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Confronting harsh ecological realities and the multiple cascading
crises facing our world today, An Inconvenient Apocalypse argues
that humanity’s future will be defined not by expansion but by
contraction. For decades, our world has understood that we are on
the brink of an apocalypse—and yet the only implemented solutions
have been small and convenient, feel-good initiatives that avoid
unpleasant truths about the root causes of our impending disaster.
Wes Jackson and Robert Jensen argue that we must reconsider the
origins of the consumption crisis and the challenges we face in
creating a survivable future. Longstanding assumptions about
economic growth and technological progress—the dream of a future
of endless bounty—are no longer tenable. The climate crisis has
already progressed beyond simple or nondisruptive solutions. The
end result will be apocalyptic; the only question now is how bad it
will be. Jackson and Jensen examine how geographic determinism
shaped our past and led to today’s social injustice, consumerist
culture, and high-energy/high-technology dystopias. The solution
requires addressing today’s systemic failures and confronting
human nature by recognizing the limits of our ability to predict
how those failures will play out over time. Though these massive
challenges can feel overwhelming, Jackson and Jensen weave a
secular reading of theological concepts—the prophetic, the
apocalyptic, a saving remnant, and grace—to chart a collective,
realistic path for humanity not only to survive our apocalypse but
also to emerge on the other side with a renewed appreciation of the
larger living world.
Confronting harsh ecological realities and the multiple cascading
crises facing our world today, An Inconvenient Apocalypse argues
that humanity’s future will be defined not by expansion but by
contraction. For decades, our world has understood that we are on
the brink of an apocalypse—and yet the only implemented solutions
have been small and convenient, feel-good initiatives that avoid
unpleasant truths about the root causes of our impending disaster.
Wes Jackson and Robert Jensen argue that we must reconsider the
origins of the consumption crisis and the challenges we face in
creating a survivable future. Longstanding assumptions about
economic growth and technological progress—the dream of a future
of endless bounty—are no longer tenable. The climate crisis has
already progressed beyond simple or nondisruptive solutions. The
end result will be apocalyptic; the only question now is how bad it
will be. Jackson and Jensen examine how geographic determinism
shaped our past and led to today’s social injustice, consumerist
culture, and high-energy/high-technology dystopias. The solution
requires addressing today’s systemic failures and confronting
human nature by recognizing the limits of our ability to predict
how those failures will play out over time. Though these massive
challenges can feel overwhelming, Jackson and Jensen weave a
secular reading of theological concepts—the prophetic, the
apocalyptic, a saving remnant, and grace—to chart a collective,
realistic path for humanity not only to survive our apocalypse but
also to emerge on the other side with a renewed appreciation of the
larger living world.
The New World -- this empty land dazzlingly rich in forests, soils,
rainfall, and mineral wealth -- was to represent a new beginning
for civilized humanity. Unfortunately, even the best of the
European settles had a stronger eye for conquest than for justice.
Natives were in the way -- surplus people who must be literally
displaced. Now, as ecologist Wes Jackson points out, descendants of
those early beneficiaries of conquest find themselves the displaced
persons, forced to vacated the family farmsteads and small towns of
our heartland, leaving vacant the schools, churches, hardware
stores, and barber shops. In a ringing cry for a changed relation
to the land, Jackson urges modern Americans to become truly native
to this place -- to base our culture and agriculture on nature's
principles, to recycle as natural ecosystems have for millions of
years. The task is more difficult now, he argues, because so much
cultural information has been lost and because the ecological
capital necessary to grow food in a sustainable way has been
seriously eroded. Where to begin? Jackson suggests we start with
those thousands of small towns and rural communities literally
falling down or apart. In such places there is much good
conservation work to be done. We have no money to pay for the
process and little cultural awareness to support it, but here are
the places where a new generation of homecomers -- people who want
to go to a place and dig in -- can become the new pioneers,
operating on a set of assumptions and aspirations different from
those of their ancestors. These new pioneers will have to "set up
the books" for ecological community accounting. IF they dig deep
enough and long enough, urges Jackson, a new kind of economy will
emerge. So will rich culture with its own art and artifact.
"The plowshare may well have destroyed more options for future
generations than the sword," writes Wes Jackson in a review of
practices that have brought U.S. agriculture to the edge of
disaster. Tillage has hastened the erosion of irreplaceable topsoil
everywhere and a technology based on fossil fuels has increased
yields for short-term profits, leaving crops ever more vulnerable
to diseases, pests, and droughts. Such, says Jackson, is "the
failure of success." As high-technology agriculture becomes more
wasteful and expensive, more farmers are being forced off the land
or into bankruptcy. Jackson's major solution calls for the
development of plant combinations that yield food while holding the
soil and re-newing its nutrients without plowing or applying
fossil-fuel-based fertilizers or pesticides. His new way of raising
crops, by working with the soil's natural systems, would keep the
world's bread-basket producing perpetually.
'Ten Years Fresh" gives you a peak behind the scenes of NYC's
largest Hip-Hop cultural event, The Brooklyn Hip-Hop Festival.
Penned by Wes Jackson, the entrepreneur, historian, educator and
self described 'Hip-Hop nerd' behind it all. Wes speaks on the
highs and lows of the first ten years of The Festival. From its
humble beginnings in a parking lot in Williamsburg to attracting
thousands to Brooklyn every year, Wes puts us right in those
meetings with managers, agents, the NYPD and everyone in between.
From getting the blessing of KRS ONE to bringing Kanye West to
Brooklyn to debuting Kendrick Lamar it's all there. A great read
for fans, artists, aspiring executives and all lovers of Hip-Hop.
Human dependence on technology has increased exponentially over
the past several centuries, and so too has the notion that we can
fix environmental problems with scientific applications. The
Virtues of Ignorance: Complexity, Sustainability, and the Limits of
Knowledge proposes an alternative to this hubristic, shortsighted,
and dangerous worldview. The contributors argue that uncritical
faith in scientific knowledge has created many of the problems now
threatening the planet and that our wholesale reliance on
scientific progress is both untenable and myopic. Bill Vitek, Wes
Jackson, and a diverse group of thinkers, including Wendell Berry,
Anna Peterson, and Robert Root-Bernstein, offer profound arguments
for the advantages of an ignorance-based worldview. Their essays
explore this philosophy from numerous perspectives, including its
origins, its essence, and how its implementation can preserve vital
natural resources for posterity. All conclude that we must simply
accept the proposition that our ignorance far exceeds our knowledge
and always will. Rejecting the belief that science and technology
are benignly at the service of society, the authors argue that
recognizing ignorance might be the only path to reliable knowledge.
They also uncover an interesting paradox: knowledge and insight
accumulate fastest in the minds of those who hold an
ignorance-based worldview, for by examining the alternatives to a
technology-based culture, they expand their imaginations.
Demonstrating that knowledge-based worldviews are more dangerous
than useful, The Virtues of Ignorance looks closely at the
relationship between the land and the future generations who will
depend on it. The authors argue that we can never improve upon
nature but that we can, by putting this new perspective to work in
our professional and personal lives, live sustainably on Earth.
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