Synopses & Reviews
Synopsis
Almost every major centrist/progressive institution in the United States, from 350.org to Greenpeace to Democracy Now to the Democratic Party seems committed to powering the industrial economy with 'renewable' energy. And we hear all the time that 'solar power will save the planet.' But a) will 'renewables' actually power the economy? and b) are 'renewables' good for the planet?
The answer in both cases is no.
In fact, the answer is worse than no, in that because of these bright green lies much of the environmental movement has been transformed from being about saving wild places and wild nature into being about powering the industrial economy. These bright green lies have turned much of the environmental movement into a lobbying arm for a sector of the industrial economy, such that you can have 100,000 people marching on the streets of Washington, D.C., and if you ask them why they're marching, they'll say, 'To save the planet," but if you ask them for their demands, they'll say, "Subsidies for the solar industry." There has never been another social movement so completely coopted.
Bright Green Lies systematically debunks many of the lies and distortions that characterize the discourse of those who argue that 'technology will stop global warming' or that 'technology will save the planet.' The book has a chapter devoted to debunking claims that each of following will individually or collectively power this culture sustainably; or help the planet: solar power, wind power, recycling, 'efficiency, ' batteries and other forms of energy storage, changes in the electrical grid, and hydropower. We also provide our own solutions, and more importantly, a way of looking at these problems that centers the health of the planet.
There are no similar books on the market. Nearly all books about renewables promote the false story that they are good for the planet. The book that comes closest to the view promoted by this book would be Ozzie Zehner's Green Illusions: The Dirty Secrets of Clean Energy and the Future of Environmentalism 2012, University of Nebraska Press]. But the biocentrism--earth-centered philosophy--at the heart of Bright Green Lies, among other things, profoundly differentiates this book from Zehner's.
This book has taken six years to research and write. And no one is more qualified to write this book. The book's co-authors share between them seventy years of front-line grassroots environmental activism. In addition, Derrick Jensen is the author of twenty-five books, including the acclaimed A Language Older Than Words and Endgame. Lierre Keith is the author of The Vegetarian Myth, Deep Green Resistance, and others. Max Wilbert has been researching and writing about the environmental harms caused by solar, wind, and other 'renewables' for nearly a decade.
Synopsis
"Bright Green Lies exposes the hypocrisy and bankruptcy of leading environmental groups and their most prominent cheerleaders. The best-known environmentalists are not in the business of speaking truth, or even holding up rational solutions to blunt the impending ecocide, but instead indulge in a mendacious and self-serving delusion that provides comfort at the expense of reality. They fail to state the obvious: We cannot continue to wallow in hedonistic consumption and industrial expansion and survive as a species. The environmental debate, Derrick Jensen and his coauthors argue, has been distorted by hubris and the childish desire by those in industrialized nations to sustain the unsustainable. All debates about environmental policy need to begin with honoring and protecting, not the desires of the human species, but with the sanctity of the Earth itself. We refuse to ask the right questions because these questions expose a stark truth--we cannot continue to live as we are living. To do so is suicidal folly. 'Tell me how you seek, and I will tell you what you are seeking, ' the German philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein said. This is the power of Bright Green Lies: It asks the questions most refuse to ask, and in that questioning, that seeking, uncovers profound truths we ignore at our peril."--Chris Hedges, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and author of America: The Farewell Tour
Synopsis
"This disturbing but very important book makes clear we must dig deeper than the normal solutions we are offered."--Yvon Chouinard, founder of Patagonia Works
"Bright Green Lies exposes the hypocrisy and bankruptcy of leading environmental groups and their most prominent cheerleaders. The best-known environmentalists are not in the business of speaking truth, or even holding up rational solutions to blunt the impending ecocide, but instead indulge in a mendacious and self-serving delusion that provides comfort at the expense of reality. They fail to state the obvious: We cannot continue to wallow in hedonistic consumption and industrial expansion and survive as a species. The environmental debate, Derrick Jensen and his coauthors argue, has been distorted by hubris and the childish desire by those in industrialized nations to sustain the unsustainable. All debates about environmental policy need to begin with honoring and protecting, not the desires of the human species, but with the sanctity of the Earth itself. We refuse to ask the right questions because these questions expose a stark truth--we cannot continue to live as we are living. To do so is suicidal folly. 'Tell me how you seek, and I will tell you what you are seeking, ' the German philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein said. This is the power of Bright Green Lies: It asks the questions most refuse to ask, and in that questioning, that seeking, uncovers profound truths we ignore at our peril."--Chris Hedges, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and author of America: The Farewell Tour
Synopsis
"True environmentalists don't buy into The Green New Deal. They think all the encouraging words from other environmentalists are bright green lies. Because at bottom, all the positive noises are simply a sop to industrialized society and the giant industries that run it. And according to Bright Green Lies, the book, it's all about maintaining the current opulent lifestyle, and continuing to destroy the planet. No sacrifices will be made that might slow the consumer economy. This dramatic, sane, and passionate book lays out the lies with evidence like simple math and direct observation..."-David Wineberg, The Straight Dope, Medium.com
"Bright Green Lies exposes the hypocrisy and bankruptcy of leading environmental groups and their most prominent cheerleaders. The best-known environmentalists are not in the business of speaking truth, or even holding up rational solutions to blunt the impending ecocide, but instead indulge in a mendacious and self-serving delusion that provides comfort at the expense of reality. They fail to state the obvious: We cannot continue to wallow in hedonistic consumption and industrial expansion and survive as a species. The environmental debate, Derrick Jensen and his co-authors argue, has been distorted by hubris and the childish desire by those in industrialized nations to sustain the unsustainable. All debates about environmental policy need to begin with honoring and protecting, not the desires of the human species, but with the sanctity of the Earth itself. We refuse to ask the right questions because these questions expose a stark truth-we cannot continue to live as we are living. To do so is suicidal folly. 'Tell me how you seek, and I will tell you what you are seeking, ' the German philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein said. This is the power of Bright Green Lies: It asks the questions most refuse to ask, and in that questioning, that seeking, uncovers profound truths we ignore at our peril."-Chris Hedges, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and author of America: The Farewell Tour
Synopsis
Bright Green Lies systematically debunks many of the lies and distortions that characterize the discourse of those who argue that 'technology will stop global warming' or that 'technology will save the planet.