Description
Book SynopsisFive compelling essays and fifty stunning portraits and profiles of American environmental activists
This second volume in the Americans Who Tell the Truth series features Robert Shetterly's magnificent color portraits and profiles of fifty environmental and climate activists—people who diagnose the truth of the greatest crisis humanity has ever confronted and take action. The book also features original essays by revered environmentalists Bill McKibben, Leah Penniman, Diane Wilson, Bill Bigelow, and Robin Wall Kimmerer, whose words illuminate the plight and its causes, and point a way forward.
Along with the genocide of Indigenous peoples and the institution of slavery, the third tragic and persistent mistake of the leaders of this country was to attempt to separate economic and political culture from the laws of nature—to operate on the basis that nature could be exploited endlessly for profit. The damage done to the Earth and to the future of life on the planet is incalculable. The people portrayed here have bought warnings, offered solutions, and organized movements to restore ecological sanity.
Trade Review"
Americans Who Tell the Truth offers much-needed rays of hope in times made dark by the
climate crisis and deep inequality. It provides uplifting portraits, both verbal and pictorial, of
courageous activists who have devoted their lives to the fight for climate justice.
" -- —David M. Driesen, University Professor, Syracuse University College of Law; author, The Specter of Dictatorship
"
Portraits of Earth Justice illuminates the humanity of forward-thinking advocates taking critical
bold actions on the challenge of our lifetime: the climate crisis. At a time when democracy and
the very life support systems of humanity are threatened, let these beautiful faces and works
inspire you to keep rising up, or rise up for the first time, to preserve our rights and this beautiful
and sustaining planet for all of our children and future generations.
" -- Julia Olson, Executive Director and Chief Legal Counsel, Our Children’s Trust
"
Through Robert Shetterly'ss masterful portraits of brilliant women and men activists in the work
of doing justice to the soil and the plants and animals we need to nurture, and through their
passionate essays imploring us to cherish instead of despoil the only Earth we have, this book
empowers us. Like the words of Sandra Steingraber inscribed in her portrait, 'We are all
musicians in a great human orchestra, and it is now time to play the Save the World
Symphony.'
" -- Peter Davis, Academy Award winning filmmaker, author of Girl of My Dreams
"
It is rare that you come across a book as stunningly impactful as Portraits of Earth Justice. The
essays by this diverse cast of environmental protagonists are riveting and Rob Shetterly’s
portraits of people who love and care for the earth are piercing in their beauty and depth of
character. I can’t think of a better way to move people, particularly young people, from despair
about the climate crisis to empowerment and inspiration than sharing this gift to Mother Earth
that Rob Shetterly has created.
" -- Medea Benjamin, author and cofounder of CODEPINK: Women for Peace
