Mobilizing the Green Imagination: An Exuberant Manifesto

by Anthony Weston

Overview

Elegant and audacious possibilities that push the boundaries of contemporary environmentalism

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.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780865717091
Publisher:	New Society Publishers
Publication date:	05/01/2012
Pages:	192
Product dimensions:	5.40(w) x 8.40(h) x 0.60(d)

About the Author

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 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.

Table of Contents

Preface ix

1 Where is the Vision? 1

2 Other Worlds are Possible 13

3 Way Beyond Recycling 29

4 After Transportation 45

5 Adaptation with Sass 63

6 A More-Than-Human World 81

7 Fellowship with Animals 99

8 The Worlds Great Liturgies 115

9 To the Stars 133

Chapter Notes 151

Return of Thanks 167

Index 171

About the Author 175

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

"A refreshing perspective for reinventing a livable future. Weston challenges us to expand our imagination to create a better world— one based on practical and equitable approaches for devising new solutions. This book describes alternative ways to frame the challenges before us and move forward with audacity and courage. Weston invites us to think "outside the box" and re-connect with what has meaning and purpose."
— Andrés R. Edwards, Author,Thriving Beyond Sustainability and The Sustainability Revolution

"In Mobilizing the Green Imagination, the uncommon sense that has established Anthony Weston as one of the most persuasive and unfettered voices in environmental philosophy catches fire. Incandescent with hope, this manifesto delights in an excess of technological and moral possibility, without trivialising the challenges to be faced. Leaving diatribe and doomsaying to one side and technocratic myopia to the other, Weston moves in wild leaps of imagination that enlarge the field of environmentalist practice and theory. The result is a vision of sustaining futures that are provokingly unfamiliar from a visionary who embraces our wounded world with rare empathy."
— Aidan Davison – Universityof Tasmania

"Radical social re-imaginings can only occur if we possess creative guides and teachers. Weston demonstrates that this creativity is his forte. Whether you wholly embrace his ideas or are merely entertained by them, they contain a creative spark often absent from contemporary environmental writing. As he admits late on in the book, 'the details don't matter in the end — but the openings, just possibly, mean everything.'"
— Christopher Preston, Associate Professor of Philosophy Universityof Montana, and author, Saving Creation and Grounding Knowledge

"From revisioning recycling, building design and on to communicating with other beings on land and Sea, Weston's skillful verve demonstrates the possibilities and reality for Green creativity. He enlivens our awareness to practices that harmonize with the Earth, and its great diversity of cultures, communities and life forms. These are great and inspiring explorations of a new green spirit from a scholar and teacher, who acts, walks and sings his insights. He takes readers from the tiny and local, to the regional, global and cosmic."
— Dr. Alan Drengson, Emeritus and Adjunct Professor, Universityof Victoria, and author, Wild Foresting and Beyond Environmental Crisis

"In his new book, Anthony Weston cultivates the rich philosophical ground necessary to design a resilient future for humanity. By illuminating interconnections between sustainability, transportation, cosmology, space travel, and our relationship with the more than-human world, he paints a comprehensive vision to help us pragmatically and systemically address the world's interconnected problems. Like Allan Savory's Brown Revolution and Gunter Pauli's Blue Economy, Weston's Mobilizing the Green Imagination stands to become a critical component of the spectrum of ecological perspectives that signal the next stage of our collaborative evolution."
— David McConville, President, The Buckminster Fuller Institute www.bfi.org

Editorial Reviews

A refreshing perspective for reinventing a livable future. Weston challenges us to expand our imagination to create a better world— one based on practical and equitable approaches for devising new solutions. This book describes alternative ways to frame the challenges before us and move forward with audacity and courage. Weston invites us to think “outside the box” and re-connect with what has meaning and purpose.
—Andrés R. Edwards, Author, Thriving Beyond Sustainability and The Sustainability Revolution

