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What We Leave Behind Paperback – April 7, 2009

by Derrick Jensen (Author), Aric McBay (Author)
4.3 4.3 out of 5 stars 53 ratings
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What We Leave Behind is a piercing, impassioned guide to living a truly responsible life on earth. Human waste, once considered a gift to the soil, has become toxic material that has broken the essential cycle of decay and regeneration. Here, award-winning author Derrick Jensen and activist Aric McBay weave historical analysis and devastatingly beautiful prose to remind us that life—human and nonhuman—will not go on unless we do everything we can to facilitate the most basic process on earth, the root of sustainability: one being's waste must always become another being’s food.
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  1. Print length
    464 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Publisher
    Seven Stories Press
  4. Publication date
    April 7, 2009
  5. Dimensions
    6.01 x 1.21 x 9 inches
  6. ISBN-10
    1583228675
  7. ISBN-13
    978-1583228678
  8. See all details
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Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Industrial civilization is incompatible with life.... Unless it's stopped... it will kill every living being, begin environmental activists Jensen (A Language Older than Words) and McBay (Peak Oil Survival), introducing the recurring theme and thesis of this radical report on the state of Earth and call to action. The book contrasts natural systems of growth and decay, in which soil and life forms feed each other, with industrial civilization: essentially a complicated way of turning land into waste: garbage patches cover more than 40% of oceans and multitudes of fish and birds are being killed by plastic waste, now more abundant in the seas than phytoplankton. Jensen and McBay trash sustainability stars like William McDonough, who designs green buildings without questioning their unsustainable uses (truck factories and airports); the authors argue that we value our culture more than the planet that sustains it. The book is flawed by lapses into rants and rages, but Jensen and McBay's message that we need to grow up and put away the childish notion that we have the right to take whatever we want from nonhumans is eminently reasonable. (Apr.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist

“This culture is killing the planet,” declares Jensen, a radically holistic thinker and a passionate and persuasive writer both revered and reviled for his candor. Together with his environmentalist coauthor McBay, Jensen seeks to break the habits of mind that induce us to deny the severity of our environmental predicament and point the way to significant change. To that end, Jensen and McBay conduct an in-depth analysis of waste and wastefulness, from what passes through our bodies, including hazardous pharmaceuticals, to the planetary plagues of plastic and toxic chemicals. Combining arresting personal stories with unnerving facts about our throwaway society, the authors rigorously define genuine sustainability and warn us away from “pseudo-solutions.” Some may bridle at Jensen and McBay’s bluntness, urgency, and bold vision, but their demand for the end of wishful thinking and the beginning of environmental transformation is rooted in meticulously constructed arguments, striking psychological insights, and a profound love of life. It’s time, they declare, to “build a culture of resistance,” reject the status quo, and ask, “What do you want to leave behind?” --Donna Seaman

Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Seven Stories Press; First Edition (April 7, 2009)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Paperback ‏ : ‎ 464 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1583228675
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1583228678
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1.19 pounds
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6.01 x 1.21 x 9 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.3 4.3 out of 5 stars 53 ratings

About the author

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Derrick Jensen

Derrick Jensen

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Derrick Jensen is the prize-winning author of A Language Older Than Words, The Culture of Make Believe, Listening to the Land, Strangely Like War, Welcome to the Machine, and Walking on Water. He was one of two finalists for the 2003 J. Anthony Lukas Book Prize, which cited The Culture of Make Believe as "a passionate and provocative meditation on the nexus of racism, genocide, environmental destruction and corporate malfeasance, where civilization meets its discontents." He is an environmental activist and lives on the coast of northern California.

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Customer reviews

4.3 out of 5 stars
4.3 out of 5
53 global ratings

Top reviews from the United States

Kat
5.0 out of 5 stars An absolute must-read for any sane human being
Reviewed in the United States on January 4, 2016
Verified Purchase
This book is a must-have for anyone who wants to be knowledgeable about the world around them. It is vital for true self-awareness and it will open your eyes to innumerable things in this world. If possible, I would suggest getting a group of people together to read and discuss, because so much self-discovery can occur through the discussion of this book.
As someone who has also spoken with Jensen himself, it is important to keep in mind that he is a nice guy - this book demonstrates all of the passion he has for this subject: the real world. Sometimes it can come off as aggression towards the reader, but do not get disheartened in the read, do not misinterpret this man's passionate remarks, and do not, I repeat DO NOT GET DOWN ON YOURSELF OR GIVE UP THE READING. This is vital for every individual on this planet, in my opinion.

