Stop Saving the Planet!: An Environmentalist Manifesto

by Jenny Price

Overview

"Pithy, funny, exasperated, and informed…You cannot read a more important hundred pages than Stop Saving the Planet!" —Richard White, author of The Republic for Which It Stands

We’ve been "saving the planet" for decades!…And environmental crises just get worse. All this hybrid driving and LEED building and carbon trading seems to accomplish little to nothing—and low-income communities continue to suffer the worst consequences.

Why aren’t we cleaning up the toxic messes and rolling back climate change? And why do so many Americans hate environmentalists?

Jenny Price says Enough already! with this short, fun, fierce manifesto for an environmentalism that is hugely more effective, a whole lot fairer, and infinitely less righteous. She challenges you, corporate sustainability officers, and the EPA to think and act completely anew—and to start right now—to ensure a truly habitable future.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780393540871
Publisher:	Norton, W. W. & Company, Inc.
Publication date:	04/20/2021
Pages:	144
Sales rank:	1,062,666
Product dimensions:	5.30(w) x 7.60(h) x 0.60(d)

About the Author

Jenny Price is a writer, artist, historian, and author of Flight Maps: Adventures with Nature in Modern America. She lives in St. Louis, Missouri.

Table of Contents

Stop Saving the Planet! 9

1st Reason Environment Is in Here 13

2nd Reason Everyone Hates Environmentalists 23

3rd Reason I Can't Solve the Middle East Crisis by Myself 31

4th Reason Are You Really Trying to Save Energy by Using More Energy More Efficiently? 41

5th Reason Greenwashing Works 49

6th Reason Everyone Hates Environmentalists (Add It Up) 55

7th Reason Can You See Any People on the Blue Marble? (Just Add Whole Planetude) 63

8th Reason Greenwashing Works, Redux 69

9th Reason You Wouldn't Create Public Markets to Trade in Cancers, Birth Defects, and Deaths 75

10th Reason Everyone Hates Environmentalists (Now Add Whole Planetude) 85

11th Reason You Can't Tackle How We Are All in This Together Unless You Tackle How We Are Not All in This Together 89

39 Ways to Stop Saving the Planet A Stout but Unexhaustive List of Things That You Can Personally Do 95

Acknowledgments 141

Editorial Reviews

"When keeping it real goes right—in this moment of reckoning, Jenny Price calls us out to call us in and does so with humor, insight, and an in-your-face attitude that is informed and dare I say, hopeful about our capacity to change how we think, see, and ‘do’ green."

Carolyn Finney

2021-02-10
Why hasn’t the environmental movement made a more significant impact on the health of our planet?

In this brief, energetic book, Price pleads for a more comprehensive environmentalism, which she defines as “in here” rather than “out there.” The rapidly paced, conversational narrative, loaded with bullet points, sidebars, pull quotes, and “Scribble Zone[s] (“write, draw, ponder…”), will catch the attention of some readers but annoy others. In addition to rhetorical swipes at “the Kochs and ultraright politicians,” the author advances some important, if familiar, arguments about the state of environmentalism. For decades, many major corporations have claimed “green” credentials that have been superficial at best. Coca Cola has pushed “Keep America Beautiful” since the 1950s, but the trash that used to litter sidewalks now just ends up in landfills. Nestlé, the world’s largest food and beverage company, introduced water bottles with less plastic but still “aggressively drains and privatizes public water sources to fill” those bottles. Apple’s headquarters is LEED certified, but what about its suppliers in China? In other words, notes Price, the “green efforts” of large corporations are mainly for show. While Barack Obama’s “Cash for Clunkers” campaign seemed like a good idea, it required the trashing of working cars, at great environmental cost. The author focuses on discerning actual impact, including the “ultra-toxic industrial practices” needed to create such ostensibly environmentally friendly products as electric cars. We have “greenwashed” the economy to justify buying more and more “green” products while the root problem, rampant consumerism, goes unaddressed. The author’s criticisms about the destructive nature of capitalism are well taken yet require further development. Her more practical, real-world examples, most of which derive from European nations—“only glass beverage bottles allowed (Denmark, with a near 100% return rate”)—are the most effective parts of the book, which should not be viewed as a comprehensive resource.

A fun introduction to a serious topic that should serve as a starting point for further study and action.

Kirkus Reviews

Hillary Huber narrates this intrepid audiobook with controlled irony. Her plaintive interrogative tone highlights its striking critique on why so little has been achieved in five decades of battling climate change. She smoothly handles the many uses of “riddle me this,” “duh,” and “however” that ramp up the performance. The narration of this audiobook, subtitled “An Environmental Manifesto,” is critical to its message. The listener is asked why governments and corporations have done so little for the planet and the poor. Despite LEED-certified corporate headquarters, the Apples and Exxons of the world still pollute our earth and waters and spew emissions. Price argues that we are asking the wrong question. It should be: What needs to be done? Not, what can I do? A.D.M. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award © AudioFile 2021, Portland, Maine

APRIL 2021 - AudioFile

Hillary Huber narrates this intrepid audiobook with controlled irony. Her plaintive interrogative tone highlights its striking critique on why so little has been achieved in five decades of battling climate change. She smoothly handles the many uses of “riddle me this,” “duh,” and “however” that ramp up the performance. The narration of this audiobook, subtitled “An Environmental Manifesto,” is critical to its message. The listener is asked why governments and corporations have done so little for the planet and the poor. Despite LEED-certified corporate headquarters, the Apples and Exxons of the world still pollute our earth and waters and spew emissions. Price argues that we are asking the wrong question. It should be: What needs to be done? Not, what can I do? A.D.M. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award © AudioFile 2021, Portland, Maine

APRIL 2021 - AudioFile