By Julia Caulfield

Superman, Thor, Spiderman, Black Panther. In 2021, superheroes are plentiful, but there’s a new superhuman joining the game.

17-year-old Kora is stepping up – as EcoQueen.

“Kora is a female, biracial, teenage, high school student. There is some backstory on here that she is actually half Amazonian Ecuadorian, and her mom is a climate scientist from Australia,” says Joanna Kanow, a Telluride local, environmental activist, and author of the upcoming young adult novel, “EcoQueen”.

“This takes place in the near future,” Kanow notes, “it has gotten to the point where the whole world has made the ‘only one child rule’ because resources are so slim and there’s not enough food and water for everyone. As she grew up, she realized she had these electrical powers.”

Kora uses those powers to protect people and ecosystems threatened by rising sea levels, catastrophic weather events, droughts, and wildfires across the world.

“She goes out and starts using these powers all over the world. Putting out all these major climate events – sea level risings, or oil spills. She’s in the middle of the ocean at one point, trying to deal with all the plastic floating around out here,” Kanow notes.

Kanow says she decided to write the novel after years of looking at the climate crisis and feeling like there wasn’t enough being done. In her mind, a superhero is needed.

“I guess it all started in learning about this when I was studying conservation resources studies in college 20 years ago,” says Kanow, “and they were saying ‘if we don’t use more alternative energy, if we don’t stop burning carbon at the rate we’re doing now, in 20 years from now’ – which is now – ‘we’re going to have a serious problem’. And so I’m like ‘hey, we’ve been warned about this for a long time that this is coming, and we didn’t do anything. So in order to make it happen quickly, is where a superhero needs to step in.”

The book is geared towards young people aged 12 to 15. Kanow notes she hopes to inspire the young people of today to take action.

“Knowing that there’s something they can do, plant a tree, use some alternative energy if you can, ride your bike more, compost your food, these things that we know that we needed to do on a bigger scale, but still it’s not making a big enough impact,” she says, “If I can inspire the kids to lead the way in wanting to make those lifestyle changes, or encouraging their parents or their school to take more sustainable steps, I feel like I can urge the movement on.”

“EcoQueen” will be released on Earth Day, April 22, 2021. The book will be available at Between the Covers Bookstore, and online. There will also be a book launch event at the Wilkinson Public Library later this spring.