Charles Eisenstein - Climate--A New Story

Charles Eisenstein

There is nothing safe in these writings; almost every chapter courts controversy. We as readers are the beneficiaries of this bravery. This is a message that must be heard loud and clear as we chart a path toward social and ecological renewal.

Helena Norberg-Hodge, author and filmmaker of Ancient Futures and The Economics of Happiness

This is a groundbreaking book. Eisenstein makes an inspiring, positive, and convincing case for a full and proper understanding of the present human predicamenta radical shift from a utilitarian worldview to an integral world view rooted in a sense of the sacred which recognizes the intrinsic value of nature and life.

Satish Kumar, founder of Schumacher College and editor emeritus of Resurgence & Ecologist

This book is brave enough, vulnerable enough, insightful enough to activate a truth buried deep within all of our hearts: that the planetary crisis we face today can only be transformed by a revolution of love. It calls each of us to break with our patterns of war thinking and realize our interconnectedness with all life on Earth.

Jodie Evans, cofounder of Code Pink

A clarion call to reconnect through love with our living Earth. Eisenstein offers a deeply analyzed and compelling case to collectively move past divisive reductionism, betwixt false Prophets of doom and false Profits of denial, towards a revitalization of reverential relations.

Brock Dolman, Occidental Arts and Ecology Center, permaculture program, and WATER Institute director

Copyright 2018 by Charles Eisenstein. Some rights reserved. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported license. For more information, please visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0

Published by

North Atlantic Books

Berkeley, California

Cover Photo gettyimages.com/ivan101

Cover design by Jasmine Hromjak

Book design by Happenstance Type-O-Rama

Printed in Canada

Climate: A New Story is sponsored and published by the Society for the Study of Native Arts and Sciences (dba North Atlantic Books), an educational nonprofit based in Berkeley, California, that collaborates with partners to develop cross-cultural perspectives, nurture holistic views of art, science, the humanities, and healing, and seed personal and global transformation by publishing work on the relationship of body, spirit, and nature.

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Eisenstein, Charles, 1967- author.

Title: Climate : a new story / Charles Eisenstein.

Description: Berkeley, California : North Atlantic Books, 2018. | Includes

bibliographical references.

Identifiers: LCCN 2018013922 (print) | LCCN 2018031946 (ebook) | ISBN

9781623172497 (ebook) | ISBN 9781623172480 (paperback)

Subjects: LCSH: Environmentalism. | Environmental degradationPrevention. |

Climatic changes. | Global environmental change. | NaturePsychological

aspects. | Environmental psychology. | BISAC: NATURE / Environmental

Conservation & Protection. | BODY, MIND & SPIRIT / Inspiration & Personal

Growth. | POLITICAL SCIENCE / Public Policy / Environmental Policy.

Classification: LCC GE195 (ebook) | LCC GE195 .E39 2018 (print) | DDC

363.7dc23

LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2018013922

North Atlantic Books is committed to the protection of our environment. We partner with FSC-certified printers using soy-based inks and print on recycled paper whenever possible.

Dedicated to the humble people, whose quiet service holds the world together.

T his book is possible only because of the friends and allies who hold the field I write from and remind me I am not crazy. Among them are Bayo Akomolafe, Ben Phelan, Brad Blanton, Camila Moreno, David Abram, Frank Phoenix, Helena Norberg-Hodge, Gigi Coyle, Ian MacKenzie, Jodie Evans, Joshua Ramey, Kelly Brogan, Laurie Young, Lissa Rankin, Lynn Murphy, Manish Jain, Marie Goodwin, Matthew Monihan, Michael Lerner, Miki Kashtan, Orland Bishop, Pat McCabe, Polly Higgins, Satish Kumar, and so many more, some of them very dear. I also would like to give thanks to the near-strangers who shower me with generosity and encouragement; to the patrons who supported me financially during the years writing this book; and most especially to my wife, Stella, for her loyalty to my best self; to my parents, for fifty years of love; to my children, for showing me the future; and to my first wife, Patsy, for showing me the power of life to heal.

O nce upon a time, a man was lost in a maze. How he got there is another storyto learn a mystery, perhaps, or to find a treasure. In any case, by now he has forgotten how or why he came to be there. He holds onto a faint memory of a sunlit realm, or a memory of a memory, that tells him that the maze isnt the whole of reality. He got there somehow, and there must be a way out. And lately it has become more and more painful to be inside. The maze is getting hotter and hotter, and he knows he will die if he doesnt find the exit soon. What was once an exciting exploration has become a monstrous trap.

Frantically he races around seeking the way out. Left, right, left, right, up and down, around in circles he runs, hitting dead ends and turning back, finding himself again and again back at his starting point. He begins to despairafter all that effort he has gotten nowhere.

A committee of voices in his head offers him advice: how to run faster, how to choose smarter. He heeds first one, then another, yet no matter how different the advice the result is always the same. Sometimes, amid the cacophony, he hears another voice as well, a quieter voice telling him, Stop. You arent getting anywhere, it says. Just stop.

The other voices respond with outrage, You cannot stop. You cannot rest. Only by using your two feet will you ever get out of here, and the situation is urgent so youd better move those feet fast. The window of opportunity is closing. Now is the time for action. After you get out, then it will be time to rest.

And so he runs all the faster, his head filled with new stratagems, pushing himself to an all-out effort. And once again, after many twists and turns, he finds himself back in the center of the maze.

This time he has to stop. Out of sheer exhaustion and despair, he collapses in a heap. The tumult of advice subsides, leaving his mind for once quiet, as happens when every option is exhausted and one just doesnt know what to do. Now he has a chance to ponder his wanderings, and in the empty space of his mental quiet, new realizations are born. He realizes that there has been a pattern to his wanderings. Perhaps he followed each left turn with a right turn. He also remembers running past small, dark passages that he ignored because they seemed unpromising. He remembers glimpsing secret doors that he was too much in a hurry to investigate. In quietude, he begins to understand the structure of the territory he has been racing in.