A bold rethinking of urban political ecology

Faced with the seemingly overwhelming prospect of global climate change and its consequences, is there anything that a person can do to make a difference? "Yes, there is " says Jason Czarnezki. Writing as a lawyer and environmentalist, he addresses the small personal choices that individuals can make in order to have a positive effect on the natural world. Czarnezki compellingly describes the historical and contemporary forces in the United States that have led to a culture of "convenience, consumerism, and consumption." He also investigates the individual decisions that have the worst environmental impacts, along with the ecological costs of our food choices and the environmental costs of sprawl. Ever aware of the importance of personal choice, Czarnezki offers a thoughtful consideration of how public policy can positively affect individual behavior.

In compelling Q & A format, the leading independent environmental periodical gathers together a bevy of essential tips, guides, and resources for the best ways to live green and create ecological harmony with the planet. Original.

"Meyer pioneers a uniquely political approach to environmental social criticism that follows from a startling central propostion: that it is not outright oppression and denialism that are the most significant impediments but what he aptly terms the 'resonance dilemma.' This is the failure of climate and environmental challenges - however important we may grant that they are - to strike us as integral everyday concerns. This lively, eloquent, accessible volume models the very style of social criticism that it calls for in response to this dilemma: a 'resonant' environmental criticism that works on (rather than against) everyday practices." Lisa Disch, Department of Political Science, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, author of Hannah Arendt and the Limits of Philosophy.

A provocative and urgent essay collection that asks how we can live with hope in “an age of ecocide” Paul Kingsnorth was once an activist—an ardent environmentalist. He fought against rampant development and the depredations of a corporate world that seemed hell-bent on ignoring a looming climate crisis in its relentless pursuit of profit. But as the environmental movement began to focus on “sustainability” rather than the defense of wild places for their own sake and as global conditions worsened, he grew disenchanted with the movement that he once embraced. He gave up what he saw as the false hope that residents of the First World would ever make the kind of sacrifices that might avert the severe consequences of climate change. Full of grief and fury as well as passionate, lyrical evocations of nature and the wild, Confessions of a Recovering Environmentalist gathers the wave-making essays that have charted the change in Kingsnorth’s thinking. In them he articulates a new vision that he calls “dark ecology,” which stands firmly in opposition to the belief that technology can save us, and he argues for a renewed balance between the human and nonhuman worlds. This iconoclastic, fearless, and ultimately hopeful book, which includes the much-discussed “Uncivilization” manifesto, asks hard questions about how we’ve lived and how we should live.

In the face of a set of environmental crises, a growing number of environmental and community groups are focusing on more sustainable practices in everyday life. This book focuses on sustainable materialism, and examines the political and social motivations of activists and movement groups involved in this growing and expanding practice.

Reflecting a diversity of voices and critical perspectives, the essays in this book range from critiques of traditional thinking and practices to strategies for shifting public consciousness to create healthy communities.