The Path to a Livable Future: A New Politics to Fight Climate Change, Racism, and the Next Pandemic (Open Media Series)

An urgent call for the political transformation needed to address the common causes of climate change, COVID-19, and racism. "An iconoclast of the best kind, Stan Cox has an all-too-rare commitment to following arguments wherever they lead, however politically dangerous that turns out to be."-Naomi Klein 2020 was a year defined by crisis. For decades, scientists have been sounding the alarm about the urgency of addressing climate change, but it took COVID-19 to demonstrate clearly that the future of human life on Earth is interconnected and at risk. While the virus quickly spread across the globe, extreme weather events compounded the suffering and economic catastrophe. In the U.S., public demonstrations of outrage over the murder of George Floyd expanded to include a growing awareness of the pandemic's disproportionate impact on communities of color. In cities around the world, people took to the streets to protest racial inequity in all of its forms. In The Path to a Livable Future, Stan Cox makes plain the connections between the multiple crises facing us today, and provides an inspired vision for how to resolve them. With a deeply informed, clear to-do list, Cox shows us how we can work together to address the climate emergency, white supremacy, and our vulnerability to future pandemics all at once. Our future depends on it. "In The Path to a Livable Future, Stan Cox shows us that the calamitous problems faced by all humanity, from pandemic to environmental devastation and settler colonialism, have a common root: the Western doctrine of looting and exploitation. Cox lays out a refreshingly grounded roadmap for the survival of all life on earth, based on up-to-date science, and anchored in the racial justice imperative. Global civilization is on a disastrous trajectory that can only be averted through holistic and bold pivots. The Path charts the way forward and gives us a reason to cling to hope."-Leah Penniman, co-founder of Soul Fire Farm, author of Farming While Black: Soul Fire Farm's Practical Guide to Liberation on the Land "Above all, he shows that a healthy, just, sustainable future is possible if we reduce our ecological footprint and share the earth's gifts equitably. For this we need to organize, resist, imagine, and forge another path together."-Vandana Shiva, author of Who Really Feeds the World?: The Failures of Agribusiness and the Promise of Agroecology "Stan Cox cuts through the fog of mediocrity and offers a clear, honest vision for how social movements can win a truly just and sustainable society. There are few books I would recommend as wholeheartedly as this one. Don't miss it."-Jason Hickel, author of Less is More: How Degrowth Will Save the World "As Cox shows in this devastating but clear-eyed assessment, the multiple existential crises of our modern world-from climate change to pandemics-are interrelated and can be traced back to centuries of colonial domination of land and people."-Dina Gilio-Whitaker, author of As Long As Grass Grows: The Indigenous Fight for Environmental Justice from Colonization to Standing Rock "Stan Cox stands in a class of his own. . . . The Path to a Livable Future is a testament to the fact that meaningful responses to the multifarious crises we face are unlikely to come-first and foremost-from traditional urban liberal strongholds."-Felix Marquardt, author of The New Nomads: How the Migration Revolution is Transforming our Lives for the Better The hidden history of a vulnerable gay man whose life and death were turned into tabloid fodder. In the early 1990s, eight people living in a small conservative Florida town alleged that Dr. David Acer, their dentist, infected them with HIV. David's gayness, along with his sickly appearance from his own AIDS-related illness, made him the perfect scapegoat and victim of mob mentality. In these early years of the AIDS epidemic, when transmission was little understood, and homophobia rampant, people like David were villainized. Accuser Kimberly Bergalis landed a People magazine cover story, while others went on talk shows and made front page news. With a poet's eulogistic and psychological intensity, Steven Reigns recovers the life and death of this man who also stands in for so many lives destroyed not only by HIV, but a diseased society that used stigma against the most vulnerable. It's impossible not to make connections between this story and how the twenty-first century pandemic has also been defined by medical misinformation and cultural bias. Inspired by years of investigative research into the lives of David and those who denounced him, Reigns has stitched together a hauntingly poetic narrative that retraces an American history, questioning the fervor of his accusers, and recuperating a gay life previously shrouded in secrecy and shame. "Much too long, suffering has been part of our collective queer legacy. We weather the storm of insult to character and seemingly irreconcilable injustice in tandem with the hope that the arc of time will bend towards justice; our time is now. A Quilt for David is a posthumous journal of vindication." —Brontez Purnell , author of 100 Boyfriends "A stunning homage to people with AIDS." —Sarah Schulman , author of Let the Record Show: A Political History of ACT UP New York, 1987-1993 "I found this an incredibly moving book. Reigns deals in hard truths, revisioning one man's life and death, and our collective queer history." —Justin Torres , author of We the Animals "A Quilt for David is amazing and so powerful, filled with anger and frustration . . . It's an unforgettable book."