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We’re All Climate Hypocrites Now

How Embracing Our Limitations Can Unlock the Power of a Movement

Sami Grover

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Paperback

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English
New Society Publishers
21 September 2021
Changing your behaviour matters. Transforming the system matters more.

Our culture tells us that personal responsibility is central to tackling the climate emergency, yet the choices we make are often governed by the systems in which we live. Whether it's activists facing criticism for eating meat or climate scientists catching flack for flying, accusations of hypocrisy are rampant. And they come from both inside and outside the movement.

Taking a tongue-in-cheek approach, self-confessed eco-hypocrite Sami Grover says we should do what we can in our own lives to minimise our climate impacts, but then we need to target those actions so they create systemic change. Along the way, he skewers those pointing fingers, celebrates those who are trying, and offers practical pathways to start making a difference. We're All Climate Hypocrites Now covers:

How environmentalism lost its groove Why big polluters want to talk about your carbon footprint The psychology of shaming How businesses can find their activist voice The true power of individuals to spark widespread change.

By understanding where our greatest leverage lies, we can prioritise our actions, maximise our impact, and join forces with the millions of other imperfect individuals who are ready to do their part and actually change the system.

By:  
Imprint:   New Society Publishers
Country of Publication:   United States
Dimensions:   Height: 229mm,  Width: 152mm,  Spine: 13mm
Weight:   318g
ISBN:   9780865719606
ISBN 10:   0865719608
Pages:   192
Publication Date:  
Audience:   General/trade ,  ELT Advanced
Format:   Paperback
Publisher's Status:   Active
"Acknowledgments: An Incomplete Catalog of Gushing Praise and Profuse Thanks Preface: The Night I Went Drinking and the World Fell Apart A Gradual Social Reckoning Action Is Contagious Too Getting to the Point 1. We're All Climate Hypocrites Now What Does 'Hypocrite' Even Mean? Rational Choice Is No Choice At All Undermining the Messenger A Convenient Mistruth Eco-Moralism Runs Deep Nothing's Ever Easy The Limits of Personal Responsibility Why Individual Action Still Matters 2. Wants and Needs Voting and Shopping Are Not the Same Thing The Irrational Consumer Behavior Is About Design The Roles We Play Abstinence Is Still Individualism Finding a Bigger Political Canvas 3. How ""Green"" Lost Its Groove Dilution of a Movement A Missed Opportunity The Rise of Eco-Individualism The Real Value of Lifestyle Activism Exposing the Challenges 4. Enough Already The Emergence of a Movement Identifying the Culprits The Rebels Are Angry Who Is Holding Us Back? The Personal Is Political (As Long As You Make It So) A Latent Force 5. Guilt Trip Eating Our Own Undermining a Hero The Power of Shaming Shaping Cultural Norms Preserving a Formidable Tool The New Pariahs Peer Pressure for the Win Guilt Is Good? Values Are a Moving Target 6. Big Oil Wants to Talk About Your Carbon Footprint Some Are More Responsible Than Others The Tobacco Playbook They've Never Been the Good Guys Deflating the Carbon Bubble Can Big Oil ""Go Green""? A Missed Opportunity Balancing on the High Wire Coal as the Canary A Tenacious Grip on Power 7. Corporate ""Citizenship"" Reimagined ""Responsible"" Versus ""Sustainable"" Corporate Citizenship — For Real A Different Kind of Insurance Beyond Corporate Responsibility A Different Type of Shareholder Primacy? Benefit Corporations Step Up The Power of Corporate Activism Beware the Benign Benefactor Capitalists Against Unbridled Capitalism? 8. Swimming Upstream ""You Are Definitely Going to Die"" Meeting People Where They Are Changing the Direction of the Current Modeling What's Possible Subsidizing the Incumbents The Destructive as the Default Writing a Different Story A More Interesting Conversation 9. Focus, Goddammit An Effective Exercise in Distraction Attention Is a Limited Resource First Things First The Beginning of the End of Coal Being ""Better"" Meat Eaters and Vegetarians Unite The System Responds The Cheapest Way to Fry The Growth of Flygskam An Inclusive Conversation? 10. What Difference Does It Make? Organized Resistance Historical Serendipity The Real Power of the Individual A Reckoning on Race It's Not About Me (Or You) The Lure of Agency How Change Actually Happens What's My Duty? Shifting Our Collective Values 11. Climate Hypocrites Unite! A False Dawn The Power of Imperfection Finding Our Place Coda: The Journey Down, Together What Next? Resources, Organizations, and Actions Knowledge Is Power Get Organized Rethink Your Mobility Eat Smarter Good Energy Money Matters Notes Index About the Author About New Society Publishers"

