Surviving Collapse

Book excerpt: As environmental crises loom, Surviving Collapse makes an argument for radical changes in the ways in which people live to avoid a dystopian future. To foster readers' imagination, Christina Ergas reveals real utopian stories that counter climate apocalypse narratives. Two eco-communities offer examples of alternative futures with small environmental footprints and more egalitarian social practices. They model solutions to the interconnected problems of rising social inequalities and environmental degradation. Each case engages in community-oriented practices, direct democracy, and ecological agricultural forms that attend to whole ecosystems. These practitioners recognize the value of whole biotic communities, human and nonhuman, and practice reciprocity.