— Marie Cloutier, Greenlight Bookstore, Brooklyn, NY "Told in short, occasionally haiku-like entries, Reigns has done what literature should: put the reader into the mind, the suffering, of another human being." —Andrew Holleran , author of Chronicle of a Plague, Revisited "Steven Reigns lifts David Acer thirty years after his death to show the naked cost of violent, unexamined public opinion around the catastrophe of AIDS. This poetry masterfully documents the tangle of hatred and lies haunting a generation of survivors. I am often grateful for what poems give to me, most especially the ones in this book." —CAConrad , author of AMANDA PARADISE: Resurrect Extinct Vibration "This writing is energetic, alive, and uncensored. Through poetry and prose we glean a deep understanding of a life misunderstood and mischaracterized. Reigns goes to the mat to find out what really happened, and with his expert pacing we're right there with him."— Natalie Goldberg , author of Writing Down the Bones "One of the most important roles a poet can assume is that of emotional historian. Reigns certainly understands that notion in this necessary and genre-bending book."— Richard Blanco , 2013 Presidential Inaugural Poet, author of How to Love a Country A Regional Independent Bookstore Bestseller! An urgent call for the political transformation needed to address the common causes of climate change, COVID-19, and racism. . . . some big titles will address emergencies that have outlived Trump. The Path to a Livable Future by Stan Cox, explores the connections among the many crises of the past year and a half. Dorany Pineda, Los Angeles Times 2020 was a year defined by crisis. For decades, scientists have been sounding the alarm about the urgency of addressing climate change, but it took COVID-19 to demonstrate clearly that the future of human life on Earth is interconnected and at risk. While the virus quickly spread across the globe, extreme weather events compounded the suffering and economic catastrophe. In the U.S., public demonstrations of outrage over the murder of George Floyd expanded to include a growing awareness of the pandemic's disproportionate impact on communities of color. In cities around the world, people took to the streets to protest racial inequity in all of its forms. In The Path to a Livable Future , Stan Cox makes plain the connections between the multiple crises facing us today, and provides an inspired vision for how to resolve them. With a deeply informed, clear to-do list, Cox shows us how we can work together to address the climate emergency, white supremacy, and our vulnerability to future pandemics all at once. Our future depends on it. "An iconoclast of the best kind, Stan Cox has an all-too-rare commitment to following arguments wherever they lead, however politically dangerous that turns out to be." Naomi Klein "Cox lays out a refreshingly grounded roadmap for the survival of all life on earth, based on up-to-date science, and anchored in the racial justice imperative." Leah Penniman , co-founder of Soul Fire Farm, author of Farming While Soul Fire Farm's Practical Guide to Liberation on the Land "Above all, he shows that a healthy, just, sustainable future is possible if we reduce our ecological footprint and share the earth's gifts equitably. For this we need to organize, resist, imagine, and forge another path together." Vandana Shiva, author of Who Really Feeds the World?: The Failures of Agribusiness and the Promise of Agroecology "In a small conservative Florida town in the 1980s, several people accused Dr. David Acer, a dentist, of infecting them with HIV. David's gayness, and sickly appearance from his own AIDS-related illness, made him the perfect scapegoat and victim of mob mentality. In these early years of the AIDS epidemic, when transmission was little understood, and homophobia rampant, people like David were villainized. The libelants landed People magazine cover stories and book deals. With a poet's eulogistic and psychological intensity, A Quilt for David recovers the life and death of this man who also stands in for so many lives destroyed not only by HIV, but a diseased society that used stigma against the most vulnerable. It's impossible not to make connections between this story and how the 21st century pandemic has also been defined by medical misinformation and cultural bias. Inspired by years of investigative research into the lives of David and his plaintiffs, Reigns has stitched together a hauntingly poetic narrative that retraces an American history, questioning the fervor of his accusers, and recuperating a gay life previously shrouded in secrecy and shame"-- Provided by publisher