What people are saying about

Frontlines

In his wide-ranging journalism and writing, Nick Meynen has been vividly mapping struggles for justice around the world. His new book is a rich collection of the human stories of those struggles – from resistance to mining in India and Greece, to land grabbing in Uganda, to a landmark climate lawsuit in the Netherlands. The book harnesses the power of lived experience to bring our most urgent, high-stakes policy debates to life, and it deserves a wide international audience.

Naomi Klein, bestselling author of The Shock Doctrine and This Changes Everything: Capitalism vs. The Climate

Prosperity is about our ability to live well on a finite planet. It’s a task that has as much to do with story and narrative as it does with numbers and policies. Nick recognizes this essential truth. With the colorful insight of the poet and the dogged persistence of the investigative journalist, he recounts the day-to-day struggles and the extraordinary courage of ordinary people around the world as they engage in the fight for social and environmental justice.

Tim Jackson, author of Prosperity without Growth

In Frontlines, Nick Meynen does what we ecological economists and political ecologists often fail to do: communicate our findings in a rigorous but simple language. By reading this book you will learn the same as when reading our academic articles, but instead of falling asleep, you will have fun!

Federico Demaria, environmental scientist, co-editor of Degrowth. A vocabulary for a new era and Pluriverse. A Post-Development Dictionary

Nick Meynen shares the extraordinary knowledge he has acquired in the last 10 years on environmental conflicts around the globe, from the commodity extraction to waste disposal frontiers. In a lively style he narrates episodes such as the unpaid environmental liabilities of oil companies in the Amazon and the heroic defense of nature and human livelihoods against the sand mafia in India.

Joan Martinez Alier, Emeritus Professor of economics and economic history at ICTA-UAB, 2017 winner of the Leontief Prize and author of The Environmentalism of the Poor and Ecological Economics from the Ground Up

Nick Meynen’s eye-opening journey through some of the worst ecological and social disasters of the world is complemented with something even more urgent today, a chronicle of the inspiring struggles for justice and sustainability that ‘ordinary’ people are engaging in. This combination of shock and hope is just what is needed to wake up those who are still sleeping through the crises, and inform and inspire those who are awake and responding but may not have the width of vision that such a global tour can provide.

Ashish Kothari, founder of Kalpavriksh, board chairman of Greenpeace India and author of Churning the Earth: The Making of Global India

I am sure that this book will be invaluable in helping to create awareness about the destruction being caused globally to provide the materials which make up our modern existence. Most people have no idea where these resources come from and what intense battles are fought to save livelihoods and natural resources in sensitive areas.

Sumaira Abdulali, leading lady of the struggle against sand mafias in India

One often reads in media how we’re greening our economy pretty well. But who joins Nick in looking beyond consumerism knows better. He shows systematically how we’re plundering the earth’s resources – including the livelihoods of communities. If you’re still not convinced of the urgent need for system change you need to read this book.

Dirk Holemans, author of Freedom & Security in a Complex World