Wes Jackson - An Inconvenient Apocalypse

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An Inconvenient Apocalypse

The problematic human/earth relationship will not be resolved anytime soon, and Jackson and Jensens book makes an important contribution to assessing our situation and envisioning a way forward. Anyone who has a nagging feeling that something is wrong and doesnt understand the breadth and depth of the problem or how to grapple with it should read this book.Lisi Krall, author of Proving Up

An Inconvenient Apocalypse pulls no punches. Wes Jackson and Robert Jensen, in this work of Anthropocenic soul-searching, offer an honest, accessible, and ruefully playful look at their own lives and at the predicament of human civilization during this century of upheaval and denial.Scott Slovic, co-editor of Ecoambiguity, Community, and Development

Wes Jackson and Bob Jensen have written Common Sense for our time. This book might be the spark that catalyzes the American Evolution.Peter Buffett, co-president of the NoVo Foundation

This is one of the most important books of our lifetime. An Inconvenient Apocalypse can help us face the difficult choices that confront us all and enable us to acknowledge the urgency of our current circumstance.Frederick L. Kirschenmann, author of Cultivating an Ecological Conscience

If youre already concerned about our species survival prospects, this book will take you to the next level of understanding. Jackson and Jensen are clear and deeply moral thinkers, and their assessment of humanitys precarious status deserves to be widely read.Richard Heinberg, author of Power

In this essential contribution to the public debate, Wes Jackson and Robert Jensen critique the capitalist forces accelerating the climate crisis and the intellectual-activists who have balked at calling for the radical changes in human behavior that could mitigate, if not prevent, environmental and societal collapse. Their contribution will prove as enduring as it is timely.Jason Brownlee, author of Authoritarianism in an Age of Democratization

With intrepid honesty, tenderness, and grace, Jackson and Jensen lay out a clear framework for making sense of the most elusive complexities of climate crisis. Through kindred reflections and incisive analysis, they boldly enlighten readers of the probable and the possible in the decades to come. An affirmation and solace for the weary. A beacon for those seeking courage and understanding in unsettling times.Selina Gallo-Cruz, author of Political Invisibility and Mobilization

While making no religious claims, Jackson and Jensen engage the core questions that religious people must ask, if their own witness is to be credible: Who are we, and where are we in history? Do we have the capacity to make drastic change for the sake of a decent human future? Can we live with humility and grace instead of arrogance and an infatuation with knowledge devoid of wisdom? Read and consider.Ellen F. Davis, author of Scripture, Culture, and Agriculture

The nature of all living organisms, so this book argues, is to go after dense energy, resulting eventually in crisis. If that is so, then the human organism is facing a tough question: Can we overcome our own nature? Courageous and humble, bold and provocative, the authors of An Inconvenient Apocalypse do not settle for superficial answers.Donald Worster, author of Shrinking the Earth

AN INCONVENIENT APOCALYPSE

This book was selected as the 2022 Giles Family Fund Recipient. The University of Notre Dame Press and the author thank the Giles family for their generous support.

Giles Family Fund Recipients

2019 The Glory and the Burden, Robert Schmuhl (expanded edition, 2022)

2020 Ars Vitae: The Fate of Inwardness and the Return of the Ancient Arts of Living, Elisabeth Lasch-Quinn

2021 William Still: The Underground Railroad and the Angel at Philadelphia, William C. Kashatus

2022 An Inconvenient Apocalypse: Environmental Collapse, Climate Crisis, and the Fate of Humanity, Wes Jackson and Robert Jensen

The Giles Family Fund supports the work and mission of the University of Notre Dame Press to publish books that engage the most enduring questions of our time. Each year the endowment helps underwrite the publication and promotion of a book that sparks intellectual exploration and expands the reach and impact of the university.

AN INCONVENIENT

APOCA LYPSE

Environmental Collapse,
Climate Crisis, and the
Fate of Humanity

WES JACKSON AND ROBERT JENSEN

University of Notre Dame Press

Notre Dame, Indiana

Copyright 2022 by University of Notre Dame

Notre Dame, Indiana 46556

undpress.nd.edu

All Rights Reserved

Published in the United States of America

Library of Congress Control Number: 2022935758

ISBN: 978-0-268-20365-8 (Hardback)

ISBN: 978-0-268-20366-5 (Paperback)

ISBN: 978-0-268-20367-2 (WebPDF)

ISBN: 978-0-268-20364-1 (Epub)

This e-Book was converted from the original source file by a third-party vendor. Readers who notice any formatting, textual, or readability issues are encouraged to contact the publisher at

To Jack Ewel, a first-rate ecologist whose rigorous research
and kindly collegiality have always been a standard

CONTENTS

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Thanks to colleagues and comrades from The Land Institute, Ecosphere Studies network, and New Perennials Project for spirited intellectual engagement.

INTRODUCTIONS

Who Are We?

In the many phone conversations between the authors when this book was under construction, one of us would say that a particular point was so important that we need to get it right up front. After a few of these comments, we joked that there were so many things that needed to be right up front that the book was getting top heavy and would be impossible to hold open.

The first thing we want to put right up front is this: we are two old white guys from the United States living pretty comfortably with good retirement plans. We believe its important to start with recognition of who we are in social terms, sending a signal that we are not tone deaf to the political climate in which we write. We understand why some readers might be reluctant to consider the work of people from certain classes and identity categories, especially if people in those classes and categories so often have been reluctant to fess up to our own failures, individual and collective.

Our intention is to continue in this blunt fashion rather than avoid uncomfortable questions. Throughout this book, our goal is to confront difficult issues as honestly as we can, even when our analysis might create tension with friends and allies. We believe this approach is more necessary than ever at this all-hands-on-deck point in human history. We ask readers to bear with us while we explain our sense of urgency, our approach to analyzing the crises, and what we believe are our best options for the future. We offer this advice on intellectual engagement from John Steinbeck:

We had had many discussions at the galley table and there had been many honest attempts to understand each others thinking. There are several kinds of reception possible. There is the mind which lies in wait with traps for flaws, so set that it may miss, though not grasping it, a soundness. There is a second which is not reception at all, but blind flight because of laziness, or because some pattern is disturbed by the processes of the discussion. The best reception of all is that which is easy and relaxed, which says in effect, Let me absorb this thing. Let me try to understand it without private barriers. When I have understood what you are saying, only then will I subject it to my own scrutiny and my own criticism. This is the finest of all critical approaches and the rarest.