by George Monbiot
Rating: 4.4 ⭐
• 2 recommendations ❤️
"This remarkable book, staring curiously down at the soil beneath our feet, points us convincingly in one of the directions we must travel. I learned something on every page." --Bill McKibbenFor the first time since the Neolithic, we have the opportunity to transform not only our food system but our entire relationship to the living world.Farming is the world's greatest cause of environmental destruction - and the one we are least prepared to talk about. We criticise urban sprawl, but farming sprawls across thirty times as much land. We have ploughed, fenced and grazed great tracts of the planet, felling forests, killing wildlife, and poisoning rivers and oceans to feed ourselves. Yet millions still go hungry.Now the food system itself is beginning to falter. But, as George Monbiot shows us in this brilliant, bracingly original new book, we can resolve the biggest of our dilemmas and feed the world without devouring the planet.Regenesis is a breathtaking vision of a new future for food and for humanity. Drawing on astonishing advances in soil ecology, Monbiot reveals how our changing understanding of the world beneath our feet could allow us to grow more food with less farming. He meets the people who are unlocking these methods, from the fruit and vegetable grower revolutionising our understanding of fertility; through breeders of perennial grains, liberating the land from ploughs and poisons; to the scientists pioneering new ways to grow protein and fat. Together, they show how the tiniest life forms could help us make peace with the planet, restore its living systems, and replace the age of extinction with an age of regenesis.
by George Monbiot
Rating: 4.3 ⭐
• 2 recommendations ❤️
To be an environmentalist early in the twenty-first century is always to be defending, arguing, acknowledging the hurdles we face in our efforts to protect wild places and fight climate change. But let’s be honest: hedging has never inspired anyone. So what if we stopped hedging? What if we grounded our efforts to solve environmental problems in hope instead, and let nature make our case for us? That’s what George Monbiot does in Feral, a lyrical, unabashedly romantic vision of how, by inviting nature back into our lives, we can simultaneously cure our “ecological boredom” and begin repairing centuries of environmental damage. Monbiot takes readers on an enchanting journey around the world to explore ecosystems that have been “rewilded”: freed from human intervention and allowed—in some cases for the first time in millennia—to resume their natural ecological processes. We share his awe, and wonder, as he kayaks among dolphins and seabirds off the coast of Wales and wanders the forests of Eastern Europe, where lynx and wolf packs are reclaiming their ancient hunting grounds. Through his eyes, we see environmental success—and begin to envision a future world where humans and nature are no longer separate and antagonistic, but are together part of a single, healing world. Monbiot’s commitment is fierce, his passion infectious, his writing compelling. Readers willing to leave the confines of civilization and join him on his bewitching journey will emerge changed—and ready to change our world for the better.
A sharp, fiercely argued takedown of neoliberalism that not only defines this slippery concept but connects it to the climate crisis, poverty, and fascism—and shows us how to fight back.Neoliberalism is the dominant ideology of our time. It shapes us in countless ways, yet most of us struggle to articulate what it is. Worse, we have been persuaded to accept this extreme creed as a kind of natural law. In Invisible Doctrine, journalist George Monbiot and filmmaker Peter Hutchison shatter this myth. They show how a fringe philosophy in the 1930s—championing competition as the defining feature of humankind—was systematically hijacked by a group of wealthy elites, determined to guard their fortunes and power. Think tanks, corporations, the media, university departments and politicians were all deployed to promote the idea that people are consumers, rather than citizens.One of the most pernicious effects has been to make our various crises—from climate disasters to economic crashes, from the degradation of public services to rampant child poverty—seem unrelated. In fact, they have all been exacerbated by the “invisible doctrine,” which subordinates democracy to the power of money. Monbiot and Hutchison connect the dots—and trace a direct line from neoliberalism to fascism, which preys on people’s hopelessness and desperation.Speaking out against the fairy tale of capitalism and populist conspiracy theories, Monbiot and Hutchison lay the groundwork for a new politics, one based on truly participatory democracy and “private sufficiency, public luxury”: an inspiring vision that could help bring the neoliberal era to an end.
A toxic ideology rules the world - of extreme competition and individualism. It misrepresents human nature, destroying hope and common purpose. Only a positive vision can replace it, a new story that re-engages people in politics and lights a path to a better world.George Monbiot shows how new findings in psychology, neuroscience and evolutionary biology cast human nature in a radically different light: as the supreme altruists and cooperators. He shows how we can build on these findings to create a new politics: a “politics of belonging.” Both democracy and economic life can be radically reorganized from the bottom up, enabling us to take back control and overthrow the forces that have thwarted our ambitions for a better society.Urgent, and passionate, Out of the Wreckage provides the hope and clarity required to change the world.
