Derrick Jensen

In an age marked by seemingly unstoppable environmental collapse and the urgent quest for solutions, environmental philosopher Derrick Jensen, the voice of the growing deep ecology movement, reveals for us new seeds of hope. Here for the first time in The Derrick Jensen Reader are collected generous selections from his prescient, unflinching books on the problem of civilization and the path to true resistance. In the acclaimed A Language Older Than Words, Jensen dissects his own abusive childhood to examine the pathology of Western culture and shares with us the power and beauty of an alliance with the natural world. He continues to use the lens of his own experience as well as the wisdom of philosophers, activists, and teachers to expose oppression and call us to action in his other early works, Listening to the Land, A Culture of Make Believe, Strangely Like War, and Walking on Water. We see his analysis deepen when he asks us to accept that the only moral response to biocide is resistance in the two-volume Endgame, a truth he explores further in Thought to Exist in the Wild, What We Leave Behind, the graphic novel As The World Burns, and in his two novels, Songs of the Dead and Lives Less Valuable. And in Dreams, Jensen's latest work, he leads us still further toward his vision for a healed planet, freeing us to see beyond the limits of our present culture to a future luminous with meaning.

"Marijuana: A Love Story is many things: a unique book about a unique plant, a clear analysis of what has gone wrong with legalization and how to fix it, a wild look at the quirky culture that has grown up around it, and a love song not only to this plant but to all of evolution." -Lierre Keith, author of The Vegetarian Myth and Bright Green LiesMarijuana legalization-that long-deferred dream of stoners everywhere-is overtaking the nation. No longer will people be imprisoned for decades for possession of a plant. No longer will patients be denied marijuana needed for medical treatment. Even folks who just want to get high will have easy, safe access.But for many that dream has become a nightmare. Legalization has achieved one thing: the wholesale handover of marijuana to a few large corporations. In state after state, the wealth-building capacity of this extraordinary plant is now concentrating into the control of the already rich. From seed to smoke, legalization is eroding the lives and livelihoods of the people it was supposed to help: the patients, growers, trimmers, "mules," and activists who created the colorful and committed culture that is now under threat.We can end the war on weed without turning it into a war on small family growers-but it will depend on how much pressure we are willing to apply to force law makers to serve local communities rather than corporate interests. Marijuana: A Love Story is a report from the front, a reminder of how and why we fell in love with this plant, a cautionary tale of corporate power, and a call to once more "Free the Sacred Herb."

Almost every major centrist/progressive institution in the United States, from 350.org to Greenpeace, from Democracy Now to the Democratic Party, seems committed to powering the industrial economy with 'renewable' energy. And we hear all the time that 'solar power will save the planet.' But a) will 'renewables' actually power the economy? and b) are 'renewables' good for the planet? The answer in both cases is no. In fact, the answer is worse than no, in that because of these bright green lies much of the environmental movement has been transformed from being about saving wild places and wild nature into being about powering the industrial economy. These bright green lies have turned much of the environmental movement into a lobbying arm for a sector of the industrial economy, such that you can have 100,000 people marching on the streets of Washington, D.C., and if you ask them why they're marching, they'll say, 'To save the planet," but if you ask them for their demands, they'll say, "Subsidies for the solar industry." There has never been another social movement so completely coopted. Bright Green Lies systematically debunks many of the lies and distortions that characterize the discourse of those who argue that 'technology will stop global warming' or that 'technology will save the planet.' The book has a chapter devoted to debunking claims that each of following will individually or collectively power this culture sustainably; or help the planet: solar power, wind power, recycling, 'efficiency, ' batteries and other forms of energy storage, changes in the electrical grid, and hydropower. The authors also provide their own solutions, and more importantly, a way of looking at these problems that centers on the health of the planet. This book has taken six years to research and write. And no one is more qualified to write this book. The book's co-authors share between them seventy years of front-line grassroots environmental activism. In addition, Derrick Jensen is the author of twenty-five books, including the acclaimed A Language Older Than Words and Endgame. Lierre Keith is the author of The Vegetarian Myth, Deep Green Resistance, and others. Max Wilbert has been researching and writing about the environmental harms caused by solar, wind, and other 'renewables' for nearly a decade.

In this impassioned polemic, radical environmental philosopher Derrick Jensen debunks the near-universal belief in a hierarchy of nature and the superiority of humans. Vast and underappreciated complexities of nonhuman life are explored in detail--from the cultures of pigs and prairie dogs, to the creative use of tools by elephants and fish, to the acumen of caterpillars and fungi. The paralysis of the scientific establishment on moral and ethical issues is confronted and a radical new framework for assessing the intelligence and sentience of nonhuman life is put forth. Jensen attacks mainstream environmental journalism, which too often limits discussions to how ecological changes affect humans or the economy--with little or no regard for nonhuman life. With his signature compassionate logic, he argues that when we separate ourselves from the rest of nature, we in fact orient ourselves against nature, taking an unjust and, in the long run, impossible position. Jensen expresses profound disdain for the human industrial complex and its ecological excesses, contending that it is based on the systematic exploitation of the earth. Page by page, Jensen, who has been called the philosopher-poet of the environmental movement, demonstrates his deep appreciation of the natural world in all its intimacy, and sounds an urgent call for its liberation from human domination.

