What It Will Take.
Rejecting Dead-ends and False Friends in the Fight for the Earth
Book by Carol Dansereau, published in 2016. Available via amazon.com
Why are we losing our fight for the Earth? What do we need to do to turn things around?
As we hurtle towards the point of no return on multiple ecological fronts, these are the crucial questions we need to be asking ourselves. What It Will Take provides answers. Author Carol Dansereau weaves hard-hitting research and insightful analysis with tales from her three decades as an environmental organizer, attorney, and non-profit director. The result is the clarity we need at this do-or-die point in human history.
What It Will Take is sweeping in scope because it has to be. We need to look at the big picture to find our way forward. We must acknowledge that incremental victories are not adding up to real progress despite claims to the contrary. We must understand the full breadth of the forces we’re up against in order to defeat them. (It is folly to focus on problems like “money in politics” while leaving the system that produces these problems intact.) And we must recognize the important ways in which many of the environmental groups we support are holding us back.
It is sobering to face the facts about what’s going on around us but ultimately it is uplifting, too. What It Will Take is a book of hope. It reveals a remarkably obvious path forward and spotlights the power we have always had to take it. There are solutions for every environmental problem and enough resources to meet the needs of every person on Earth. When we leave dead-ends and false friends behind, we will at last create the just and sustainable world we want for ourselves and our children.
Who Should Read This Book?
Long-time environmental and social justice activists who want to understand how we’re doing, why, and what to do next.
Young people eager to jump into the fray, including those who believe one can make a career out of saving the Earth and winning justice.
People who teach environmental studies, political science and other courses taken by students eager to make things better.
Parents, grandparents and anyone who cares about our children and grandchildren, and wants the human species to survive.
Praise For What It Will Take
"Carol Dansereau has written a book that absolutely should be on your must-read-list, if you care anything about others, the planet and tomorrow. It is an exhilarating and challenging read, one that demonstrates a deep respect for the reader -- who is called on to be very thoughtful and critical in looking at "planet-saving" exploits and passions. Seriously engaging with this book will make you stronger -- as a thinker, critic and committed activist. Carol refuses to accept the empty self-congratulations that environmentalists too often seem to deliver -- whether out of desperation or narrow expectations. The book is thick with stories and lessons, grounded in the experience of Carol and many others; you learn how corporate architects of policy, message and administration have stood in the way of meaningful and enduring protection of our collective ecology. Carol's long struggle -- in collaboration with others -- to reshape our political life around environmental and social justice calls on all of us to think critically and act courageously about the work that lies ahead.”
Lin Nelson, Ph.D., teacher, Evergreen State College, Olympia WA
"In this ambitious book, Carol Dansereau presents a powerful analysis of the eco-social crisis confronting the U.S. and other countries. Based on her thirty plus years of experience as an environmental organizer and attorney, she provides a thoughtful report card on our current predicament and an excellent analysis of the political and economic forces that oppose environmental protection. She goes on to criticize the environmental movement for its self-defeating behaviors and to propose a new path forwards, including an agenda for economic democracy. Dansereau is a big picture thinker in the very best sense of the phrase. Skillfully weaving together people, politics and power, this book will inform and educate students and activists alike. A 'must read' for anyone for anyone who wants to understand how corporations and others are destroying the earth and wants to do something about it."
Kate Davies, D.Phil., M.A., author of The Rise of the U.S. Environmental Health Movement (2013), selected as one of the top ten books on sustainability published that year.
"Carol Dansereau’s What It Will Take argues powerfully for understanding our ecological crisis as systemic, a problem rooted in our basic social structure and especially its capitalist economic system. The book combines economic theory, history, and many lessons learned in her decades of activism in legal, environmental, and broader social activism. Well drawn and documented examples from past and present illustrate and strengthen her arguments. The book is at once critical yet also hopeful that an environmental movement, if systemically refocused, can still save the earth."
Professor Richard D. Wolff, New School University, New York, NY
To successfully address the root causes of the ecological crisis, the environmental movement must confront the growing power of the polluter-industrial complex and anti-ecological dynamics of American capitalism. In this powerfully insightful and highly accessible book, Carol Dansereau exposes many of the challenges and opportunities confronting activists in their efforts to build a more transformative environmental politics in the United States. In so doing, she provides a critically important road map for moving toward a more just and sustainable post-capitalist society. An important read for all those concerned with environmental justice, labor rights, economic democracy, human health, and the protection of nature.
Dr. Daniel Faber, Director, Northeastern Environmental Justice Research Collaborative, Northeastern University
“For decades, Carol Dansereau fought the good fight as a respected attorney and organizer for a number of important environmental organizations. Her experiences taught her that, under the current political and economic system, the whole process is effectively rigged against those concerned about the fate of the environment. In What Will it Take, she is now able to share her story, provide a compelling analysis of the forces which make reform efforts so difficult, and offer a radical vision of what is ultimately needed to save the planet.”
Stephen Zunes, Professor of Politics, University of San Francisco