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Climate: A New Story

Charles Eisenstein

4.45 · Rating details · 354 ratings · 58 reviews

Flipping the script on climate change, Eisenstein makes a case for a wholesale reimagining of the framing, tactics, and goals we employ in our journey to heal from ecological destruction

With research and insight, Charles Eisenstein details how the quantification of the natural world leads to a lack of integration and our “fight” mentality. With an entire chapter unpacki ...more

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Paperback, 320 pages

Published September 18th 2018 by North Atlantic Books

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Dec 22, 2018 Doug Della pietra rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: next-reads

This has been both one of the most challenging and disturbing books and the most visionary, compassionate, and holistic writings on climate, environment, Humanity and our Species that I have ever read.

Having previously adopted a mechanistic and quantitative approach to climate change and global warming, Charles Eisenstein’s invitation to consider our world and relationships through a different narrative — one of Interbeing instead of Separation — challenged the very place from which I had found This has been both one of the most challenging and disturbing books and the most visionary, compassionate, and holistic writings on climate, environment, Humanity and our Species that I have ever read.

Having previously adopted a mechanistic and quantitative approach to climate change and global warming, Charles Eisenstein’s invitation to consider our world and relationships through a different narrative — one of Interbeing instead of Separation — challenged the very place from which I had found and believed there was hope of reversing global warming and saving our Planet and Species.

Eisenstein outlined many examples of climate change solutions and environmental action that perhaps we once believed were good for us and the world that later revealed unintended and harmful consequences. In other words, Eisenstein’s perspective reminds me of Newton’s third law: For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction. Therefore, without knowing the full extent and consequences of our actions, we can do something intended for positive outcomes but be completely unaware that this action has even more harmful and detrimental effects that make the very situation we are attempting to improve even worse.

The mindset of Interbeing requires us to understand that nature is alive and a subject, not an object. “It means asking ‘What does the land want?’ ‘What does the river want?’ ‘What does the planet want?’ — questions that seem crazy from the perspective of nature-as-thing.” (Page 258)

Eisenstein goes on: “In that understanding, we can no longer cut down forests and drain the swamps, dam rivers and fragment ecosystems with roads, dig pit mines and drill gas wells, with impunity....To do so damages the whole body of nature, just as if you cut off a person’s limb or removed an organ. The well-being of all depends on the well-being of each. We cannot cut down one forest here and plant another there, assuring ourselves through the calculus of net CO2 that we have done no damage. How do we know we have not removed an organ?....Until we can know it, we’d best refrain from committing further ecocide on any scale. Each intact estuary, river, forest, and wetlands that remains to us, we must treat as sacred, while restoring whatever we can.” (Pages 258-259)

In the final pages of this book, Eisenstein lists almost 20 practical, bold, and far-reaching policy changes to promote and change our current system Story from one of Separation to a New Story of Interbeing.

He concludes: “The vision of a Green World is not fantasy; nor, however, is realistic. What it is, is possible. It requires each one of us to dedicate ourselves, unreasonably and with no guarantee of success, to our unique form of service. It requires that we trust our knowing that a healed world, a green world, a more beautiful world is truly possible.” (Page 278)

I highly recommend this book to anyone who is dreaming of and wants to participate in the transformation of our current society and world to the society and world of our highest future possibilities and potential. ...more

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Sep 06, 2019 Erik rated it it was ok

I wasn't going to review this book, because I like Charles Eisenstein and I appreciate what he's trying to do in general with his career, to integrate humans better with the natural world. With a spiritual bent, Eisenstein has also inspired people around the world to think more creatively, to open their hearts and to make positive changes in their personal lives. For that, he should be encouraged and applauded.

So, when I found his book on climate change frustrating, I was just going to let it go ...more

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Dec 15, 2018 Bryan Winchell rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

In my opinion, if you are concerned about the converging crises of the ecology and the economy, and the social and political ills that trouble the modern world, Charles Eisenstein is one of the most important voices out there.

In this book, he dares to expand the conversation around climate change from one that is increasingly ineffective because it is based on motivating us to act by using our fear of mortality and a horrible, climate-damaged world to one that recognizes that climate change is p ...more

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Nov 25, 2018 Noah Skocilich rated it it was amazing

Eisenstein’s greatest work to date.

Completely reframed my understanding of climate change.

So grateful for this book, and Charles’ work writing it.

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Dec 04, 2018 Paul rated it it was amazing

“If we want a living world, we have to act from the place where the world is alive.”

