#46 Stories From The Earth Podcast - Book Chat - “Confessions of a Recovering Environmentalist: And Other Essays” by Paul Kingsnorth - Part One

<p>Today we are starting a chat review of “Confessions of a Recovering Environmentalist: And Other Essays” by Paul Kingsnorth. This book has a lot of discussion worthy subject matter, so we will be covering it over the course of a couple episodes. Today is part one.</p> <p><br></p> <p><em><strong>Brief summary of what the book is about this book:</strong></em></p> <p>Paul Kingsnorth was once an activist―an ardent environmentalist. He fought against rampant development and the depredations of a corporate world that seemed hell-bent on ignoring a looming climate crisis in its relentless pursuit of profit. But as the environmental movement began to focus on “sustainability” rather than the defense of wild places for their own sake, and as global conditions worsened, he grew disenchanted with the movement that he once embraced. He gave up what he saw as the false hope that residents of the First World would ever make the kind of sacrifices that might avert the severe consequences of climate change.</p> <p>Full of grief and fury as well as passionate, lyrical evocations of nature and the wild, Confessions of a Recovering Environmentalist gathers the wave-making essays that have charted the change in Kingsnorth’s thinking. In them he articulates a new vision that he calls “dark ecology,” which stands firmly in opposition to the belief that technology can save us, and he argues for a renewed balance between the human and nonhuman worlds.</p> <p>This iconoclastic, fearless, and ultimately hopeful book, which includes the much-discussed “Uncivilization” manifesto, asks hard questions about how we’ve lived and how we should live.</p> <p><br></p> <p>⭐<strong>Why Stories From the Earth?</strong> &nbsp;Humankind’s relationship to the natural world is as diverse and dynamic as each individual plant, animal, mineral, and piece of geography. There are many ways that we can engage with our living planet, be it through herbalism, gardening, hiking and other explorations, meditation and observation, and even artistic expressions. T