Trenchant exposé of the myths of “green capitalism”

Faced with the unprecendented threat of climate change, the contemporary world has turned to a solution that is all too prosaic—consumerism. The answer, we are told, is to “go green,” to buy organic food or even a new “clean” car. In a follow-up to her bestselling and acclaimed book Gone Tomorrow: The Hidden Life of Garbage, Heather Rogers travels from Paraguay to Indonesia, via the Hudson Valley, Detroit and London, to explore the rapid expansion of environmental production and consumption.

We are, Rogers argues, coming to rely on consumerism as the solution to the very problems it has helped to cause. Green Gone Wrong is an appeal to the reader to respond rationally to the current environmental crisis. It asks: What choices and structural forces led us to this perilous place? This book is founded on the belief that we have the capacity to find solutions that are not mere palliatives, but ways of engaging with how we live and what kind of world we want to live in.

Praise for Green Gone Wrong:

“Carefully researched, deeply human, and eminently sensible investigation.” — Naomi Klein

“Heather Rogers offers a compelling commentary on the state of our contemporary civilization.” — David Harvey

“A book of hope because it tells us what is necessary – not what we want to hear.” — Neal Lawson

Heather Rogers is a journalist and filmmaker. Her documentary film Gone Tomorrow (2002) screened at festivals around the globe. Her writing has appeared in The Nation, Utne Reader, Z Magazine, the Brooklyn Rail, Punk Planet, and Art and Design. She lives in Brooklyn, New York.