— Charles Eisenstein

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Feb 25, 2020 Valerie Saint-Pierre rated it it was amazing

Firstly, a warning: this is going to be a long review. In fact, this book has taken me (someone who can read two books a day with no problem) nine months to read. Why has it taken me this long? And why have I stuck at it? Simply because, like the climate change debate, this book is complicated, nuanced and fascinating, and it deserves to be carefully read and its discussions and conclusions properly considered. It reframes the whole climate change debate in different, non-binary terms. It tries Firstly, a warning: this is going to be a long review. In fact, this book has taken me (someone who can read two books a day with no problem) nine months to read. Why has it taken me this long? And why have I stuck at it? Simply because, like the climate change debate, this book is complicated, nuanced and fascinating, and it deserves to be carefully read and its discussions and conclusions properly considered. It reframes the whole climate change debate in different, non-binary terms. It tries as much as possible to be impartial. It questions everything and names its sources, inviting the reader to challenge and investigate further its claims. It isn’t afraid to challenge some of the underlying assumptions that we in a modern society don’t even think to question. In other words it’s a book for people who are fed up of being bludgeoned with contradictory information, who want to do something to help but feel helpless, and who don’t want ‘win’ a war against our changing environment but rather participate in a new narrative of collaboration, by understanding and accepting our place in the bigger whole. As you can see, this is a massive undertaking for a 300-page book. So how does the author go about presenting this?
Firstly, he does it by defining the issues. The central narrative is this book is simple, and despite its name, it’s not really about climate. Instead it’s this: the planet is dying. The biostructures of life on Earth are breaking down and, since they are all inter-connected, this doesn’t bode well for the continued existence of life on our planet. Climate and its rapid change is not the cause of this destruction but is in fact only one symptom. What does this mean? Here’s an example: climate change and subsequent droughts have been blamed for the large-scale migrations north from Central America. However, there are strong arguments that climate change is the symptom, not the cause, of massive deforestation (Guatemala lost 17% and Honduras 37% of their rainforests between 1990-2005. El Salvador has suffered 85% deforestation since 1960s). In fact, climate change is a scapegoat which keeps humanity’s attention focussed on only a few aspects of the environmental catastrophe we face.
Rising global temperatures are also often cited as climate change, but this too is a red herring in that the warming globe is also a symptom of the underlying problems, not the cause. Evidence suggest that the cause of much of these warmer temperatures is a combination of a growing number of urban heat islands/cities, coupled with massive deforestation/lack of vegetation which reduces vegetative transpiration and the cooling effect of cloud cover (and incidentally also mucks up the high and low pressure fronts that drive weather systems and deposit temperate, regular rainfall). Moreover, it is well to remember that without deforestation and subsequently less regular rainfall, rising temperatures would not be a problem: instead warmer climates would encourage forests to evolve into rain forests, rather than the current deforested areas evolving into sterile deserts.
The narrow parameters of ‘climate change’ are further narrowed and defined by taking a few areas of concern and elevating them to prime importance. One such is the burning of fossil fuels and rising carbon emissions. Our current obsession with burning fossil fuels and CO2 emissions reduces the problem to one of calculation and problem-solving – how we can plant more trees to act as carbon sinks, as well as create new technologies to solve the problems of energy. However, this again covers up the underlying cause; that of the wholesale destruction of natural carbon sinks which have little value to humans in terms of usage. These include wetlands and mangroves (of which an estimated 70% and 50% respectively have been destroyed in the last 100 years), swamps and rainforests. Not only are these habitats superlative carbon sinks, they also protect further carbon sinks such as coral reefs. Those natural carbon sinks such as steppes, prairie, pampas or veldts that do have some use to us (in terms of being relatively easy to convert to mass agriculture) are also being destroyed and, even worse, are often being converted to carbon emitters through heavy-duty crop cultivation.
So, if rising temperatures, CO2 emissions and fossil fuels are simply symptoms of a bigger problem that is buried under the term ‘climate change’, why then are we choosing to focus only on these few aspects rather than regarding our environment holistically and tackling the root causes behind why our planet is dying?

To see the rest of this review, please visit:
https://www.howaboutthis.co.uk/review... ...more

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Apr 26, 2019 Dave rated it liked it

I've been listening to Charles Eisenstein for a long time. I've read most of his books and feel pretty much the same way about this one as I do about all the others. Some of it is great and some is just really terrible. I honestly love about half of what he says. He really does get a lot of the things that everyone else is missing. Unfortunately, I can't stand the other half. And from my experience, it's the bad half that his readers seem to be most influenced by. I've been recommending Sacred E I've been listening to Charles Eisenstein for a long time. I've read most of his books and feel pretty much the same way about this one as I do about all the others. Some of it is great and some is just really terrible. I honestly love about half of what he says. He really does get a lot of the things that everyone else is missing. Unfortunately, I can't stand the other half. And from my experience, it's the bad half that his readers seem to be most influenced by. I've been recommending Sacred Economics to people for the last 5 or 6 years, considering a lot of the ideas in there to be really important. I thought that people had enough common sense to ignore the dumber things in there, especially since I tend to share it with caveats about which parts of it I consider useful and which parts I consider ridiculous. I also tend to recommend reading counter-arguments from people like Derrick Jensen before making any big decisions. From my experience though, people that do decide to read his stuff just come to think of themselves as spiritually enlightened and never bother looking into the alternative explanations. This is making it really difficult for me to keep recommending his books.

