A new climate justice book, Zazu Dreams: Between the Scarab and the Dung Beetle, A Cautionary Fable for the Anthropocene Era, by Cara Judea Alhadeff, Ph.D., a professor of critical philosophy with the Global Center for Advanced Studies, repositions our relationship to infrastructural taken-for-granted norms such as greenwashing. Using cross-cultural narrative, extensive scientific, historical and literary endnotes, and lush illustrations by her mother and collaborator, Micaela Amateau Amato, she examines how these manifestations of convenience culture breed our epidemic of individualism.

By investigating human historical and natural-world symbiotic relationships, Zazu Dreams demonstrates how we can shift people’s sense of community, commitment and empowerment. “It is not about ‘50 things you can do to save the planet’, it is about engaging a social permaculture strategy that undergirds our relationship with use-waste dynamics,” she writes.

Alhadeff asks, “Without mass consumer-demand, the machine of the free-market would have to shift gears. We can’t blame oil companies without simultaneously implicating ourselves, holding our consumption habits equally responsible. How can we insist the government and transnational corporations change, when we refuse to curb our buying and disposal habits?”

The book has been praised by climate activist Bill McKibbon, Dr. Noam Chomsky, Paul Hawken, Arun Gandhi (Mahatma Gandhi’s grandson) and other scientists, activists and artists.

For more information, visit CaraJudea.com and ZazuDreams.com.