Bright Green Lies: How the Environmental Movement Lost Its Way and What We Can Do About It, by Derrick Jensen, Lierre Keith and Max Wilbert.

• Monkfish Book Publishing Company
• Published March 2021
• 500 pages
• ISBN: 978-1-948626-39-2

One of a handful of books that I wish everyone would read, I think this book is important for many reasons. One being that it is only book I have come across that doesn’t center humans, but instead centers life on Earth. The shift may seem small, but it profoundly changes the solutions we seek, and changes the question from “how can we continue this way of life?” to how can we save the Earth from the harm humans are causing it?” (note, I don’t like the term “it” here, because the Earth is living, and not an inanimate object). The difference implies energy descent (a crucial part of degrowth) and a simplification of our lives, localization, and the dialing back of industrial civilization.

This book systematically debunks common “bright green lies” with facts about the nature of technological solutions that are at the heart of many “climate” campaigns and presents a more Earth-aligned way forward at the end. I highly recommend this book to anyone who is interested in keeping the planet habitable (which should be everyone).

“This disturbing but very important book makes clear we must dig deeper than the normal solutions we are offered.”—Yvon Chouinard, founder of Patagonia Works

An excerpt of what I found to be the most impactful pages of the book is available here.

There is a documentary, ‘Bright Green Lies’ based on the same themes as the book available here,

I listened to this podcast with Max Wilbert and Lierre Keith before I ordered the book and it had a huge impact on me.

About the authors:

“Derrick Jensen is the acclaimed author of more than twenty-five books, including A Language Older Than Words, The Culture of Make Believe, and Endgame. Author, teacher, activist, small farmer, and leading voice of uncompromising dissent, he has been hailed as the philosopher poet of the environmental movement. Writes Publishers Weekly, “Jensen paints on a huge canvas an emotionally compelling and devastating critique of the intellectual, psychological, emotional and social structure of Western culture.” 

His premise is as profound as it is persistent: industrial civilization is inherently unsustainable. It will always require violence to biotic and human communities. And it will create a culture where trauma is normalized, where living beings become objects, and where the only relationship left is one of domination.

Jensen weaves together history, philosophy, environmentalism, economics, literature and psychology to produce a powerful argument and a passionate call for action. He guides us toward concrete solutions by focusing on our most primal human desire: to live on a healthy earth overflowing with uncut forests, clean rivers, and thriving oceans that are not under the constant threat of being destroyed.

Jensen’s writing has been described as “breaking and mending the reader’s heart” (Publishers Weekly). He writes for The New York Times Magazine, Audubon, and The Sun, and has a regular column in Orion. He holds a degree in creative writing from Eastern Washington University, a degree in mineral engineering physics from the Colorado School of Mines, and has taught at Eastern Washington University and Pelican Bay State Prison. He has packed university auditoriums, conferences, and bookstores across the nation, stirring them with revolutionary spirit.”

“Lierre Keith is a writer, small farmer, and radical feminist activist. She is the author of six books including, The Vegetarian Myth: Food, Justice, and Sustainability, which has been called “the most important ecological book of this generation.” She is also coauthor, with Derrick Jensen and Aric McBay, of Deep Green Resistance: Strategy to Save the Planet. She’s been arrested six times for acts of political resistance. She lives in northern California where she shares 20 acres with giant trees and giant dogs. (www.lierrekeith.com)”

“Max Wilbert is a writer, organizer, and wilderness guide. A third-generation dissident, he came of age in a family of anti-war and undoing racism activists in post-WTO Seattle.

Max has been part of grassroots political work for nearly 20 years. He has been involved in fighting the Canadian “tar sands” megaproject and combating tar sands mining in Utah, in resisting industrial-scale water extraction and deforestation in Nevada, in advocating for the last remaining wild buffalo in Yellowstone, in solidarity work with indigenous communities in British Columbia, and in campaigns against police brutality and sexual violence.

Max serves on the Board of Directors of Deep Green Resistance and Fertile Ground Institute for Social and Ecological Justice. He co-founded the Pinyon-Juniper Alliance, a group dedicated to protecting forests in the Intermountain West. He is the editor-in-chief of the Deep Green Resistance News Service, and produces a podcast called The Green Flame.

Max’s essays have been published in Earth Island Journal, Counterpunch, Dissident Voice, DGR News Service, and elsewhere, and have been translated into several languages. Bright Green Lies is Max’s second book. His first book, an essay collection called We Choose to Speak, was released in 2018 in Germany by Babylon Apocalypse press as Voices of Resistance Vol. 2. He also wrote the introduction to a French-language translation of the Earth First! Direct Action Manual, published by Editions Libre in 2019.

Max lives near Eugene, Oregon, where he is involved in a communal living project. His website is maxwilbert.org.”

About Erin Remblance, your host during #DegrowthLitMonth:

Erin Remblance established her early career in blue-chip fast-moving consumer goods companies in Sydney & London, but always sensed there was more important work to be done. Having children gave her the space to explore the environmental and cultural crises on the planet that need to be urgently addressed. She shifted her focus to dedicate her life towards educating people on climate change, degrowth, planetary boundaries, modern monetary theory and more. Erin is a writer, researcher, co-creator of (re)Biz, wife, and mother of three children. She lives north of Sydney, Australia with her family, on the occupied ancestral country of the Gayemagal people.

Follow Erin on Substack, LinkedIn, (re)Biz and X (formerly Twitter).

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