The inspiring people and grassroots organizations that are on the front lines of the battle to save the planet

As the world's scientists have come together and declared a "climate emergency", the fight to protect our planet's ecological resources and the people that depend on them is more urgent than ever. But the real battles for our future are taking place far from the headlines and international conferences, in mostly forgotten American communities where the brutal realities of industrial pollution and environmental degradation have long been playing out.

The World We Need provides a vivid introduction to America's largely unsung grassroots environmental groups - often led by activists of color and the poor - valiantly fighting back in America's so-called sacrifice zones against industries poisoning our skies and waterways and heating our planet. Through original reporting, profiles, and interviews, we learn how these activist groups, almost always working on shoestring budgets, are devising creative new tactics; building sustainable projects to transform local economies; and organizing people long overlooked by the environmental movement-changing its face along the way.

The New Press; Introduction copyright 2021 by Ana Isabel Baptista; “Tar Sands in Africatown” copyright 2021 by Nick Tabor; “California’s Flint” copyright 2021 by Alejandra Molina; “Hookworm in the Water” 2021 copyright by Katherine Webb-Hehn; “Thoughts of a Coal Miner” copyright 2021 by Nick Mullins; “Steel Mills and Wind Farms” copyright 2021 by Dharna Noor; “You don’t want to end up in the fields like me” copyright 2021 by Elizabeth Alvarado; “Sweet Water Foundation” copyright 2021 by Grist; “Food, Farming, and Healing After the U.S. Navy Bombings” 2021 by Melissa Alvarado Sierra; “Sogorea Te Land Trust” copyright 2021 by Julian Brave NoiseCat; “How the Yurok Tribe Is Reclaiming the Klamath River” copyright 2021 by High Country News; “CELDF’s Guide to Decolonizing the Law” copyright 2021 by Simon Davis-Cohen; “Milwaukee Water Commons vs. the ‘Silicon Valley of Water’” copyright 2021 by Alexandra Tempus