Sami Grover - Were All Climate Hypocrites Now: How Embracing Our Limitations Can Unlock the Power of a Movement

A useful and sprightly! effort to get at the choice between individual and systemic action on the greatest problem weve ever faced. I found it a helpful spur to creative thinking and action, and I bet you will as well. Read it, and then get out there and change the politics and economics that are driving us towards well, if not hell, then a place with a similar temperature.

Bill McKibben, author, The End of Nature

Were All Climate Hypocrites Now is part eco-therapy, part climate strategy, and a fantastic antidote to the overwhelm that comes along with living in a global ecological crisis. Say goodbye to those little voices in your head (or those loud voices on Facebook) calling you a hypocrite because you dont bike to work, arent vegan, fly to a protest, and still havent taken out that loan for those rooftop solar panels. This book is a fresh and informative unpacking of why we must abandon the notion that individual eco-perfection is possible or even impactful in the absence of system-wide change. Its an inspiring call to let go of the either or mentality, to fully embrace the both and, and to remember to go easy on ourselves and each other as we lean in even further into this painful, chaotic yet exciting time of (r)evolution.

Danna Smith, executive director, Dogwood Alliance

Sami Grovers wise book charts a middle way to win transformational change. He challenges us to embrace our climate hypocrisy as a goal to uproot the structures that are killing the planet without losing sight of the strategic individual actions we can take right now. We cant curate our way out of the climate crisis as consumers we must replace the system that makes us climate hypocrites. We climate hypocrites have agency, in varying degrees, to take actions that multiplied by the millions will help to win the big changes we need to survive. With our eyes on the stars and our feet on the ground, we can meet ourselves where we are without guilt and act for a more equitable, just, and sustainable world. Let this book show you how.

Bill Corcoran, Sierra Clubs Beyond Coal campaign

What a great book. Grover pushes well beyond BTUs and solar installs to confront shame, duplicity, and the multi-ality of being human. Its daring, bold, and wonderfully provocative. One moment Im hoping he buys the new crepe pan, the next Im staring in the mirror thinking about my wasteful habits. Its a great read with an epic span from the morality of procreation to a wheelbarrow of horse shit and back again. Loved it.

Lyle Estill, author, Small Is Possible, grandparent, distiller

If you are a climate concerned person who struggles with the nuanced complexity of being green, Samis book will help you navigate this contemporary moral maze with intelligent bigger picture thinking plus a rich seam of strategies and initiatives large and small for a healthier planet.

Maddy Harland, co-founder & editor, Permaculture Magazine, author, Fertile Edges

Nobody knows more about the business of sustainability than Sami Grover. He brings a welcome dose of wit, clarity, and levity to the green movement.

Brian Merchant, best-selling author, The One Device

On every page of this rip-roaring read I found myself, my partner, my neighbour, my colleagues, my family, and my friends and every holier-than-thou temptation, every emptying out of the compost bin, every person who berated me for traveling for work with refugees. Hypocrisy is in our DNA, and in this book it is both hilariously observed, with all the dry wit of a Brit, and pragmatically harnessed for good. I honestly could not put it down. Its a tour de force for hope. And kindness. And love for the world and the future.

Alison Phipps, UNESCO Chair for Refugee Integration through Languages and the Arts, University of Glasgow

Grovers nuanced take on how to approach life at the end of the world with thoughtfulness, honesty, and more than a touch of pragmatism gives even the most jaded amongst us a boost of energy to do our part in extending the health of the planet, for as long as we can. While he turns to science, public commentary, experts, and activists to remind us that individual energies and collective action can produce results, what makes Were All Climate Hypocrites Now is Grovers willingness to put himself squarely in the middle of these debates, engaging with his own evolution as a climate activist, and evaluating and reevaluating his own practices. The honesty with which he writes is an invitation, rather than an edict, to join him in making a difference.

Dr. Kumarini Silva, associate professor, Communication and Cultural Studies, UNC-Chapel Hill, author, Brown Threat

Sami Grovers Were All Climate Hypocrites Now is an enjoyable, well-timed tonic for often-bitter debates about whether a focus on personal emissions helps or hurts societal efforts to stop the climate crisis. His proposal is to repurpose Big Oils buck passing carbon footprint into a tool to identify your own specific leverage to create wider social change. A thinking persons call to action, best enjoyed with a cold, well-crafted American beer.

Dr. Dan Rutherford, Aviation Director, International Council on Clean Transportation

As someone who teaches environmental advocacy, I know the paralysis, guilt, and self-blame that sometimes hits us when the odds seem insurmountable, and Grovers book is a great antidote. Grover reminds us that the social, economic, and political roots of climate change are broad and deep, but so are the solutions. With in-depth interviews and entertaining anecdotes, he shows us how climate scientists, activists, and advocates are finding ways to address the myriad problems that are linked to the unfolding climate crisis. Grovers candid and upbeat approach offers a fresh and inspiring take on climate action that will become required reading in my courses.

Dr. David Monje, assistant professor, co-director, UNCs Program for Cultural Studies

A thought-provoking, insightful, and witty exploration of the familiar dilemmas we face navigating the world of climate solutions, from personal choices to systemic change, and the interplay between the two.

Andreas Karelas, founder and executive director, RE-volv, author, Climate Courage

Over the years, many have struggled mightily to find a place of balance and comfort in the pursuit of personal accountability in their individual lives, while addressing the ultimate solutions needed to conquer the carbon crisis, which is at the root of climate change. Sami highlights a multitude of actions on a variety of scales that trigger this consternation while appropriately calling-out the systems of greatest causation where the focus belongs. His wit, insightfulness, and informed knowledge is refreshing and on full display. Samis judge not, that you be not judged accounts in the book are humorous, thought provoking, and profound. Were All Climate Hypocrites Now is a must read for all climate change warriors.

Joe Jackson, board vice chair, Dogwood Alliance, founder, EcoGrounds Management Systems

How Embracing Our Limitations Can Unlock the Power of a Movement

Sami Grover

Copyright 2021 by Sami Grover. All rights reserved.

Cover design by Diane McIntosh.