A Review Of ‘The World We Need.’

The World We Need: Stories and Lessons from America’s Unsung Environmental Movement is a gripping new anthology published by The New Press and edited by Brooklyn-based journalist Audrea Lim. It expertly shows how and why environmental science and social justice activism must work together.

The protagonists of the stories in The World We Need are communities of color and low wealth that refuse to be steamrolled when chemical pollution and environmental destruction envelop them. In 37 chapters and with text, photography, and paintings, the anthology creates portraits of activists who, understanding the implications of sometimes arcane scientific findings, have re-imagined and, in some cases, rescued and remade their poisoned cities, towns, and rural areas. 

The anthology begins with an exemplary “origin story.” In Alabama, a community called Africatown was originally located…