us that the world of revolution is open to anyone and everyone who wants to make a substantial difference. After all, it's usually people at the bottom who make the greatest change.
It is also a movement that is as diverse as nature itself. It is people from around the world who are shifting minds, policies, and the axes of old tyrannies. No longer is this movement owned and operated by the global North. Instead, it's pushing boundaries, becoming a movement for all of us, managed by multifaceted cultures and peoples from the farthest corners of the Earth.
The faces of this movement include people like Enei Begaye, a Diné woman who is changing what is possible for her Navajo community in A rizona, from coal jobs to green jobs; Wen Bo, a Chinese student who dared to become an eco-activist just after the Tiananmen Square massacre; A merican Elizabeth Redmond, who is reinventing renewable technology by using our feet to generate power; Kevin Ochieng, a Kenyan youth who is leading a climate movement with underprivileged youth across Africa; and New York City native Tanya Fields, who resists oppression through guerilla gardening.
Together they fight an eco-war. But let's not be shy about it—it is a war.
But it doesn't have to be this way. We can turn away from that edge. There is still time left—though precious little, and less every day. Some of us are trying to do this by pledging to be this new generation of eco-warriors, fighting for something better .
It is a war for the last of the Amazon rainforest. It is a war to end our own grave digging in coal and oil mining. It is a war to defend the people caught in the cross fires of industrial pulverization. It is a war to defend the rights to life for nonhumans. And it is a war for the creation of a new world, one with renewable energy and a sustainable economy.
This war is being fought against the misinformers, denialists, and old guard of the fossil fuel regime that care only about profit, even at the expense of shortening our time here on Earth.
In short, it is a war for survival.
I believe it is appropriate to think of it as a war. Climate change alone is probably the greatest challenge humans have ever faced throughout our entire existence. The challenge is so great because the battle is not with external enemies but a war within ourselves. It is a war where we must stop ourselves in time to survive ourselves, with the planet as we know it hanging in the balance.
Our weapons for this battle are not daggers, firearms, or nukes but tools for social change, such as “mind bombs” of consciousness raising, energy alternatives, creativity to breed new solutions, and our fiery spirits for justice that brings humanity to new horizons. And the warriors themselves are not unwilling conscripts but willing participants who want to make a better world even in the face of great personal sacrifice, risks, and even at times personal endangerment.
This eco-war I speak of may seem of mythic proportions, yet it is the stark reality we must face, that we are in time of a war—a war for the planet and a war for ourselves. I think many of us know this ugly reality one way or another: we can feel the crumbling of the edge beneath our feet. We feel it with almost daily news of “weird” weather events like the flooding of Pakistan, the ragingfires of Russia or the vanishing poles. It can make you feel as if the show is already over (for some of us, over before it even really began).
PHOTO BY EMILY HUNTER
But it doesn't have to be this way. We can turn away from that edge. There is still time left—though precious little, and less every day. Some of us are trying to do this by pledging to be this new generation of eco-warriors, fighting for something better.
Therefore, in this book, I share with you the stories of men and women who have taken up this battle. This is by no means a how-to guide to save the planet: social change was never brought about through manuals or
It is also a movement that is as diverse as nature itself. It is people from around the world who are shifting minds, policies, and the axes of old tyrannies. No longer is this movement owned and operated by the global North. Instead, it's pushing boundaries, becoming a movement for all of us, managed by multifaceted cultures and peoples from the farthest corners of the Earth.
The faces of this movement include people like Enei Begaye, a Diné woman who is changing what is possible for her Navajo community in A rizona, from coal jobs to green jobs; Wen Bo, a Chinese student who dared to become an eco-activist just after the Tiananmen Square massacre; A merican Elizabeth Redmond, who is reinventing renewable technology by using our feet to generate power; Kevin Ochieng, a Kenyan youth who is leading a climate movement with underprivileged youth across Africa; and New York City native Tanya Fields, who resists oppression through guerilla gardening.
Together they fight an eco-war. But let's not be shy about it—it is a war.
But it doesn't have to be this way. We can turn away from that edge. There is still time left—though precious little, and less every day. Some of us are trying to do this by pledging to be this new generation of eco-warriors, fighting for something better .
It is a war for the last of the Amazon rainforest. It is a war to end our own grave digging in coal and oil mining. It is a war to defend the people caught in the cross fires of industrial pulverization. It is a war to defend the rights to life for nonhumans. And it is a war for the creation of a new world, one with renewable energy and a sustainable economy.
This war is being fought against the misinformers, denialists, and old guard of the fossil fuel regime that care only about profit, even at the expense of shortening our time here on Earth.
In short, it is a war for survival.
I believe it is appropriate to think of it as a war. Climate change alone is probably the greatest challenge humans have ever faced throughout our entire existence. The challenge is so great because the battle is not with external enemies but a war within ourselves. It is a war where we must stop ourselves in time to survive ourselves, with the planet as we know it hanging in the balance.
Our weapons for this battle are not daggers, firearms, or nukes but tools for social change, such as “mind bombs” of consciousness raising, energy alternatives, creativity to breed new solutions, and our fiery spirits for justice that brings humanity to new horizons. And the warriors themselves are not unwilling conscripts but willing participants who want to make a better world even in the face of great personal sacrifice, risks, and even at times personal endangerment.
This eco-war I speak of may seem of mythic proportions, yet it is the stark reality we must face, that we are in time of a war—a war for the planet and a war for ourselves. I think many of us know this ugly reality one way or another: we can feel the crumbling of the edge beneath our feet. We feel it with almost daily news of “weird” weather events like the flooding of Pakistan, the ragingfires of Russia or the vanishing poles. It can make you feel as if the show is already over (for some of us, over before it even really began).
PHOTO BY EMILY HUNTER
But it doesn't have to be this way. We can turn away from that edge. There is still time left—though precious little, and less every day. Some of us are trying to do this by pledging to be this new generation of eco-warriors, fighting for something better.
Therefore, in this book, I share with you the stories of men and women who have taken up this battle. This is by no means a how-to guide to save the planet: social change was never brought about through manuals or
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