After Progress: Reason and Religion at the End of the Industrial Age - Softcover

Greer, John Michael

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0865717915 ISBN 13: 9780865717916

Publisher: New Society Publishers, 2015

Synopsis

The acclaimed climate futurist examines our unquestioning faith in progress, and its limits in the face of peak oil and climate change.

Since the Industrial Age began, scientific and technological progress has been nothing short of miraculous. As a result, progress itself has become the new religion of the West. Our faith in it is so complete that many of us ignore the perils of peak oil and climate change, believing that our lab-coated high priests will surely bring forth yet another miracle to save us all.

Unfortunately, progress as we've known it has been entirely dependent on the breakneck exploitation of half a billion years of stored sunlight in the form of fossil fuels. As the age of this cheap, abundant energy draws to a close, progress is grinding to a halt. Unforgiving planetary limits are teaching us that our blind faith in endless exponential growth is a dangerous myth.

After Progress addresses this looming paradigm shift, exploring the shape of history from a perspective on the far side of the coming crisis. With a startling examination of the role our belief systems play in our collective fate, John Michael Greer makes a persuasive argument for seeking new sources of meaning, value, and hope for the era ahead.

About this title

About the Author

John Michael Greer is a scholar of ecological history and an internationally renowned futurist whose blog, The Archdruid Report, has become one of the most widely cited online resources dealing with the fate of industrial society. He is the author of more than 30 books including Green Wizardry and The Long Descent. As well as being a certified Master Conserver and devoted organic gardener, Greer continues to practice a myriad of skills culled from the appropriate tech movement.

From the Back Cover

Progress is the God of the modern world. What happens once God is dead?

Our society's worship of the idea of progress constitutes a formidable roadblock to successful adaptation to what our climate-changed, resource-depleted future has in store. John Michael Greer doesn't just identify that roadblock—he dynamites and bulldozes it, using his characteristically sharp wit and expansive knowledge of cultural history. — Richard Heinberg, author, The End of Growth

... an excellent introduction to Greer's insightful big-picture thinking grounded in an all-too-rare knowledge of history, ecology, and economics. — Rev. Michael Dowd, author, Thank God for Evolution

Progress is not just a goal in the West—it's a religion. Our faith in progress drives the popular insistence that peak oil and climate change don't actually matter—after all, our lab-coated high priests will surely bring forth yet another miracle to save us all. Unfortunately, progress as we've known it has been entirely dependent on the breakneck exploitation of half a billion years of stored sunlight in the form of fossil fuels. As the age of this cheap, abundant energy draws to a close, our blind faith in exponential economic growth is coming up hard against unforgiving planetary limits.

After Progress addresses this looming paradigm shift, exploring the shape of history from a perspective on the far side of the coming crisis. Required reading for anyone concerned about making sense of the future at a time when we must seek new sources of meaning, value and hope for the era ahead.

...a thought-provoking book [that] provides a cautionary tale about human illusions of domination over nature and scientific rescue from our excessive consumption of natural resources that we ignore at our peril.
— Paul Kivel, author, Living in the Shadow of the Cross

John Michael Greer is a scholar of ecological history and an internationally renowned futurist whose blog, The Archdruid Report, has become one of the most widely cited online resources dealing with the fate of industrial society. He is the author of over 30 books, including Green Wizardry and The Long Descent .

Edition details

• Publisher: New Society Publishers
• Publication date: 2015
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0865717915
• ISBN 13: 9780865717916
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 272