Advocating for the Environment - Book Fills an Important Gap

Every week we are bombarded with news presenting the climate crisis as a dire threat, which of course, it is. The problem is, few sources offer hope and concrete ways citizens can address it.

Susan Inches’ new book Advocating for the Environment, How to Gather Your Power and Take Action was written to fill this gap. It’s a citizen’s guide to environmental policy. Inches has written it in an upbeat accessible way, and based it on her 30 year career as an environmental advocate.

In the introduction, Inches encourages the reader to pick out and read sections that speak to them, rather than read the book cover to cover. This is because the book is a field guide to advocacy, and field guides are rarely read from beginning to end. On the other hand, many readers have found that once they start reading, they just can’t put the book down!

Either way, this is one of very few books that clearly explains how public policy works. It’s all about relationships and communications. Chapters on working with supporters, opponents and decision makers are filled with knowledge from the author’s experience---knowledge that is usually reserved for those who are “in the know”.

Part I of the book is about how we must learn to think differently, in order to heal the planet. It focuses on storytelling as a key to effective citizen action. This includes the power of our individual stories, and the power of the collective stories we have told ourselves about the earth for generations. Collective stories based on colonialism,  hierarchy, and human dominance are changing and must change, if humanity is to survive.

Part I also lays out how empathy, worldviews, and effective communication can help us collaborate with others, even those with opposing views. And it shows how important citizen voices are in creating a healthy future.

Part II is all about action. How to use power for good, how to work with decision makers, how to organize events, manage a coalition, communicate with the public, and work with the media are all laid out in an easy to read and reference format.

Advocating for the Environment has had great reviews, and is a popular gift item for the environmentalist in the family. It’s a guide to environmental action that readers will want to read and keep for reference, for years to come. You can find it online and in bookstores everywhere.