Sami Grover is a green lifestyle blogger and self-confessed eco-hypocrite. He has spent most of his life trying to live a greener lifestyle and has written more than 2,000 articles covering everything from electric bike ownership to peeing on your compost heap. Yet he has only been marginally successful in reducing his own environmental impact. Active in the sphere of good-for-the-world business, he has developed branding projects for clients including Burt's Bees, Dogwood Alliance, and Jada Pinkett Smith. He believes that, in order to make a difference, each of us has to identify our greatest point of leverage and focus our efforts there. He lives in Durham, North Carolina, with his wife and kids.

Reviews for We’re All Climate Hypocrites Now: How Embracing Our Limitations Can Unlock the Power of a Movement

"""A useful — and sprightly! — effort to get at the choice between individual and systemic action on the greatest problem we've ever faced. I found it a helpful spur to creative thinking and action, and I bet you will as well. Read it, and then get out there and change the politics and economics that are driving us towards — well, if not hell, then a place with a similar temperature."" — Bill McKibben, author, The End of Nature ""Sami Grover's wise book charts a middle way to win transformational change. He challenges us to embrace our climate hypocrisy as a goal to uproot the structures that are killing the planet without losing sight of the strategic individual actions we can take right now. We can't curate our way out of the climate crisis as consumers — we must replace the system that makes us climate hypocrites. We climate hypocrites have agency, in varying degrees, to take actions that multiplied by the millions will help to win the big changes we need to survive. With our eyes on the stars and our feet on the ground, we can meet ourselves where we are without guilt and act for a more equitable, just, and sustainable world. Let this book show you how."" — Bill Corcoran, Sierra Club's Beyond Coal campaign ""If you are a climate concerned person who struggles with the nuanced complexity of being ""green,"" Sami's book will help you navigate this contemporary moral maze with intelligent bigger picture thinking plus a rich seam of strategies and initiatives large and small for a healthier planet."" — Maddy Harland, co-founder & editor, Permaculture Magazine, author, Fertile Edges ""We're All Climate Hypocrites Now is part eco-therapy, part climate strategy, and a fantastic antidote to the overwhelm that comes along with living in a global ecological crisis. Say goodbye to those little voices in your head (or those loud voices on Facebook) calling you a hypocrite because you don't bike to work, aren't vegan, fly to a protest, and still haven't taken out that loan for those rooftop solar panels. This book is a fresh and informative unpacking of why we must abandon the notion that individual eco-perfection is possible — or even impactful — in the absence of system-wide change. It's an inspiring call to let go of the ""either or"" mentality, to fully embrace the ""both and,"" and to remember to go easy on ourselves and each other as we lean in even further into this painful, chaotic yet exciting time of (r)evolution."" — Danna Smith, executive director, Dogwood Alliance ""Nobody knows more about the business of sustainability than Sami Grover. He brings a welcome dose of wit, clarity, and levity to the green movement."" — Brian Merchant, best-selling author, The One Device ""On every page of this rip-roaring read I found myself, my partner, my neighbour, my colleagues, my family, and my friends and every holier-than-thou temptation, every emptying out of the compost bin, every person who berated me for traveling for work with refugees. Hypocrisy is in our DNA, and in this book it is both hilariously observed, with all the dry wit of a Brit, and pragmatically harnessed for good. I honestly could not put it down. It's a tour de force for hope. And kindness. And love for the world and the future."" — Alison Phipps, UNESCO Chair for Refugee Integration through Languages and the Arts, University of Glasgow"


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