Terrible Beauty : Reckoning with Climate Complicity and Rediscovering Our Soul.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Schendler, Auden.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Sustainable development.

Environmentalism.

Climatic changes.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (273 pages)

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

La Vergne : Harvard Business Review Press, 2024.

Summary:

"Apple calls its headquarters the greenest building on Earth. Microsoft announces an ambitious commitment to carbon negativity while simultaneously sponsoring an oil conference in Saudi Arabia. American businesses, communities, and individuals assiduously measure their carbon footprints, then implement voluntary emissions reduction programs, all while trumpeting their do-gooderism. The problem is, none of this-individual efforts at recycling or carbon-focused corporate sustainability tactics-will make even a dent in solving the civilizational threat of climate change. As corporate sustainability adviser and environmental activist Auden Schendler argues in this provocative, powerful book, we're living a big green lie. The hard truth: Much of the modern corporate green road map could have been written by the fossil fuel industry specifically to avoid disrupting the status quo. We have become somehow complicit. But there is another truth: While ineffective or duplicitous environmentalism has become standard practice, we all have friends and family we love and care about, whose future depends on solving climate change. Conscience or faith tells us we have an obligation to repair the world. How can our common dreams be so at odds with our common practice? And how might we meld our spirit and passion to fashion a better future with meaningful action on climate change? Schendler speaks to this profound contradiction and takes it head-on-with a bracing reality check on current practice, moving personal stories of parenthood and service, and innovative, real-world methods to tackle climate change at the corporate, community, and individual levels. Terrible Beauty is a unique and essential road map for a new environmentalism, showing us that the key to saving the planet is to tap into our own humanity"-- Provided by publisher.

Contents:

Introduction: Devils of Dust and Spirit, and a New Climate Journey

The Axe: The Human Dimensions of Climate Change

A Hole, and a Door: The Problem with the Sustainable Business Thesis

Terlets and Trauma: A Brief, Personal History of American Environmentalism

The Flawed Vision: Why Environmentalism Lost Its Way, and How to Bring it Back

The False Promise of Corporate Carbon Neutrality

Holy Cross Electricity: A Story About Meaningful Action on Climate

Asymmetric Warfare, Kimberly-Clark and ExxonMobil

Dirtbags, Powder Hounds, and the NRA: The POW Strategy

Taking on Carbon Finance: The Economics of Sprayed Champagne

Talking About Climate Change at the Rotary Club

The Equity Connection: How Climate Action and Justice are the Same Issue

A Republic, Madam: The Challenge of Citizenship

Jacob's Angel

Epilogue: The Long Defeat and Hope.

Notes:

Description based on publisher supplied metadata and other sources.

ISBN:

1-64782-976-3

OCLC:

1460463207