Bright Green Lies

Almost every major centrist/progressive institution in the United States, from 350.org to Greenpeace to 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. We also provide our own solutions, and more importantly, a way of looking at these problems that centers the health of the planet.

There are no similar books on the market. Nearly all books about renewables promote the false story that they are good for the planet. The book that comes closest to the view promoted by this book would be Ozzie Zehner's Green Illusions: The Dirty Secrets of Clean Energy and the Future of Environmentalism 2012, University of Nebraska Press]. But the biocentrism--earth-centered philosophy--at the heart of Bright Green Lies, among other things, profoundly differentiates this book from Zehner's.

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.