Leading political and environmental commentator on where we have gone wrong, and what to do about it “Without countervailing voices, naming and challenging power, political freedom withers and dies. Without countervailing voices, a better world can never materialise. Without countervailing voices, wells will still be dug and bridges will still be built, but only for the few. Food will still be grown, but it will not reach the mouths of the poor. New medicines will be developed, but they will be inaccessible to many of those in need.” George Monbiot is one of the most vocal, and eloquent, critics of the current consensus. How Did We Get into This Mess?, based on his powerful journalism, assesses the state we are now in: the devastation of the natural world, the crisis of inequality, the corporate takeover of nature, our obsessions with growth and profit and the decline of the political debate over what to do. While his diagnosis of the problems in front of us is clear-sighted and reasonable, he also develops solutions to challenge the politics of fear. How do we stand up to the powerful when they seem to have all the weapons? What can we do to prepare our children for an uncertain future? Controversial, clear but always rigorously argued, How Did We Get into This Mess? makes a persuasive case for change in our everyday lives, our politics and economics, the ways we treat each other and the natural world.
How to Stop the Planet From Burning marks an important moment in our civilization’s thinking about global warming. The question is no longer Is climate change actually happening? but What do we do about it? George Monbiot offers an ambitious and far-reaching program to cut our carbon dioxide emissions to the point where the environmental scales start tipping back—away from catastrophe.Though writing with a "spirit of optimism," Monbiot does not pretend it will be easy. The only way to avoid further devastation, he argues, is a 90% cut in CO2 emissions in the rich nations of the world by 2030. In other words, our response will have to be immediate, and it will have to be decisive.In every case he supports his proposals with a rigorous investigation into what works, what doesn’t, how much it costs, and what the problems might be. He wages war on bad ideas as energetically as he promotes good ones. And he is not afraid to attack anyone—friend or foe—whose claims are false or whose figures have been fudged.After all, there is no time to waste. As Monbiot has said himself, "we are the last generation that can make this happen, and this is the last possible moment at which we can make it happen."George Monbiot is the best-selling author of The Age of Consent and Captive State , as well as the investigative travel books Poisoned Arrows , Amazon Watershed , and No Man’s Land . In 1995, Nelson Mandela presented him with a United Nations Global 500 Award for outstanding environmental achievement. He has held visiting fellowships or professorships at the universities of Oxford (environmental policy), Bristol (philosophy), Keele (politics), and East London (environmental science). Currently visiting professor of planning at Oxford Brookes University, he writes a weekly column for the Guardian newspaper.
In twenty short books, Penguin brings you the classics of the environmental movement.In the galvanising speeches and essays brought together in This Can't Be Happening , George Monbiot calls on humanity to stop averting its gaze from the destruction of the living planet, and wake up to the greatest predicament we have ever faced.Over the past 75 years, a new canon has emerged. As life on Earth has become irrevocably altered by humans, visionary thinkers around the world have raised their voices to defend the planet, and affirm our place at the heart of its restoration. Their words have endured through the decades, becoming the classics of a movement. Together, these books show the richness of environmental thought, and point the way to a fairer, saner, greener world.
Naomi Klein's ‘No Logo’ told us what was wrong. Now, George Monbiot shows us how to put it right. Provocative, brave and beautifully argued, ‘The Age of Consent’ is nothing less than a manifesto for a new world order. ‘Our task is not to overthrow globalisation, but to capture it, and to use it as a vehicle for humanity's first global democratic revolution.’ All over our planet, the rich get richer while the poor are overtaken by debt and disaster. The world is run not by its people but by a handful of unelected or underelected executives who make the decisions on which everyone else concerning war, peace, debt, development and the balance of trade. Without democracy at the global level, the rest of us are left with no means of influencing these men but to shout abuse and hurl ourselves at the lines of police defending their gatherings and decisions. Does it have to be this way? George Monbiot knows not only that things ought to change, but also that they can change. Drawing on decades of thinking about how the world is organized and administered politically, fiscally and commercially, Monbiot has developed an interlocking set of proposals all his own, which attempts nothing less than a revolution in the way the world is run. If these proposals become popular, never again will people be able to ask of the critics of the existing world order, ‘we know what they don't want, but what do they want?’ Fiercely controversial and yet utterly persuasive, the ingenious solutions Monbiot suggests for some of the planet's most pressing problems mark him as perhaps the most realistic utopian of our time and a man whose passion is infectious and whose ideas, many will surely come to agree, are becoming irresistible.
