Paul Kingsnorth

Paul Kingsnorth (born 1972 in Worcester) is an English writer and unaffiliated thinker.

Paul Kingsnorth in 2011

Quotes

• For fifteen years I have been an environmental campaigner and writer. [...] But after a while, I stopped believing it. There were two reasons for this. The first was that none of the campaigns were succeeding, except on a very local level. More broadly, everything was getting worse. The second was that environmentalists, it seemed to me, were not being honest with themselves. It was increasingly obvious that climate change could not be stopped, that modern life was not consistent with the needs of the global ecosystem, that economic growth was part of the problem, and that the future was not going to be bright, green, comfy and 'sustainable' for ten billion people but was more likely to offer decline, depletion, chaos and hardship for all of us.
  • "Why I stopped believing in environmentalism and started the Dark Mountain Project", The Guardian, 29 April 2010.

• To me, this is the most exciting thing about the Dark Mountain Project. [...] It is a vision that a few years back would have seemed heretical to many greens, but which is now gaining wide traction as the failure of humanity to respond to the crises it has created becomes increasingly obvious. Together we are able to say it loud and clear: we are not going to 'save the planet'. The planet is not ours to save. The planet is not dying; but our civilisation might be, and neither green technology nor ethical shopping is going to prevent a serious crash.
  • "Why I stopped believing in environmentalism and started the Dark Mountain Project", The Guardian, 29 April 2010.

• The EU violates just about every green principle going. It is the opposite of local; it is destructive to the natural world; it wipes out cultural distinctiveness; it is anti-democratic; it puts the interests of banks and corporations before the interests of its working people. Why – when – how – did the Green Movement abandon its commitment to localism and democracy, and jump into bed with a beast like this?
  • "Brexit reconsidered: a modern day peasants’ revolt?", CounterPunch, 21 December 2016.