Several central premises are maintained throughout the book. They include a bringing together of our occupational lives – what we do at work – and nature’s needs. Closing this gap will be pivotal for nature’s future and for our own. Political, economic and commercial life is critiqued; society’s belief systems and priorities are challenged. A very different consciousness of what drives environmental deterioration is paramount. So too is strong and focused leadership. Practical essays review a selection of specific occupations as examples of the book’s central themes“.

Part of the discussion will allow us to reflect on the following points:

• EDUCATION is not to be confused with knowing. The environmental crisis can be understood as being a disorder in the minds of the dominant species – not simply a problem ‘out there’. Instead of nature being viewed as outside the fields of education, it must become the initial stage and lectern for all learning
• What if ACCOUNTANCY took into account that nature too has an economy – of gains and losses, ledgers, limits and aspirations? What if accountancy was not organised and fixed around neo-liberal economics, but around the systems and ecological realities of nature?
• Might the TRADES and UNIONS become forces exposing the criminality that drives environmental decline as they strive to do with the widening margins between rich and poor.
• Regenerative FARMING is being talked about and sometimes adopted in some quarters, but many more resist. If ever there is an occupation that might lead in the care of land, water and climate it is farmers. They walk the land. Time to break from a historical tendency to presume privilege. Support, yes; exemption, no.
• Environmentally, the LEGAL PROFESSION is split down the middle – those who defend the enironment and those who defend policy and economics set on destroying it. How will the profession unify and respond if/when climate, extinctions, poisoning of waterways and oceans head closer to collapse?.