A devastating indictment of the corruption at the heart of the British State by one of our most popular media figures.George Monbiot made his name exposing the corruption of foreign governments; now he turns his keen eye on Britain. In the most explosive book on British politics of the new decade, Monbiot uncovers what many have suspected but few have been able to that corporations have become so powerful they now threaten the foundations of democratic government.Many of the stories George Monbiot recounts have never been told before, and they could scarcely be more embarrassing to a government that claims to act on behalf of all of us. Some are - or should be - resigning matters. Effectively, the British government has collaborated in its own redundancy, by ceding power to international bodies controlled by corporations. CAPTIVE STATE highlights the long term threat to our society and ultimately shows us ways in which we can hope to withstand the might of big business.
George Monbiot is admired for his unquenchable thirst for truth and an assured nose for spin. In this series of essays on money, religion, war, power, culture and nature, he explains why we are heading into an uncertain future in which peace and sound politics are paramount to our survival. From his attack on the countries that deny the existence of global warming to his rally against the injustices of the Iraq war, Monbiot turns his gaze on the aspects of modernity that most endanger the prevailing world order. With characteristic precision, he offers unassailable proof that the desecration of the resources on which we all depend threatens the peace, equality - and very existence - of humanity. Bring on the Apocalypse is an urgent wake-up call that we cannot afford to ignore.
by George Monbiot
Rating: 4.2 ⭐
At great personal risk and with forged travel documents, George Monbiot bluffed, cheated and forced his way into the remotest tropical place in the world - the forbidden territories of Irian Jaya, Indonesia. Sealed from the outside world by Indonesian forces, it is home to tribes who have remained unchanged and unseen for centuries - and who are now, along with their forest land, being systematically obliterated.
This book tells the story of George Monbiot's journeys among some of the tribal peoples of East Africa, showing how they are confronting the forces which threaten to deprive both them and us of the life that civilization has tried to suppress. In northern Kenya he saw how bandits, equipped by the corrupt governments of both Kenya itself and some of its neighbours, have been massacring the nomads, driving the survivors into famine zones where first the cattle then the humans die. Further south he watched the open savannahs on which the nomads rely being divided up and reduced by ploughing. But he also saw that the nomads of East Africa are finding ways to survive. All nomads are opportunists, and the adaptability, the cultural flexibility that opportunism demands means that they are possibly better equipped than any other of the world's traditional peoples to withstand dramatic change.
. with dustjacket, 1991 clean bright copy
by George Monbiot
Rating: 4.0 ⭐
Nous vivons selon une idéologie qui a envahi chaque aspect de notre vie : notre éducation, nos emplois, notre système de santé et nos loisirs ; nos relations et notre santé mentale ; la planète que nous habitons, jusqu’à l’air que nous respirons, et de façon si subtile que, pour la plupart, elle n’a même pas de nom. Elle semble inévitable, comme une loi naturelle.Mais si nous repartons aux racines de cette idéologie, nous nous rendons compte qu’elle n’est ni inévitable ni immuable. Elle a été conçue, propagée, et puis dissimulée par ceux qui sont au pouvoir. Notre tâche est de lever le voile dessus, et de construire un nouveau système pour lequel on veut se battre.Le néolibéralisme. Savez-vous de quoi il s’agit ?En 25 chapitres courts, imagés et très parlants, George Monbiot et Peter Hutchison remontent à la source de cette idéologie. Une démonstration limpide qui révèle que rien n'est inévitable ou immuable dans le système dans lequel nous vivons ; il nous appartient seulement d'en construire un nouveau.George Monbiot est éditorialiste au Guardian et militant écologique, "le chroniqueur écologiste le plus en vue dans le monde anglo-saxon". Il a publié en France : Reconstruire sur les ruines du capitalisme (Actes Sud, 2021), et Nourrir le monde sans dévorer la planète (LLL, 2023).Voir son site ou sur XPeter Hutchison est réalisateur, auteur, enseignant et activiste. Il a adapté sous forme de documentaire le livre culte de Noam Chomsky, Requiem pour le rêve américain.
