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Christspiracy review

Kip, Kam, and a rescued lamb

NOTE: Christspiracy tickets are now available!

There is one scene from Christspiracy, about three-quarters of the way through, that stands out for me. It’s from the Gadhimai Festival in Nepal, a Hindu festival which features a mass slaughter of animals “sacrificed” to the Hindu goddess Gadhimai. The mass slaughter cannot begin until the first animals are killed. We see large crowds of festival celebrants everywhere. After the knife descends on the first victim (the act of slaughter itself is mercifully hidden from the camera), the crowd erupts in blood-curdling cheers. They are happy—indeed, delighted—to see the slaughter begin.

Wait a minute. “Christspiracy”: isn’t this about, like, Christ? What are Hindus doing in the movie at all? And besides, we all associate Hinduism with ahimsa, Gandhi, vegetarianism, and things like that, so what’s with this mass slaughter of animals?

The movie is about coming up with an answer to the questions that Kameron Waters asks Kip Andersen at the beginning: Is there a spiritual way to kill an animal? How would Jesus kill an animal? Continue reading “Christspiracy review”

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Who said that dealing with climate change was going to be easy?

Collards and solar panels – author photo

Effective climate action is not going to be easy. The difficulty is more than just a political problem of convincing people to take action. Actually taking action will “hurt the economy.”

That doesn’t mean that we shouldn’t take action anyway! The alternative seems to be destruction of much of the biosphere, and that’s going to “hurt” a lot more. The climate movement needs to acknowledge this. We need to say: “truly effective climate action is going to hurt. We need to do it anyway.” Continue reading “Who said that dealing with climate change was going to be easy?”

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What causes climate despair?

Of those surveyed, 3/8 believed they would be displaced by climate change.

Climate despair is real and complex. On Earth Day in 2022, Boulder activist Wynn Bruce set himself on fire in front of the Supreme Court. “Burnout is at an all-time high,” says Climate Mobilization. Climate scientist Michael Mann decries “doomism,” while admitting that he himself falls into it at times.

Climate change is a depressing topic to begin with. If you are better informed, you also realize how bad it really is. The result can be climate despair, along with its siblings and cousins that go by many names such as eco-anxiety, climate change helplessness, and doomism. Continue reading “What causes climate despair?”

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Videos from SMTV interview

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Recently, Supreme Master Television, the station devoted to vegan spiritual leader Supreme Master Ching Hai, asked me some questions in an interview for their online TV station. They generously gave me the footage and permission to use it however I wanted. I have edited them and added them to my YouTube Channel (@keithakerscolorado). At some point they may put some excerpts from the video on their web site, and I will post a link here if that happens, but you can view six substantial excerpts of this interview on my YouTube channel right now.

Update  Sept. 3, 2024: And now SMTV has posted it! Here’s the link to the video on SMTV, and here’s the link to the same video on YouTube.

The questions concerned my two most recent books, Disciples and Embracing Limits. So some questions were about the history of early Christianity and some were about the environmental crisis. Here is a list of the videos: Continue reading “Videos from SMTV interview”

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ACT radio interview on Christmas Eve

The link to the interview recording has been posted; it is here.

CORRECTION: El Paso, Texas, is also in Mountain time, just like Colorado, so it will be at 7:30 pm MST, not 6:30 pm as previously stated.

I will be on an Animal Concerns of Texas (ACT) radio program this Sunday (Dec. 24, Christmas eve) at 7:30 pm MST. It will be on KTEP, a public radio station in El Paso, Texas, and found online here as well as at 88.5 on your FM dial (if you’re within about 100 miles of El Paso). Topics will include Jesus and animals, vegetarianism and veganism more generally, and my latest book Embracing Limits.

Currently hosted by Dr. Elizabeth Walsh and Tom Linney, ACT radio has been on the air for 20 years. On their website you can find interviews with dozens of people such as Brenda Davis, Judy Carman, Seth Tibbott, Jamie Berger, Thomas Jackson, and Neal Barnard.

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Western Yoga podcast interview

Rev. Chris Sartain recently interviewed me on the Western Yoga podcast. We discussed a variety of topics concerning two of my books, Disciples and Embracing Limits, such as the history of vegetarianism, the conflict in the early Christian church, simple living, limits to growth, and the environmental crisis.

Chris Sartain lives in Chile, is an ordained teacher in the Kriya Yoga tradition, and is the director of Vinyasa Yoga Chile. His podcast is about Yoga as it is practiced and taught in the West, and discusses Yoga philosophy and practices from a Westerner’s point of view. This is Episode 42 of the Western Yoga podcast.