On the good side, his ideas on regenerative agriculture, ecosystem restoration, the benefits of indigenous cultures and transitioning the global economic system away from infinite growth are all great. These are really important concepts and he does do a good job explaining them. On the bad side, he gets really carried away with these naive New Age ideas about the divine "purpose" of human existence and the supposed teleology of technological development. All people are good at heart, the universe loves us all, climate change deniers have just as many reasons to believe the things they believe as we do, those in positions of power sincerely believe that they're all doing what's best for the world, etc.

I can understand the argument that the mainstream scientific establishment has given people a lot of reasons to distrust them. We were told that cannabis is dangerous and that opioids are just safe pharmaceutical medicines. They told us not to worry about nuclear power plants. "DDT is good for me-e-e", etc. Clearly we should be a little skeptical. But people that listen to Fox News and who voted for Donald Trump are just making honest mistakes? Really!? They couldn't possibly be any more blatant with their lies. They literally contradict themselves within the same sentence sometimes! At some point you have to admit that there are people out there who can't be reached with rational arguments. A lot of them, in fact. They won't be persuaded or guilted into changing their minds no matter what you say. A big theme of this book is that there are other things to argue about than whether or not carbon in the atmosphere is going to kill us, and that's fine. There are a lot of other things killing us that are harder to deny than long-term global warming. Is there any reason to expect the Right to be moved by these other arguments though? And is Eisenstein even a good candidate to try reaching these people? I mean, even Left wingers with hippie leanings can get annoyed with the way he words things. Frankly, I can't think of anyone worse for that job than Eisenstein. Therefore, every word of this book spent on that subject is kind of a waste of time in my opinion. And there is a lot of that in here.

All that said, I still do kind of like this book. I wish I could just recommend certain chapters of it but even the better chapters have a lot of stupid ideas mixed in with them, which makes every part of this kind of hard to take seriously. It's unfortunate that he can't seem to restrain himself from trying to cram in every cute little cleverly-worded idea he thinks of when he writes. If he just took the best ideas from all his books and put them together without the annoying stuff he really could make something pretty great. ...more

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May 12, 2019 Narayan Silva rated it it was amazing

This is a visionary work and very different from most of what I’ve been reading on climate change and sustainability in the last years.

Without trying to adjust to any mainstream view on how to deal with the incredibly complex issues we have created as a society, he invites us to totally change the questions we’ve been asking ourselves in order to get to the root of the problem.

While walking through the different views and nuances around our current state of unsustainability, we are invited to ...more

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May 28, 2020 Alissa rated it it was ok

My partner suggested that I stop reading this book because I was bitching about reading it. I feel like this treads very familiar ground for most social justice- and nonwestern thought-aware people, especially if they pay attention to non-white points of view: we are connected to the earth, the earth is full of complex interdependent systems. There, now you don't have to read this self-important New Age faux-academic book by a privileged spiritualist. Read Emergent Strategy: Shaping Change, Chan ...more

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Sep 22, 2019 Tammie rated it liked it

The climate crisis isn't new and there isn't a one-fits-all cure or a miraculous technological solution (if not there wouldn't be a crisis). But Eisenstein's holistic perspectives in this book serve as urgent reminders of why every facet of society has to work towards the same goal. A lot of drive has to start organically from ground up, and I'm appreciative of his views on the commercial aspects. ...more

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Jan 11, 2021 Sachi rated it really liked it

4.5/5
Eisenstein flips conventional climate change narrative on its head by proposing ecological conservation and regenerative practices instead of focusing all our energy on fossil fuels. He links the destruction of ecosystems to what we call climate change. Counting CO2 distracts us from the real problem; destruction of natural systems as we know them.
He is an advocate of ‘Interbeing’ a belief that earth is a living being and all animals, birds, plants in addition to water, soil, clouds, and a ...more

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Aug 30, 2019 C.J. Shane rated it it was amazing

Shelves: nature-environment, culture

Charles Eisenstein’s book Climate: A New Story is full of compassion and insight about human alienation from the natural world that has led to our current climate crisis. His is fundamentally a book of philosophy that challenges readers to reevaluate many widely-held cultural beliefs and assumptions that could very well end up killing us and everything on the planet. Philosophy books are not easy to read. Readers must be willing to read carefully and to do some serious self-reflection to fully u Charles Eisenstein’s book Climate: A New Story is full of compassion and insight about human alienation from the natural world that has led to our current climate crisis. His is fundamentally a book of philosophy that challenges readers to reevaluate many widely-held cultural beliefs and assumptions that could very well end up killing us and everything on the planet. Philosophy books are not easy to read. Readers must be willing to read carefully and to do some serious self-reflection to fully understand this book. Only then can we begin to make the changes that must be made.

