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Mobilizing the Green Imagination: An Exuberant Manifesto
Dysfunctional cities, catastrophic climate change, ever-deepening distance from nature—today we see environmental disaster everywhere we look. In Mobilizing the Green Imagination, philosophical provocateur Anthony Weston urges us to move beyond ever more desperate attempts to “green” the status quo toward entirely different and far more inviting ecological visions:
Life after transportation—decentralized work, inventive infill, and self-sufficient micro-communities to facilitate life in place
Adaptation with attitude—cities that welcome the rising waters
A great second chance—moving beyond exploitation of the whole natural world
A cosmic ecology—why not a green space program?
These postcards from beyond the leading edge of today’s green thinking are bold, audacious, extravagantly hopeful, and profoundly inspiring—the perfect antidote to the despair brought on by too many “doom and gloom” scenarios. Nothing less than a complete reinvention of contemporary environmentalism, Mobilizing the Green Imagination belongs in the back pocket of anyone who dares to dream of a brighter future and a better world.
Anthony Weston is professor of philosophy and environmental studies at Elon University in North Carolina, where he teaches ethics, environmental studies, and "Millennial Imagination." He is the author of twelve other books, including How to Re-Imagine the World and Back to Earth, as well as many articles on ethics, critical thinking, education, and contemporary culture. At Elon, Weston has been named both Teacher of the Year and Scholar of the Year.
192 pages, Paperback
First published May 1, 2012
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
October 25, 2023
The first chapter of this book begins with the author telling us about a time when a well known environmentalist came to give a talk at a uni where the author teaches. This environmentalist had an hour to give a presentation on the climate crisis and for 59 minutes he went on about how mankind was destroying the planet, and with one minute left he asked the audience: “What is to be done?”. Surprisingly, or perhaps not, no one in the audience really knew how to respond, and then the time was up.
I wasn’t there, but I know this talk. I’ve been interested (read that obsessed if you want) for a long time in anything that has to do with our climate crisis, and have read so much about it that I could give this talk with no preparation. I could probably also, if I had the stomach for it, give a talk on why it is not happening, because I also know the arguments of that side so well.
I’ve read, listened, watched my way through so much stuff, and so widely about this subject that I’ve encounter those that will tell you that we are two years away from total global societal collapse, and those on the other side that will tell you we are not burning nearly enough fossil fuel to avoid the next ice age. As far as I understand the subject, and I’m not a climate scientist, both of those extremes are wrong. The truth is between those two sides. It is closer to the one talking about societal collapse, than the other, not because we are that close to the brink, but because the other side is so completely and utterly delusional that it’s not even funny.
But there is one thing. If we just talk about these two sides as stories, then the delusional is in some sense a better one, or at least a more pleasant one. It’s basically telling us that all we have to do to avoid problems is to do more of what we are already doing, while the other one is telling us we’re screwed no matter what. It’s a story that is easy to understand why people would like to avoid, despite the truth that is behind it.
That’s where this book comes in. Anthony Weston is trying to come up with a better story to tell about the climate crisis. If we are really going to tackle our climate crisis we have to change pretty much everything. Remember that Naomi Klein title: This Changes Everything? She’s right about that. This crisis will change everything no matter if we tackle it or not. Weston is hoping we will tackle it in a good way, and we will make the needed changes to avoid the crisis.
This book tries to envision how this might look, not as a road map, but more as a push for the reader to try to envision how the world could look without fossil fuel. It’s not a practical guide. The book Drawdown is a much more detailed road map to the place we need to get us as fast as we can. This is much more an inspiration to see the world through different glasses, an inspiration to see a world beyond fossil fuel, and as an book to light up the imagination, it is great.
Some of the ideas may have aged a little less than gracefully, and occasionally I don’t agree with his vision, but that is okay. It still works to inspire. This is actually what we need more of. Not just leave the reader, or listener with the idea that we’re screwed no matter what, but with the idea that the needed changes could be a good thing. This was published in 2012, around the time when the idea of solarpunk was being born in a different place, but it is very much a solarpunk nonfiction. It is a solution based ideology that doesn’t shrink away from what is happening, but tries to figure out the good things that can be done to steer us away from the bring.
My favorite chapter in this book had to de with our relationship, and our place in nature, but my least favorite had to do with space exploration, though he does have some very interesting points about it. On the whole I enjoyed reading this very much.
I wasn’t there, but I know this talk. I’ve been interested (read that obsessed if you want) for a long time in anything that has to do with our climate crisis, and have read so much about it that I could give this talk with no preparation. I could probably also, if I had the stomach for it, give a talk on why it is not happening, because I also know the arguments of that side so well.
I’ve read, listened, watched my way through so much stuff, and so widely about this subject that I’ve encounter those that will tell you that we are two years away from total global societal collapse, and those on the other side that will tell you we are not burning nearly enough fossil fuel to avoid the next ice age. As far as I understand the subject, and I’m not a climate scientist, both of those extremes are wrong. The truth is between those two sides. It is closer to the one talking about societal collapse, than the other, not because we are that close to the brink, but because the other side is so completely and utterly delusional that it’s not even funny.
But there is one thing. If we just talk about these two sides as stories, then the delusional is in some sense a better one, or at least a more pleasant one. It’s basically telling us that all we have to do to avoid problems is to do more of what we are already doing, while the other one is telling us we’re screwed no matter what. It’s a story that is easy to understand why people would like to avoid, despite the truth that is behind it.
That’s where this book comes in. Anthony Weston is trying to come up with a better story to tell about the climate crisis. If we are really going to tackle our climate crisis we have to change pretty much everything. Remember that Naomi Klein title: This Changes Everything? She’s right about that. This crisis will change everything no matter if we tackle it or not. Weston is hoping we will tackle it in a good way, and we will make the needed changes to avoid the crisis.
This book tries to envision how this might look, not as a road map, but more as a push for the reader to try to envision how the world could look without fossil fuel. It’s not a practical guide. The book Drawdown is a much more detailed road map to the place we need to get us as fast as we can. This is much more an inspiration to see the world through different glasses, an inspiration to see a world beyond fossil fuel, and as an book to light up the imagination, it is great.
Some of the ideas may have aged a little less than gracefully, and occasionally I don’t agree with his vision, but that is okay. It still works to inspire. This is actually what we need more of. Not just leave the reader, or listener with the idea that we’re screwed no matter what, but with the idea that the needed changes could be a good thing. This was published in 2012, around the time when the idea of solarpunk was being born in a different place, but it is very much a solarpunk nonfiction. It is a solution based ideology that doesn’t shrink away from what is happening, but tries to figure out the good things that can be done to steer us away from the bring.
My favorite chapter in this book had to de with our relationship, and our place in nature, but my least favorite had to do with space exploration, though he does have some very interesting points about it. On the whole I enjoyed reading this very much.
November 24, 2018
I wasn't dazzled by every chapter, but I am inspired by his theory that we need to be bolder in our ideas and efforts.
"Cars massively waste everything they touch: not just fuel but space, time, health, lives."
"Cars also eat space and thwart any other kind of mobility."
"Cars massively waste everything they touch: not just fuel but space, time, health, lives."
"Cars also eat space and thwart any other kind of mobility."
July 20, 2024
Un punto de vista seguramente diferente para la mayoría de la gente, que propone transformaciones radicales de nuestra sociedad para enfrentar los retos ambientales de este siglo.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews