what could I learn from frogs about staying porous when I felt so vulnerable? What could I learn from butterflies about how beautiful and brutal metamorphosis can be? It was a way for me to keep going, and the fact that it resonated with other people, well, I still don’t understand. But I’m grateful for it.”
Reverence, the opening chapter of the book, is a theme Defebaugh has been familiar with for as long as she can remember. “My mother instilled in me a great sense of wonder for the world when I was a kid. Reverence invokes feelings of respect and honor, but it’s also humbling, and when I study the natural world, it’s one of the things I’m most grateful for—how much it humbles me to remember that I’m just a small part of this vastly interconnected entity,” she says. Indeed, spiritual ecology dictates that, as humans, we ought to understand ourselves as expressions of nature, and like trees, bees, or beavers, every one of us has a specific purpose on earth.
As a young child, Defebaugh, who was deeply in touch with her own sense of purpose, prophesied she’d one day become a writer. In fact, she even recalls telling her parents at some point that she’d grow up to become the editor-in-chief of an environmental magazine. “I don’t know how I knew that, but I’ve always had this sense of wonder about the world and an understanding that the only way I would be able to live in this world would be by falling in love with it,” she says.
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This isn’t to say Defebaugh’s professional trajectory unraveled in a straight line. During her twenties, she worked as an assistant at major fashion publications and spent five years in various positions at V Magazine. After experiencing severe burnout, she almost quit publishing altogether, but in 2019, her co-founder Jake Sargent approached her with the intention of starting a climate-focused publication, echoing the allure of art and fashion magazines.
Only a few years in, Atmos has become a beloved publication that balances a more creative approach to covering the climate crisis with elevated visuals that document the most pressing issues within the movement today, featuring iconic creatives and activists such as Yoko Ono, Xiye Bastida, Rachel Cargle, and Quannah Chasinghorse.
The same year Atmos launched, Defebaugh was also encouraged by Sargent to start a newsletter writing about the science of the natural world in a spiritual way. “Indigenous science has always included the spiritual in so many different cultures and traditions. And, for me, without spirituality, science can feel cold—I don’t think that’s how you reach people,” Defebaugh says. “Ultimately, what we’ve always wanted to do with Atmos and The Overview was to reach people from a place of heart and a place of spirit—I’ve always understood the climate crisis as a crisis of spirit, because what else could’ve brought us here?”
Throughout the book, essay after essay, Defebaugh speaks from her spirit, calling for more love, more joy, more acts of service, more compassion, more resilience, and more justice. Her ability to break free from the trap of binary thinking and instead embrace nuance is particularly refreshing. “We divide nature into night and day, but dawn and dusk are equally part of the cycles of creation. And so I long to live my life in the messy light of morning and the murkiness of eventide, for that’s where promise resides,” she writes in an essay exploring ideological divisions and the dangers of extremist thinking.
The chapter on evolution, which Defebaugh describes as the heart of the book, is arguably the most personal section of all. As Defebaugh explains, “Being trans I see everything through a lens of transformation, and I lived in fear for such a long time, thinking that it was easier to stay with what I knew, to remain in the shadows until I realized that this would just consume me. I think a lot about H.G. Wells, who famously said, ‘Nature’s inexorable imperative is adapt or perish.’ I really reached that point where I understood those were the only two choices I had, and it was absolutely terrifying.”
In the many stories of adaptation and resilience offered by nature, Defebaugh found solace, hope, and courage—a quality she’s often had to embody over the past few years, and which she believes we could all use more of today. Not just to face what’s difficult, either, but to face the possibility that life can unfold in our favor. “I have felt and lived how much awaits on the other side of fear,” she says. “And to feel myself coming out of the chrysalis, and waking up feeling grateful every day that I chose to adapt… with my whole heart, I wish the same thing for our species. I wish that we could see how beautiful it could be.”
The Overview: Meditations on Nature for a World in Transition is available now from Atmos.