For years, Derrick Jensen has asked his audiences, "Do you think this culture will undergo a voluntary transformation to a sane and sustainable way of life?" No one ever says yes.Deep Green Resistance starts where the environmental movement leaves off: industrial civilization is incompatible with life. Technology can't fix it, and shopping no matter how green won t stop it. To save this planet, we need a serious resistance movement that can bring down the industrial economy. Deep Green Resistance evaluates strategic options for resistance, from nonviolence to guerrilla warfare, and the conditions required for those options to be successful. It provides an exploration of organizational structures, recruitment, security, and target selection for both aboveground and underground action. Deep Green Resistance also discusses a culture of resistance and the crucial support role that it can play.Deep Green Resistance is a plan of action for anyone determined to fight for this planet and win."

A scathing indictment of US domestic and foreign policy, this collection of interviews gathers incendiary insights from 10 of today's most experienced and knowledgeable activists. Whether it's Ramsey Clark describing the long history of military invasion, Alfred McCoy detailing the relationship between CIA activities and the increase in the global heroin trade, Stephen Schwartz reporting the obscene costs of nuclear armaments, or Katharine Albrecht tracing the horrors of the modern surveillance state, this investigation informs and incites.

A non-stop thriller which deftly blends the paranormal, sci-fi and an engaging political voice. A serial killer stalks the streets of Spokane, acting out a misogynist script. Across town, a writer named Derrick has spent his life tracking the reasons, be they political, psychological or spiritual, for the sadism of the modern world. And through the grim nights, Nika, a trafficked woman, tries to survive the grinding violence of prostitution. Their lives, and the forces propelling them, are about to collide.

An engaging collection of interviews in which Derrick Jensen, the renowned poet, philosopher and ecological activist, discusses the destructive nature of the dominant cultural norms, with 10 people who have devoted their work and lives to undermining it. Whether it is Carolyn Raffensperger and her radical approach to public health, or Thomas Berry on perceiving the sacred or Vine Deloria asserting that dreams convey more about the world than science ever can, these thinkers bravely present the many ways resistance can take place.

"This compelling book has a refreshing style, at once very personal and very passionate."--"Library Journal" "Jensen and McBay's message that we need to grow up and 'put away the childish notion that we have the right to take whatever we want from nonhumans' is eminently reasonable."--"Publishers Weekly""Derrick Jensen is a rare and original voice of sanity in a chaotic world. He has wisdom and wit, grace and style, and is a wonderful guide to a good life beautifully lived."--Howard Zinn"This is a fierce book...Its basic premise--that we're in worse trouble than we understand, and that a little change around the edges won't help--is precisely the message that needs to get out."--Bill McKibben, author of "Deep Economy: The Wealth of Communities and the Durable Future" and "The End of Nature"""What We Leave Behind" is the kind of direct, unflinching, personal writing that you'd expect from a memoir about a harrowing childhood, not one about the state of the planet, or what happens to waste...This is a book about choosing sides--our destructive, compartmentalized culture of the future of planet Earth."--"E Magazine" "The text moves frequently from personal narrative to hard, scientific fact to disturbing news accounts about the ongoing, wanton destruction of our planet by corporate interests..."What We Leave Behind" is not light reading. But a reader willing to stay on this circuitous journey to the end will be rewarded."--"Foreword Magazine""What We Leave Behind" is a piercing, impassioned guide to living a truly responsible life on earth. Human waste, once considered a gift to the soil, has become toxic material that has broken the essential cycle of decay and regeneration. Here, award-winning writer Derrick Jensen and activist Aric McBay weave historical analysis and devastatingly beautiful prose to remind us that life--human and nonhuman--will not go on unless we do everything we can to facilitate the most basic process on earth, the root of sustainability: one being's waste must always become another being's food.Activist, philosopher, teacher, and leading voice of uncompromising dissent, Derrick Jensen holds degrees in creative writing and mineral engineering physics. His books include "Endgame, "volumes 1 and 2; "As the World Burns," with Stephanie McMillan; "A Language Older Than Words"; and "The Culture of Make Believe."Aric McBay is a writer, activist, and small-scale organic farmer who works to share information about community sufficiency and off-the-grid skills. He is the author of "Peak Oil Survival: Preparation for Life after Gridcrash" and creator of "In the Wake: A Collective Manual-in-progress for Outliving Civilization" (www.inthewake.org).

Two of America's most talented activists team up to deliver a bold and hilarious satire of modern environmental policy in this fully illustrated graphic novel. The U.S. government gives robot machines from space permission to eat the earth in exchange for bricks of gold. A one-eyed bunny rescues his friends from a corporate animal-testing laboratory. And two little girls figure out the secret to saving the world from both of its enemies (and it isn't by using energy-efficient light bulbs or biodiesel fuel). As the World Burns will inspire you to do whatever it takes to stop ecocide before it's too late.

"Derrick Jensen is a rare and original voice of sanity in a chaotic world. He has wisdom and wit, grace and style, and is a wonderful guide to a good life beautifully lived."--Howard ZinnThe companion piece to Derrick Jensen's immensely popular and highly acclaimed works "A Language Older Than Words" and "The Culture of Make Believe," "Endgame" stands to become Jensen's most influential book. Building on a series of simple but increasingly provocative premises, Jensen leaves us hoping for what may be inevitable: a return to agrarian communal life via the disintegration of civilization itself.

At once a beautifully poetic memoir and an exploration of the various ways we live in the world, A Language Older Than Words explains violence as a pathology that touches every aspect of our lives and indeed affects all aspects of life on Earth. This chronicle of a young man's drive to transcend domestic abuse offers a challenging look at our worldwide sense of community and how we can make things better.