We've known for decades that climate change is an existential crisis. For just as long, we've seen the complete failure of our institutions to rise to the challenge. Governments have struggled to meet even modest goals. Fossil fuel interests maintain a stranglehold on political and economic power. Even though we have seen growing concern from everyday people, civil society has succeeded only in pressuring decision makers to adopt watered-down policies. All the while, the climate crisis worsens. Is there any hope of achieving the systemic change we need?Dana R. Fisher argues that there is a realistic path forward for climate action—but only through mass mobilization that responds to the growing severity and frequency of disastrous events. She assesses the current state of affairs and shows why public policy and private-sector efforts have been ineffective. Spurred by this lack of progress, climate activism has become increasingly confrontational. Fisher examines the radical flank of the climate movement: its emergence and growth, its use of direct action, and how it might evolve as the climate crisis worsens. She considers when and how activism is most successful, identifying the importance of creating community, capitalizing on shocking moments, and cultivating resilience. Clear-eyed yet optimistic, Saving Ourselves offers timely insights on how social movements can take power back from deeply entrenched interests and open windows of opportunity for transformative climate action.
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Dana R. Fisher argues that there is a realistic path forward for climate action—but only through mass mobilization that responds to the growing severity and frequency of disastrous events.
Acknowledgments1. No One Else Is Going to Save Us: Understanding the Social Side of the Climate Crisis2. Saving Ourselves Is a Long Game: Why Our Institutions Keep Failing to Act on Climate3. Saving Ourselves Involves Taking Power Back for the People4. Saving Ourselves Won’t Be Popular and Will Be Disruptive5. Saving Ourselves Will Take a Disaster (or Many)Methodological AppendixNotesIndex
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In a crowded landscape of books about climate change, this one stands out by asking two key questions: Have we made enough progress? And what should we do going forward? The answer to the first question is clearly no. Despite three decades of climate negotiations, both the US and the world are far behind where we need to be on climate action, and going forward, we need to be much more organized. Taking a lesson from the history of the civil rights movement, Fisher suggests that we can create a stronger climate movement by building on existing community structures—such as churches and labor unions—and taking advantage of the climate shocks that are already occurring with increasing frequency to channel moral outrage into meaningful action. An important, original, and thought-provoking book.
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Produktdetaljer

ISBN
9780231209304
Publisert
2024-02-13
Utgiver
Vendor
Columbia University Press
Høyde
216 mm
Bredde
140 mm
Aldersnivå
G, 01
Språk
Product language
Engelsk
Format
Product format
Innbundet

Forfatter

Biographical note

Dana R. Fisher is the director of the Center for Environment, Community, and Equity and a professor in the School of International Service at American University. Her books include Activism Inc.: How the Outsourcing of Grassroots Campaigns Is Strangling Progressive Politics in America (2006) and American Resistance: From the Women’s March to the Blue Wave (Columbia, 2019).