"George Monbiot is reviving investigative journalism of the old school. He sustains the view that the job of journalists is to find out what isn't immediately available on websites and company reports, and looks at the views of ordinary people involved in every issue.There is no one better to learn from about how to deal with the media." PAUL FOOT, Campaigning Journalist of the 1990s (Granada What the Papers Say)
El neoliberalismo es la ideología dominante de nuestro tiempo. Nos moldea de innumerables maneras pero a la mayoría de nosotros nos cuesta articular lo que es. Peor aún, nos han persuadido a aceptar este credo extremo como una especie de ley natural. En ‘La doctrina invisible’, el periodista George Monbiot y el cineasta Peter Hutchison destruyen este mito. Muestran cómo una filosofía marginal de la década de 1930 –la defensa de la competencia como rasgo definitorio de la humanidad– fue secuestrada sistemáticamente por un grupo de elites ricas decididas a proteger sus fortunas y su poder. Se desplegaron grupos de expertos, corporaciones, medios de comunicación, departamentos universitarios y políticos para promover la idea de que las personas son consumidores más que ciudadanos.Uno de los efectos más perniciosos ha sido hacer que nuestras diversas crisis –desde los desastres climáticos hasta las crisis económicas, desde la degradación de los servicios públicos hasta la pobreza infantil rampante– parezcan no tener relación. De hecho, todos ellos han sido exacerbados por la "doctrina invisible", que subordina la democracia al poder del dinero. Monbiot y Hutchison conectan los puntos y trazan una línea directa entre el neoliberalismo y el fascismo que se aprovecha de la desesperanza y la desesperación de la gente.Al pronunciarse contra el cuento de hadas del capitalismo y las teorías de conspiración populistas, Monbiot y Hutchison sientan las bases para una nueva política basada en una democracia verdaderamente participativa y en la "suficiencia privada, el lujo público": una visión inspiradora que podría ayudar a llevar la era neoliberal a su fin.
by George Monbiot
Rating: 3.0 ⭐
by George Monbiot
by George Monbiot
El neoliberalismo es la ideología dominante de nuestro tiempo, pero a la mayoría de nosotros nos cuesta articular lo que es. Peor aún, nos han persuadido a aceptar este credo extremo como una especie de ley natural. El periodista George Monbiot y el cineasta Peter Hutchison destruyen este mito. Muestran cómo una filosofía marginal de la década de 1930 —la defensa de la competencia como rasgo definitorio de la humanidad— fue secuestrada sistemáticamente por un grupo de élites ricas decididas a proteger sus fortunas y su poder. Se desplegaron grupos de expertos, corporaciones, medios de comunicación, departamentos universitarios y políticos para promover la idea de que las personas son consumidoras más que ciudadanas. Uno de los efectos más perniciosos ha sido hacer que nuestras diversas crisis —desde los desastres climáticos hasta las crisis económicas, desde la degradación de los servicios públicos hasta la pobreza infantil rampante— parezcan no tener relación. Monbiot y Hutchison conectan los puntos y trazan una línea directa entre el neoliberalismo y el fascismo que se aprovecha de la desesperanza y la desesperación de la gente.
by George Monbiot
Please Note That The Following Individual Books As Per Original UK ISBN and UK EDITION Cover Image In this Listing shall be George Monbiot 3 Books Collection The Invisible The Secret History of How can you fight something if you don’t know it exists? We live under an ideology that preys on every aspect of our our education and our jobs; our healthcare and our leisure; our relationships and our mental wellbeing; the planet we inhabit – the very air we breathe. So pervasive has it become that, for most people, it has no name. It seems unavoidable, like a natural law. Feeding the World without Devouring the Regenesis is a breathtaking vision of a new future for food and for humanity. Drawing on astonishing advances in soil ecology, Monbiot reveals how our changing understanding of the world beneath our feet could allow us to grow more food with less farming. He meets the people who are unlocking these methods, from the fruit and vegetable grower revolutionising our understanding of fertility; through breeders of perennial grains, liberating the land from ploughs and poisons; to the scientists pioneering new ways. Rewilding the Land, Sea and Human How many of us sometimes feel that we are scratching at the walls of this life, seeking to find our way into a wider space beyond? That our mild, polite existence sometimes seems to crush the breath out of us? Feral is the lyrical and gripping story of George Monbiot's efforts to re-engage with nature and discover a new way of living. He shows how, by restoring and rewilding our damaged ecosystems on land and at sea, we can bring wonder back into our lives.
by George Monbiot