Grassroots Environmental Action

Managing resources sustainably on the local level is essential for achieving the global goal of sustainable development. The importance of people's participation for sustainable development has recently become increasingly acknowledged yet there is little understanding of the multiple dimensions that such participation involves. Grassroots Environmental Action questions the viability of traditional management systems. Case studies from Latin America, Asia and Africa focus on areas where local people are vigorous actors in the determination of their own future and that of their environment.

Grassroots Rising is a passionate call to action for the global body politic, providing practical solutions for how to survive--and thrive--in catastrophic times. Author Ronnie Cummins aims to educate and inspire citizens worldwide to organize and become active participants in preventing ecological collapse. This book offers a blueprint for building and supercharging a grassroots Regeneration Movement based on consumer activism, farmer innovation, political change, and regenerative finance--embodied most recently by the proposed Green New Deal in the US. Cummins asserts that the solution lies right beneath our feet and at the end of our forks through the transformation of our broken food system. Using regenerative agriculture practices that restore our agricultural and grazing lands, we can sequester massive amounts of carbon in the soil. Coupled with an aggressive transition toward renewables, he argues that we have the power to not only mitigate and slow down climate change, but actually reverse global warming. In synergy with the Sunrise Movement and the growing support of a Green New Deal, Grassroots Rising will impact millions of conscious consumers, farmers, and the general public during the crucial 2020 election year and beyond. This book shows that a properly organized and executed Regeneration Revolution can indeed offer realistic climate solutions while also meeting our everyday needs. If you're wondering what you can do to help address the global climate crisis, joining the Regeneration Revolution might be the best first step. " Grassroots Rising] is a 'good news' instructional book for Regeneration, a practical, shovel-ready plan of action for the United States and the world to transition to climate stability, peace, justice, health, prosperity, cooperation, and participatory democracy." --Ronnie Cummins

There are many forces of environmental and economic decline that endanger our communities and planet. These have caused a global threat which is very complex. The pressure to feed increasing numbers of people helps cause high rates of topsoil loss which results in decreased agricultural productivity. As poorer nations attempt to fight these problems, millions of their children die of preventable diseases. On the other hand, rising industrialization has caused acid rain and air pollution, leading to the death of lakes, forests and streams, and endangering human health. Individual efforts to combat these enormous threats appear miniscule but, when added together, their impact has the ability to revolutionize the earth. Grassroots groups, governments, and international agencies must learn to work together to show the world how to tap human energy to perform the acts for achieving and sustaining global economy. This publication contains an introduction and notes section, along with the following topics: (1) "Rising Grassroots Movements"; (2) "The Genesis of Local Action"; (3) "Meeting Human Needs"; (4) "Earning Our Daily Bread"; (5) "Protecting the Local Environment"; (6) "Reforming Development Assistance"; and (7) "From the Bottom and the Top." (RT)

For over twenty years, Patagonia has organized a Tools Conference, where experts provide practical training to help make activists more effective. Now Patagonia has captured Tools’ best wisdom and advice into a book, creating a resource for any organization hoping to hone core skills like campaign and communication strategy, grassroots organizing, and lobbying as well as working with business, fundraising in uncertain times and using new technologies. Patagonia hopes the book will be dog-eared and scribbled in; a solid, inspiring guide and reliable companion. The book is organized in two sections: Strategies, and Tools. Each chapter, written by a respected expert in the field, covers essential principals as well as best practices. A hands-on case study accompanies each chapter and demonstrates the principles in action. Sprinkled throughout are inspirational thoughts from acclaimed activists, such as Jane Goodall, Bill McKibben, Wade Davis, Annie Leonard, and Terry Tempest Williams. An activist's companion in the environmental movement.

Grassroots movements can pose serious challenges to both governments and corporations. However, grassroots actors possess a variety of motivations, and their visions of development may evolve in complex ways. Meanwhile, their relative powerlessness obliges them to forge an array of shifting alliances and to devise a range of adaptive strategies. Grassroots Environmental Governance presents a compilation of in-depth ethnographic case studies, based on original research. Each of the chapters focuses specifically on grassroots engagements with the agents of various forms of industrial development. The book is geographically diverse, including analyses of groups based in both the global North and South, and represents a range of disciplinary perspectives. This allows the collection to explore themes that cross-cut specific localities and disciplinary boundaries, and thus to generate important theoretical insights into the complexities of grassroots engagements with industry. This volume will be of great interest to scholars of environmental activism, environmental governance, and environmental studies in general.

An inside look at how grassroots groups organize and develop strategies over seven years of participant observation in multiple organizations.

Foreword by Maurice Strong, Under-Secretary General of the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development Tackles one of the major debates in development - `bottom-up' development versus external aid UNRISD (United Nations Research Institute for Social Development) is highly prestigious organisation Contains comprehensive case studies from across the developing world Hb has sold 975 copies since publication in August 1992