At root, Eisenstein is asking us to recognize the different stories we tell ourselves and how these stories are not working. The Story of Separation from the natural world is leading to disaster. We focus on fear rather than on what we love. He takes to task the global warming narrative that is yet another us vs. them narrative. He makes a strong argument that fear won’t work in the end. Only love works. “We work to save what we love,” and that’s why protecting local ecosystems usually work much better than abstract larger-scale projects. He calls for a Story of Interbeing.

Everything is connected. It makes no sense to worry only about the death of kelp forests which suck up CO2 if we don’t also be concerned about the threats to sea otters which keep sea urchins under control which wipe out kelp forests. Instead of a love of nature and the recognition that all living things are connected, he says we focus on fear of our survival. He takes on at length our very dysfunctional economic system which measures quantity to the detriment of living things. He asks us instead to measure quality.

This is not a book of only what doesn’t work. Eisenstein has plenty of great examples of Interbeing, a recognition of how to live within and love the natural world and how to act on that. He points out the many ways in which the planet is suffering that has nothing to do with the climate crisis. Our overuse and misuse of plastics is one example. Another is our methods of agriculture which involve deforestation, monocropping, pesticide use, and a resulting insect holocaust. He gives us ways out of this human-caused disaster through regenerative agriculture methods.

“Human well-being and planetary health are inextricably connected.” That’s why we have to stop thinking of ourselves as separate from nature. “The world is a living being,” and we are a part of that living being. “The earth is still alive,” he tells us. “Now is the time to choose life. It’s not too late.”

...more

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Feb 01, 2019 Abilasha Bhohi rated it it was amazing

This book gives a really interesting and insightful perspective on how we should look and tackle climate change. Eisenstein has such an awe and a love for the earth and it’s ecology which is hugely inspiring for the reader. Despite the challenges we face with global warming it’s his optimism in providing and focussing on solutions which makes this book one worth reading!

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Oct 16, 2020 Cindy rated it it was amazing

Thought provoking and intriguing potential for a new future. Roots of the current story challenged against changing social agreements. What do we choose next?

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Sep 20, 2019 Camia Young rated it it was amazing

After reading 'The Uninhabitable Earth' I needed some way to see a way forward. 'Climate: A New Story' is the antidote to the overwhelming crisis we face. I appreciate it is not a silver bullet but a shift in our world view and consciousness. Charles Eisenstein taps into our innate intuition and draws out the essence of life as a way to heal our past and create a path where all life flourishes in an abundant matrix of inter related ecosystems. A must read if you are looking for answers and ways ...more

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Jun 17, 2020 Dimitris Hall rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: ebook-kindle, non-fiction, favorites, books-i-recommend

I first found out about Charles Eisenstein through his amazing essay The Coronation (audio version read by him here), where he looked at the coronavirus pandemic crisis as a crisis of humanity, its collectively pernicious relationship with death and its obsession with safety.

Then I listened to this discussion with Rebel Wisdom on roughly the same topic, and his appearance on the Rune Soup podcast where he presented his new book, Climate: A New Story.

What can I say? I'm positively stunned by this I first found out about Charles Eisenstein through his amazing essay The Coronation (audio version read by him here), where he looked at the coronavirus pandemic crisis as a crisis of humanity, its collectively pernicious relationship with death and its obsession with safety.

Then I listened to this discussion with Rebel Wisdom on roughly the same topic, and his appearance on the Rune Soup podcast where he presented his new book, Climate: A New Story.

What can I say? I'm positively stunned by this man. Very clear writing, solid arguments, a real plan, a holistic, systems-thinking worldview... and a love for nature I didn't think was possible outside people who usually cannot express themselves in writing as concisely as Mr. Eisenstein.

As far as I'm concerned, if you consider yourself an ecologist, you must give Climate: A New Story a read. It will rock your world and make your question how much of a true ecologist you really are. And I'm leaving this with you in as positive and empowering a way as possible.

I've gathered together many of my clippings from my Kindle read and added headlines. I hope they give you an idea of what to expect.

Why ecosystems and ecology are intrinsically interlinked:

The crucial role of living systems in maintaining climate stability presents us with good news and bad news. The good news is that our world can survive, that it can potentially adapt to higher levels of greenhouse gases.