p.s. if there is anyone out there who loves this book as much as myself, anyone who wishes to engage in discussion over it, or anyone who wants to do something about the problems addressed in this text, I would love to correspond.
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GFS
5.0 out of 5 stars Not your typical environmental issues book--Will make you really think!
Reviewed in the United States on February 19, 2016
Verified Purchase
Excellent book! It really makes you think about the world in new ways. Jensen and MacBay give a sort of cynical overview of what the world has come to. They discuss important environmental issues in a refreshing and interesting way. Each chapter is a new topic, so it's more of a collection of entries rather than a story, but overall, great read!
One person found this helpful
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Chale
5.0 out of 5 stars Textbook
Reviewed in the United States on June 25, 2013
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A look at the ecological and social effects of the "throw away" society we live in. Although required for a class, it proved to be an eye opening read.
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Cobus van der Merwe
4.0 out of 5 stars Wakeup Call
Reviewed in the United States on February 8, 2013
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A thought provoking book that stands as an accusation against industrialisation and over-exploitation. Without a return to sustainability and ecologically friendly methods of meeting mankinds requyirements we are going to erase ourselves from the future.
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Judith Eckerson
5.0 out of 5 stars Not only a good book, but an IMPORTANT book
Reviewed in the United States on September 22, 2014
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I can't say enough. Not only a good book, but an IMPORTANT book. All the information you didn't want but need to have.
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Alan Smith
5.0 out of 5 stars For The Seventh Generation
Reviewed in the United States on January 12, 2014
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Deep, comprehensive, radical thinking. Who else is speaking so truthfully and unflinchingly? I was inspired, even though the situation seems overwhelming.
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Sherry
1.0 out of 5 stars Recommend different seller the book said condition very good and ...
Reviewed in the United States on January 4, 2018
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Recommend different seller the book said condition very good and it is very poor with water damage on the entire book.
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Michael Dulin
3.0 out of 5 stars Extremely interesting, but very dangerous ideas
Reviewed in the United States on June 5, 2013
I couldn't put this book down, I have to say. Derrick and Aric make some great points about how conventional environmentalism has not only become consumerist but has utterly failed. This book was released in 2009, the same year the Copenhagen talks failed epicly. While I identify as a pacifist and will have no part in militant tactics to protect the biosphere I completely agree with the authors of this book that we can't get out of this via capitalism. That along with the inequality and destruction of culture and sense of place capitalism creates is the reason I'm a communist.

I also agree that humanity is too anthropocentric. However, there are some huge flaws with the ideology in this book.

For starters, it's Deathist. Deep Green Resistance, or at least Jensen and Aric believe death is a part of life and oppose transhumanism and life extension efforts. I wouldn't be surprised if they opposed vaccinating children as well.

They also have a romanticized image of the hunter gatherer past. It's true that hunter gatherers often had more leisure time than modern people. It's also true that most of their children didn't live to adulthood. While I'd never claim modern medicine is perfect as a whole it's one of the best things that's ever happened to our children. The claim that pre-modern life was "nasty, brutish and short", an account Derrick and Aric deny the veracity of was not hyperbole on the whole.

I love Life. I love the biosphere and ecology. I don't love Nature. Just like capitalists deep ecologists (and environmentalists and leftists in general) appeal to Nature. They falsely believe everything natural is good and safe for you. Guess what? Hemlock is natural. Put it in your salad and it will kill you. GMOs aren't natural, and I don't support Monsanto and the corporate element behind them at all, but the use of GMOs are feeding hundreds of millions if not billions of people worldwide.

Deep Green Resistance has many of the features of a cult. They preach doom and gloom (peak oil, the death of the biosphere, political tyranny), they worship a god (in this case a Goddess - Mother Earth) and they have bitter prejudices (towards white males and transgender people).

Along with their hatred of people of European descent they also have naive and subtly racist beliefs about indigenous people. Native people are not a monolithic entity who all lived in harmony with nature and their fellow human being. The Maori committed genocide against the people in New Zealand before them. The Chinook kept slaves. The Japanese were incredibly racist and imperialist to the Chinese who are themselves now imperialist to people who don't speak Mandarin.

Even the liberal sacred cow Dalai Lama only wants Tibet back so he can oppress his people. Communist China is bad to the Tibetans but compared to the monk class they are downright humanitarian. "Noble savage" myths dehumanize native people and put them on a pedestal. They also propagate a false nostalgia for a past that never existed.

While DGR do have a place I hope they never attain significant political power anywhere because I strongly suspect they would end up committing genocide or democide. Their distorted view of the past, hatred of white people (and coloured people who are not hunter-gatherers), burning desire to right the "wrongs of history" and their hatred of transgender people are basically fascist in character. While DGR are feminist it doesn't even matter - they are so misanthropic that they only hate women slightly less than they hate me.

Lastly, it's not sustainable or possible for 7.1 billion people to go back to burning wood and living off the land. If DGR ruled a country they would likely follow a Khmer Rouge type of narrative. Even Pol Pot didn't want to go as far back in time as Deep Green Resistance - he only wanted to go back to the Agrarian Age, Jensen and crew want to go back to pre-history. We can abandon capitalist and Western civilization without throwing the baby out with the bathwater, and throwing away our future.
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Top reviews from other countries

Celmarq
5.0 out of 5 stars A must read...
Reviewed in Canada on July 30, 2012
Verified Purchase
I highly recommend "What We Leave Behind" to everyone and anyone who is ready to hear the brutal facts about what we're doing to our planet and why. Derrick Jensen and Aric McBay tell it like it is without suger coating the reality of the slow torture humans are inflicting on our precious world. They have the courage to stand up and tell the truth in spite of all the denial and lies we are being fed every day by those who have too much to lose to support any sort of change.
One person found this helpful
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