A Climate of Truth: Why we need it and how to get it
by
Mike Berners-Lee
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We have most of the technology we need to combat the climate crisis - and most people want to see more action. But after three decades of climate COPs, we are accelerating into a polycrisis of climate, food security, biodiversity, pollution, inequality, and more. What, exactly, has been holding us back? Mike Berners-Lee looks at the challenge from new angles. He stands further back to gain perspective; he digs deeper under the surface to see the root causes; he joins up every element of the challenge; and he learns lessons from our failures of the past. He spells out why, if humanity is to thrive in the future, the most critical step is to raise standards of honesty in our politics, our media, and our businesses. Anyone asking 'what can each of us do right now to help?' will find inspiration in this practical and important book.
ISBN: 9781009440066
Publication Date: 2025
Climate Justice and the University
by
Jennie C. Stephens
A radical exploration of how higher education can advance transformative climate justice.Amid the worsening climate crisis and intensifying inequities, higher education can play a powerful role in addressing the intersecting crises facing humanity. Institutions of higher education hold untapped potential to advance social justice and reduce climate injustices. However, universities are not yet structured to accelerate social change for the public good. In Climate Justice and the University, Jennie Stephens reimagines the potential of higher education to advance human well-being and promote ecological health. Drawing on over thirty years of experience working on the climate crisis within higher education, Stephens offers a provocative and pathbreaking vision of how higher education can accelerate the shift toward more equitable, healthy, and stable futures for all. Building on a US and European context, she integrates examples from the innovative landscape of transformative education initiatives around the world. With climate chaos exacerbating instability of all kinds, reimagining the transformative power of higher education is hopeful and empowering. By inviting readers to collectively reimagine different priorities and structures within higher education, Stephens disrupts long-held assumptions about how universities advance learning and research, suggesting possibilities to shape a more equitable future for all.
How We Sold Our Future. The failure to fight climate change
by
Jens Beckert; Ray Cunningham (Translator)
For decades we have known about the dangers of global warming. Nevertheless, greenhouse gas emissions continue to increase. How can we explain our failure to take the necessary measures to stop climate change? Why are societies, despite the mounting threat to ourselves and our children, so reluctant to take action?
In this important new book, Jens Beckert provides an answer to these questions. Our apparent inability to implement basic measures to combat climate change is due to the nature of power and incentive structures affecting companies, politicians, voters, and consumers. Drawing on social science research, he argues that climate change is an inevitable product of the structures of capitalist modernity which have been developing for the past 500 years. Our institutional and cultural arrangements are operating at the cost of destroying the natural environment and attempts to address global warming are almost inevitably bound to fail. Temperatures will continue to rise and social and political conflicts will intensify. The tragic truth is: we are selling our future for the next quarterly figures, the upcoming election results, and today’s pleasure. Any realistic climate policy needs to focus on preparing societies for the consequences of escalating climate change and aim at strengthening social resilience to cope with the increasingly unstable natural world. Civil society is the only source of pressure that could build the necessary strength and support for climate protection.
ISBN: 9781509565092
Publication Date: 2025
Carbon Colonialism. How rich countries export climate breakdown
by
Laurie Parsons
Around the world, leading economies are announcing significant success in the struggle against climate change. Heads of government proclaim their commitment to tackling the crisis, pointing to data that shows the progress they have made. Yet the atmosphere is still warming at a record rate. Are we being deceived?
In Carbon colonialism, Laurie Parsons exposes how rich countries cook the books on climate change – by outsourcing it to the global South. Conducting first-hand research across Asia, he reveals how exporting emissions and waste allows states and corporations to maintain a clean, green image. Meanwhile, landfills expand and droughts and floods intensify, with devastating effects on the world’s most vulnerable communities.
Technical fixes and creative accounting are a mirage. The real obstacles to effective action are deeply embedded in the political systems and structures of our society. Parsonscalls on readers to wake up from the fairy tales of greenwashing and ethical consumerism and end carbon colonialism now.