The bad news is that the ecosystems that can do this are in steep decline all over the world. That means, given positive feedback loops that are already releasing large amounts of carbon and methane from nonhuman sources, climate instability will continue to worsen even if we cut fossil fuel use to zero, unless we also heal and protect the forests, mangroves, seagrass, and so on. [...]

To me the prospect of humanity persisting on a dead, denuded planet is more alarming than a future without humans.

On why renewables won't save us and definitely not the planet:

Conceivably, we could find another fuel source and maintain the addiction to a system of economics and production that consumes the world.

On love:

Love is the expansion of self to include another, whose well-being becomes part of one’s own.

On compassion to our adversaries:

Does this mean we might as well give up on change? No. It means we need to ask, What are the circumstances that give birth to the choices that are harming the world? Engaging other people, we have to ask the question that defines compassion: What is it like to be you? The more we understand, the more we live in reality and the less we inhabit a fantasy world populated by our projections.

On the futility of quantifying the world:

The totalizing quest to capture the world in number never succeeds. Something always escapes the metrics and the models: the unmeasurable, the qualitative, and what seems irrelevant. Usually, the judgment as to what is relevant encodes the intellectual biases of those doing the measuring, and often the economic and political biases too. You might say that what is left out is our shadow. Like many things we ignore or suppress, it roars back in the form of perverse, unforeseeable consequences. Thus, although it is the epitome of rationality to make decisions by the numbers, the results often appear to be insane.

Is data really objective?

Thus, what we observe to be happening in the world says as much about ourselves as it does about the world.

On fatalism:

What does it matter, when one party disengages because they think there is no problem, and the other disengages because they think there’s no solution? [...] Indeed fatalism is a mind-set that strengthens the trends that generate it by fostering compliance to those very trends. The compliance that fatalism effects is invisible to the fatalistic thinker, who does not regard him or herself as a conformist, but simply as a realist.

On scientific orthodoxy:

Dissidents complain about the difficulty they have obtaining research funding, getting published in journals, and getting their arguments taken seriously. Meanwhile, the defenders of orthodoxy cite the self-same lack of peer-reviewed journal publication as reason not to take unorthodox theories seriously. Their logic is basically: “These theories are not accepted; therefore they are not acceptable.” That is confirmation bias in a nutshell.

On why just measuring emissions is a really bad idea:

It isn’t only forests whose living complexity far exceeds our ability to measure, quantify, and reduce to data. What number should we give the climate contribution of sea otters? They don’t sequester carbon—but they keep down populations of sea urchins, which when unchecked destroy kelp forests that do absorb carbon and alkalize seawater, allowing shellfish to absorb even more carbon.

Wildlife in the current paradigm:

Lucky thing for the fish that they are saving us money. Lucky thing for the employees that they are more profitable healthy than sick. Lucky thing for the honeybees that they provide such economically valuable services. But too bad for anything or anyone whose value registers low on our meter. Do you know that feeling of enchantment on seeing a rare bird or on having a close encounter with an animal, seeing an eagle over the water, a whale spouting in the sea? Can you quantify how much poorer you would be without those beings? Come on, give me a number. Then we will know whether these are worth protecting.

Taking the sacredness of nature seriously:

If a forest is sacred to you, then how much would I have to pay you to cut it down? No amount would be enough, just as no amount of money would be enough to induce you to offer your mother or child for extermination.

On holistic medicine and verifiability:

The same point applies to holistic medicine. Because each body is unique, true holistic medicine is resistant to validation through controlling variables across standard diagnostic and therapeutic categories.

On aborigines in Australia exercising creative non-violence to protect their habitat, and winning:

As tensions were reaching their peak, Dan proposed an idea to a group of aborigines at the site. Everyone felt the foreboding that they were entering a losing battle, so why not try something else? Since they knew media helicopters were coming, why not make giant art installations visible from the air for them to film, instead of the usual script of police arresting activist hippies? The aborigines loved the idea, brought out their dreaming stories, and soon had sketched designs for two-hundred-foot giant rainbow serpents and other figures to be drawn on the ground with sacred ochre. They also planned to greet the police ceremonially, with giant fires making sacred eucalyptus smoke, and five hundred men painted in ceremonial colors with clapping sticks and didgeridoos. The next morning Dan got a phone call. The government had canceled the fracking license.

On why luck favors the bold:

Have you ever noticed in life that the most striking synchronicities seem to happen in times of uncertainty? When one moves to a new city without a plan, or travels without an itinerary, or does something out of the ordinary with no idea of what will happen, then quite often an amazing (sometimes life-changing) things happens.