In Mobilizing the Green Imagination, the uncommon sense that has established Anthony Weston as one of the most persuasive and unfettered voices in environmental philosophy catches fire. Incandescent with hope, this manifesto delights in an excess of technological and moral possibility, without trivialising the challenges to be faced. Leaving diatribe and doomsaying to one side and technocratic myopia to the other, Weston moves in wild leaps of imagination that enlarge the field of environmentalist practice and theory. The result is a vision of sustaining futures that are provokingly unfamiliar from a visionary who embraces our wounded world with rare empathy.
—Aidan Davison – University of Tasmania

Anthony Weston’s new book Mobilizing the Green Imagination lives up to its subtitle as “An Exuberant Manifesto.” As he writes in the opening pages of this wonderful book, far too often people concerned for Nature and the Earth’s ecosystems get tarred with a brush of depression as bearers of bad news and denial. He shows how those supporting deep changes can sing songs that are positive and joyful in their messages and actions. Weston’s earlier works led him logically and spiritually to this joyful manifesto. His earlier essay on “Multicentrism” is brilliant in its depth and application to contemporary life on Earth. Mobilizing the Green Imagination explores creative alternatives to solving a wide range of problems to meet our multiple challenges. From revisioning recycling, building design and on to communicating with other beings on land and Sea, Weston’s skillful verve demonstrates the possibilities and reality for Green creativity. He enlivens our awareness to practices that harmonize with the Earth, and its great diversity of cultures, communities and life forms. These are great and inspiring explorations of a new green spirit from a scholar and teacher, who acts, walks and sings his insights. He takes readers from the tiny and local, to the regional, global and cosmic.
—Dr. Alan Drengson is Emeritus and Adjunct Professor, University of Victoria, and author of Beyond Environmental Crisis, Practice of Technology and Wild Way Home.

A refreshing perspective for reinventing a livable future. Weston challenges us to expand our imagination to create a better world— one based on practical and equitable approaches for devising new solutions. This book describes alternative ways to frame the challenges before us and move forward with audacity and courage. Weston invites us to think “outside the box” and re-connect with what has meaning and purpose.
—Andrés R. Edwards, Author, Thriving Beyond Sustainability and The Sustainability Revolution

In Mobilizing the Green Imagination, the uncommon sense that has established Anthony Weston as one of the most persuasive and unfettered voices in environmental philosophy catches fire. Incandescent with hope, this manifesto delights in an excess of technological and moral possibility, without trivialising the challenges to be faced. Leaving diatribe and doomsaying to one side and technocratic myopia to the other, Weston moves in wild leaps of imagination that enlarge the field of environmentalist practice and theory. The result is a vision of sustaining futures that are provokingly unfamiliar from a visionary who embraces our wounded world with rare empathy.
—Aidan Davison – University of Tasmania

Anthony Weston’s new book Mobilizing the Green Imagination lives up to its subtitle as “An Exuberant Manifesto.” As he writes in the opening pages of this wonderful book, far too often people concerned for Nature and the Earth’s ecosystems get tarred with a brush of depression as bearers of bad news and denial. He shows how those supporting deep changes can sing songs that are positive and joyful in their messages and actions. Weston’s earlier works led him logically and spiritually to this joyful manifesto. His earlier essay on “Multicentrism” is brilliant in its depth and application to contemporary life on Earth. Mobilizing the Green Imagination explores creative alternatives to solving a wide range of problems to meet our multiple challenges. From revisioning recycling, building design and on to communicating with other beings on land and Sea, Weston’s skillful verve demonstrates the possibilities and reality for Green creativity. He enlivens our awareness to practices that harmonize with the Earth, and its great diversity of cultures, communities and life forms. These are great and inspiring explorations of a new green spirit from a scholar and teacher, who acts, walks and sings his insights. He takes readers from the tiny and local, to the regional, global and cosmic.
—Dr. Alan Drengson is Emeritus and Adjunct Professor, University of Victoria, and author of Beyond Environmental Crisis, Practice of Technology and Wild Way Home.

From the Publisher