How Not to Save the World Doing Good Without Annoying Everyone

About this book

As the world burns, wars are claiming thousands of innocent lives and governments do nothing, activism offers the antidote to our growing sense of hopelessness.

But then why does it sometimes feel like direct action is hindering rather than helping? Shouldn't people be addressing the climate catastrophe head-on, rather than glueing themselves to trains at rush hour or throwing soup at paintings?

Anthea Lawson has been an activist for over two decades, campaigning for an international ban on cluster bombs and guerrilla gardening in Parliament Square. This book will not tell you how to start a petition, devise a campaign plan or avoid getting arrested at a protest. What it will do is teach you how to improve the world... without alienating the very people you need to convince.

Too often activists fall into old traps – setting impossible purity tests, forgetting the cultural baggage we bring with us, ignoring diverse perspectives – undermining their cause. Practical, candid and hopeful, How Not to Save the World puts forward a compelling 'what not to do' for direct action. Because, when we understand why activism fails, it allows us to campaign more effectively – and maybe save the world.

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Biography

Anthea Lawson is an activist and author. Over the past two decades, she has campaigned on many issues – political and environmental – launching an award-winning campaign for transparency over company ownership at Global Witness, which resulted in changes to the law in dozens of countries, as well as spearheading successful campaigns for an Arms Trade Treaty and the international ban on cluster bombs. In addition to Global Witness, she also worked for Amnesty International and has been arrested with Extinction Rebellion.