[...] It is not enough to “send positive energy.” A sacrifice of some sort is required, something that involves risk or loss. It might be the sacrifice of time, energy, and money. It could be a sacrifice of certainty or control, an act that feels like a step into the true unknown. It could be a demonstration of commitment that feels real to you.

Pesticides in a nutshell, and why they need to be banned now:

We have basically conducted an eighty-year experiment to see what happens to the biosphere when we constantly dump poison into it. Life is resilient, so the effects were hard to notice at first, but they have gathered now to critical mass.

Ending on a hopeful note, on imagining what's possible, not what's realistic:

All of the policies and practices I have described are within reach right now. The vision of a Green World is not fantasy; nor, however, is it realistic. What it is, is possible. It requires each one of us to dedicate ourselves, unreasonably and with no guarantee of success, to our unique form of service. It requires that we trust our knowing that a healed world, a greened world, a more beautiful world is truly possible. I hope this book has amplified that calling and trued you to that possibility.

...more

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Jul 12, 2020 Todd Lejnieks rated it it was amazing

This book is a revolutionary deep dive into how we think about climate, the Earth and our role as humans. I was lucky to see Charles speak just as the book was being published and he blew my mind with his eloquent description of how the Earth is a living being, the rainforests, rivers, wetlands, oceans and more are all the glands, tissues and veins of a system that is alive, and yes, conscious. That we can perhaps tap into that consciousness and join as partners with our beautiful planet gives m ...more

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Feb 12, 2019 Anton Autushka rated it really liked it

It’s a fresh new look on the climate change. What is climate change after all? Is it all about CO2, the Arctic methane monster, solar panels, sustainable development and Tesla’s mission to save the world through more consumption? Not really, the author claims. It’s all about us, humans, destroying our habitat, our forests and lakes and wetlands, the whole web of life. The book itself feels quite repetitive and meandering, if you have read the other books by the author you pretty much know what h ...more

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Jan 20, 2020 Jaron rated it it was ok

I wanted to like this book, I really did. But it's a very worrying read. It's so bad in fact, it's hard to know where to start writing a review.

It's just so full of exagerrated strawman arguments, misrepresentations of science and the scientific method, vague language (eg "war thinking" and "money thinking"), and excessive use of capitalisation (eg Story of Interbeing, Story of the World, Age of War, Age of Separation, Other, the mind that is steeped in Separation etc). Why do new age writers f ...more

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Mar 18, 2019 Rachel Greenberger rated it it was amazing

Climate has taken me six months (and I consume books). Dense with interwoven ideas on densely interconnected subjects, it required many pauses.

Charles Eisenstein points to so many doors and windows that I have long sensed might be there but could never really see. In relation to planetary doom, instead, I've grown accustomed to tightness, listlessness, and doubt. All his pointing in these pages has let some fresh air in.

Changing stories - or even considering a new one - is no small task. It ta ...more

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Mar 19, 2019 Susan rated it liked it

Eisenstein advocates for less focus on co2 and more focus on the heart center of environmental activism - protecting local ecosystems. There is a strong argument in here about framing, that unfortunately occasionally gets undermined by his enthusiasm for trendy, anti-scientific tangents. :-/

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Sep 19, 2020 Curious George rated it really liked it

"Interbeing doesn’t go so far as to say, “We’re all one,” but it does release the rigid boundaries of the discrete, separate self to say that existence is relational. Who I am depends on who you are. The world is part of me, just as I am part of it. What happens to the world is in some way happening to me. The state of the cultural climate or political climate affects the condition of the geo-climate. When one thing changes, everything else must change too.”

Powerful ideas, communicated badly
This "Interbeing doesn’t go so far as to say, “We’re all one,” but it does release the rigid boundaries of the discrete, separate self to say that existence is relational. Who I am depends on who you are. The world is part of me, just as I am part of it. What happens to the world is in some way happening to me. The state of the cultural climate or political climate affects the condition of the geo-climate. When one thing changes, everything else must change too.”

Powerful ideas, communicated badly
This is an important book. Eisenstein argues the current debate on the climate crisis is myopic. Even if we were to stop burning fossil fuels tomorrow we are still exploiting nature in a way that will lead to our destruction. Eisenstein argues true healing requires us to realise our deep interdependence with the health of the planet and to start treating it as sacred: something that is important beyond its mere usefulness to human beings.

This approach contrasts with the current climate narrative. Its singular focus on CO2 emissions reduces living beings and planetary processes to numbers: if we can work out a way to keep destroying natural resources with little emissions we’ll do it. Treating our planet with more reverence means we become more grateful for nature's resources and therefore use them moderately - the bi-product of which is solving the climate crisis.

