"The Sustainability Class" book talk and author Q&A

​Join Woodbine's Sunday Research Group on January 26th at 4:30 pm for a discussion with authors Aaron Vansintjan and Vijay Kolinjivadi about their provocative new book, “The Sustainability Class: How to Take Back Our Future from Lifestyle Environmentalists”.

​https://thenewpress.com/books/sustainability-class

Citing numerous examples with biting humor, Vansintjan and Kolinjivadi show how popular, investor-friendly “green” solutions – from carbon offsets and self-branded “eco-cities” to tote bags and luxury smoothies – have co-opted genuine concerns over climate change and ecological destruction to sell a cost-shifting, unsustainable culture of “lifestyle environmentalism” for largely well-to-do, “progressive” urbanites. The authors argue that this resource-heavy facade not only excludes billions of people, but only accelerates ecological collapse by refusing to address issues rooted in extractivist capitalism in favor of “vibes”-based status-quo maintenance.

Drawing from the lessons of neighborhood groups like Cooperation Jackson in Mississippi and LA's Union de Vecinos, as well as more radical visions from the Atlanta Forest Defenders and Rojava in Northeastern Syria, the authors conclude that true environmental justice, sustainability, and society-wide green living is impossible without cross-class solidarity and challenging power. Copies of the book will be available for purchase.

Readings by Kolinjivadi and Vansintjan:
--“Nothing can be ‘green’ or ‘eco-friendly’ until the ecological debt is paid” - Third World Network Berhad: https://www.twn.my/title2/resurgence/2024/361/eco1.htm
--"The Trouble With the Ultra-Rich's Environmentalism" - TIME: https://time.com/7200268/ultrarich-environmentalism-greenwashing/
--"The Rise of the Sustainability Class” – Newsweek: https://www.newsweek.com/rise-sustainability-class-opinion-1991450
--"Green Gaslighting" – The Ecologist: https://theecologist.org/2024/dec/10/green-gaslighting