How do we get to a world where people feel a connection to a sacred planet? For one thing Eisenstein believes more people need to physically get into nature. He also believes that we need to move beyond the mentality of war in politics. He argues both rich and poor suffer from modernity’s disconnection and alienation. So, if we speak to these common un-met needs change will be more likely: “the story creates the system and we create the story”.

I really like these ideas and they will be vital to our transformation. However, while Eisenstein claims to speak to universal needs, he uses language that even me, a liberal tree-hugger, finds off-putting. This ranges from conspiracy theories (chemtrails) to a childish caricature of modernity. Take his example of the opportunities of ‘modernising' an Indian village: "When a house burns down, the community gets together to rebuild it—if we can unravel those ties of mutual aid, there’s a big market for insurance. Everyone is joyful and content—they could be buying a semblance of that through legal and illegal drugs and other forms of consumption."

Modernity of course has problems but it’s not as dystopian as Eisenstein paints. The idea that this sort of language could speak to those currently in power (business people and politicians) is laughable.

Despite Eisenstein’s protestations otherwise, this is a book written for the converted: spiritual types who care about the climate crisis.
And that’s no bad thing. I’ve learnt a lot from this book. But it will take us, the readers, to communicate these ideas in language that resonate with more people. ...more

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Jan 30, 2020 Sarah Flynn rated it really liked it

A shifter, this book is. That is, it will shift your understanding and perspective on climate change. And that’s saying a lot for me, I have been a climate activist for a while, have read and learned extensively about the issue, and have a background in both science and philosophy. My point being that I didn’t really expect to read anything at this point in e game that would dramatically change my fundamental understanding of the issue.
But this book did just that. And that’s what I loved about A shifter, this book is. That is, it will shift your understanding and perspective on climate change. And that’s saying a lot for me, I have been a climate activist for a while, have read and learned extensively about the issue, and have a background in both science and philosophy. My point being that I didn’t really expect to read anything at this point in e game that would dramatically change my fundamental understanding of the issue.
But this book did just that. And that’s what I loved about it. It is very powerful in giving us permission to step of the shaky ground of numbers (while I accept the science 100%, I also know that that is not why I am a climate activist; I am a climate activist because I love birds and otters and starfish and I want future generations to live with monarch butterflies just like I did). Almost all of us, including climate scientists, have trouble remaining grounded and effective in an argument of numbers surrounding some minute detail of the crisis; it’s just not how our minds and hearts work. Furthermore, it’s a rare person who will be impassioned to act based on a graph of methane or whatever. What motivates me, and what will change hearts and minds and wake people up, is the love of place that we all share, however disconnected we may be from it. And this is the genius of Eisenstein- he’s got his mainstream creds, Yale educated, etc, but he takes this stance of giving and taking for
himself permission to talk about climate change and ecological collapse from where it really operates on us: the place of heart and deep knowing. Yes, we still use the science to understand the mechanics and even to guide policy in many instances, but it’s no longer (in his eyes, and now mine) exclusively about carbon atoms. There is now an open, stated, adhered-to knowing that that alone will at best leave us in some kind of techno fix horror movie. Rather, it has to be about healing all of the earth and those who inhabit it. He provides lots of scientific connections to show how healthy seas and grasslands and prairies and forests do a bang up job with carbon sequestration and storage, in addition to cooling, making weather patterns less hostile, bringing rainfall, supporting life webs that in turn heal and strengthen earth and populations that dwell here. He also draws on indigenous, Buddhist, and other non-capitalist world views to support the ideas he’s presenting and to remind us that these inklings are not new, and that we all possess indigenaity to earth.
So why not five stars? Too hard. Sometimes even depressing or daunting. ...more

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Feb 13, 2019 Ganesh Ubuntu rated it it was amazing

There is a story of a drunk man who lost his keys in a middle of a night and decided to search under a street lamp because it was too dark in the place where he has actually dropped them. The main argument of 'Climate: A New Story' states that we are following the same pattern when we reduce the mind-boggling complexity of the environmental issues into a single metric - the concentration of CO2 in the atmosphere. In this book Charles argues that focusing on a single factor is not only reducing o There is a story of a drunk man who lost his keys in a middle of a night and decided to search under a street lamp because it was too dark in the place where he has actually dropped them. The main argument of 'Climate: A New Story' states that we are following the same pattern when we reduce the mind-boggling complexity of the environmental issues into a single metric - the concentration of CO2 in the atmosphere. In this book Charles argues that focusing on a single factor is not only reducing our capacity to respond to the issue in any meaningful way, it actually makes our responses counter-productive and leads to further and more complicated problems.

Giving many examples Charles dissects multiple sides of the climate change debate exposing intellectual and emotional shortcuts that keep us believing one of the sides more than another, with all of them being essentially inadequate in trying to explain what's going on, where we are heading, and what can be done about it. The author argues that not only the climate models are hopelessly simple to be adequate but that any model we can possibly come up with is going to omit more than enough detail to make the model useless at best.

And then Charles offers a way for each of us to palpate our way towards an approach that can meaningfully contribute to the repair of the damage done by us and to cultivate more life around us. It's not going to be one-size-fits-all approach, it's not something that can be figured out, and it's going to be more tangible than fighting a gas that cannot be seen, smelled, or tasted. In a nutshell it is about making the place where one lives more liveable and Charles does a good job showing how a multitude of little actions from each one of us can bring a response to the current calamities that is beyond our imagination.

As usual with Charles Eisenstein, it's difficult to give any justice to his work in one little review. He goes deep and he covers a lot of ground. His books are of the kind that are worth rereading every now and then and 'Climate' is not an exception. ...more

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Oct 27, 2018 Stephanie rated it liked it

This is a useful book for those just starting to understand climate change. Eisenstein does a good job of providing an overview of the systems issues that result in global warming: environmental degradation and mismanagement, and the role of modern capitalism in driving these changes. He wants to shift the focus of climate change discussions from the simplistic emphasis on reducing CO2 emissions, to a broader recognition of how modernity and notions of progress figure at the root of not just env ...more

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Jan 14, 2021 Gwen Harris rated it really liked it

Shelves: environment

Charles Eisenstein presents a powerful argument that the fundamental problem - climate, social justice, species extinction - is the prevailing reductionist view, the cost-benefit mindset, the standard narrative.

This paragraph is just one example of Eisentein's ground-shaking examination of the need for humans to change individualistic thought and perspective to a practice and outlook of "interbeing."

"Ecological deterioration is but one aspect of an initiation ordeal propelling civilization into ...more

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May 24, 2020 Christophe Jospe rated it liked it

Shelves: nori

As someone who works in the carbon credit market (and cares about fixing it), Eisenstein's critique of carbon credits and his description of the carbon reductionist mindset hits home. He uses examples in the book — like is a removing a mountaintop for coal extraction as something non-fungible with carbon credits — to point out the folly of reducing the world to simply a carbon lens. I agree and think that the complexities that emerge in climate solutions need to factor in the various levels impa ...more

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Oct 03, 2019 Lydia rated it really liked it

This is an extremely thought-provoking book, which radically challenges mainstream environmental narratives without dismissing the seriousness of the current ecological crisis - if anything Eisenstein takes it more seriously.

There were various parts of this book which I did not agree with, or on occasion, did not understand. However, I found Eisenstein's basic argument ultimately compelling. He suggests that we ought to focus as much on the protection and restoration of valuable ecosystems rath ...more

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Dec 24, 2020 Cameron rated it liked it

One of the saner takes on climate that I've read recently, and a good deconstruction of the prevailing carbon-obsessed narrative. I don't agree with all of his conclusions but many of his observations are difficult to argue with. The last few chapters read more like an ideal vision than anything plausible at scale in the near future, but I appreciate his encouragement to think in terms of local ecosystems.

Echoes of Wendell Berry throughout: observations on the loss of community, our modern lack ...more

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Oct 26, 2019 Joyce rated it it was amazing

Shelves: yoga-and-spiritual, biology-ecology-environmental

Charles Eisenstein expresses so many things that I have felt for so long.
My only thought is that there are many folks who have expressed similar philosophies before him - Joanna Macy, Thomas Barry, Wendell Berry, many Buddhists and so on. He is fabulous at pulling stats from scientists into his bibliography, but other than Thich Nhat Hahn, he doesn't reference any of the deep thinkers who have worked through much of this. But in the end though he struggles to articulate it in the beginning and ...more

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About Charles Eisenstein

Charles Eisenstein

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Charles Eisenstein is a teacher, speaker, and writer focusing on themes of civilization, consciousness, money, and human cultural evolution. His writings on the web magazine Reality Sandwich have generated a vast online following; he speaks frequently at conferences and other events, and gives numerous interviews on radio and podcasts. Writing in Ode magazine's "25 Intelligent Optimists" issue, Da ...more

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Quotes from Climate: A New Story

“The point here is not that emissions don't matter. It is a call for a shift in priorities. On the policy level, we need to shift toward protecting and healing ecosystems on every level, especially the local. On a cultural level, we need to reintegrate human life with the rest of life, and bring ecological principles to bear on social healing. On the level of strategy and thought, we need to shift the narrative toward life, love, place, and participation. Even if we abandoned the emissions narrative, if we do these things emissions will surely fall as well.” — 4 likes

“We never were separate from nature and never will be, but the dominant culture on earth has long imagined itself to be apart from nature and destined one day to transcend it. We have lived in a mythology of separation.” — 4 likes

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