 

 

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VRG reviews Embracing Limits

The Vegetarian Resource Group (VRG) published a review of Embracing Limits in their latest issue of Vegan Journal (vol. 42, issue 4), on p. 33.  The review was written by Anna Markulis. You can also find it on their blog online here. I am republishing it below.

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Keith Akers’ new book, Embracing Limits, is an enjoyable and intriguing read that offers a unique perspective on the environmental crisis that our generation is faced with and will continue to be affected by in the future. Akers argues the cause of environmental destruction, at its core, is the human desire for limitless growth and expansion. He explains that the most effective solution we can do as humans is to “embrace limits” and relinquish our near unquenchable desire for expansion and growth. Continue reading “VRG reviews Embracing Limits“

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Animals 24-7 has noticed Embracing Limits!

Embracing Limits cover

I have some good news and some bad news about the reception of my book Embracing Limits. The good news is that the folks at Animals 24-7, a nonprofit independent online investigative newspaper, have taken notice of Embracing Limits!

The bad news is that it comes in the form of a review of my book in Animals 24-7 by Merritt Clifton which is, shall we say, less than the ringing endorsement of degrowth veganism that I hoped it would be.

Well, I knew it was going to be a controversial book. Continue reading “Animals 24-7 has noticed Embracing Limits!”

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Christspiracy—coming soon!

CHRISTSPIRACY  . . . they’re all looking at what’s on Jesus’ plate

 

UPDATE Feb. 21, 2024: According to Plant Based News, “The filmmakers have now confirmed that Christspiracy will be released worldwide on March 20, 2024.”

Early in 2018, I got an email from Kip Andersen asking whether I might be interested in being interviewed for a new documentary. That’s Kip Andersen, of Cowspiracy, Seaspiracy, and What the Health fame.

Is grass green? Does the navy have ships? Of course I was. I thought that the new movie would be about the environment, sort of a continuation of Cowspiracy. Well, silly me, it wasn’t. It was about ethics, religion, and animals. Continue reading “Christspiracy—coming soon!”

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Review of “Embracing Limits” by Stephen Kaufman

This review was recently published in the “CVA Newsletter.”

Embracing Limits cover

Keith Akers. Embracing Limits: A Radical and Necessary Approach to the Environment Crisis.

This very readable book is an important contribution to discussion of the environmental crisis. Many activists focus on specific campaigns, such as blocking the construction of an oil pipeline or divesting from oil companies. Akers looks at the larger picture. Continue reading “Review of “Embracing Limits” by Stephen Kaufman”

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“Vegan Pulse” interview

Nancy Arenas recently interviewed me about Embracing Limits. The interview is part of her “Vegan Pulse” series, and is now up on YouTube. The interview is about 19 minutes long.

Nancy Arenas is a children’s book author (Wiatt The Vegan Pirate, etc.), magazine publisher (New Mexico Vegan, etc.), vegan advocate and speaker, certified vegan nutrition coach, vegan chef (Cooking With Compassion), as well as founder and organizer of the Red & Green VegFest Albuquerque.

Embracing Limits cover
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Lee Camp interview

Lee Camp, head writer and host of the national TV show Redacted Tonight with Lee Camp on RT America will be interviewing me on Thursday, April 13, at 12 noon Eastern time (= 9 am Pacific, 10 am Mountain, 11 am Central). The subject will be my forthcoming book, Embracing Limits: A Radical and Necessary Approach to the Environmental Crisis.

UPDATE April 13: the interview can now be seen on YouTube here.

Lee is also a standup comedian, former contributor to The Onion, and a former staff humor writer for the Huffington Post. His web series “Moment of Clarity” has been viewed by millions.

Embracing Limits cover

The interview will be broadcast live on YouTube. Anyone can watch for free at YouTube.com/BehindTheHeadlines. Exact link to watch is here.

It will also be posted online afterwards; I have posted the link recording above.

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Embracing Limits—coming on Earth Day!

Embracing Limits cover

My new book, Embracing Limits, will be published on Earth Day this year — April 22, 2023. The ebook version is already available for preorder on Amazon here. The print version is not yet available to order; you’ll have to wait until April 22 for that. Here’s what’s on the back cover:

RADICAL MEASURES ARE NECESSARY

If you’ve ever wondered where we’re headed, and what a truly sustainable future might look like—this is the book for you.
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Today’s civilization is like a kid with a credit card, thinking the party will never end. Politically speaking, there are no adults in the room. Perhaps there never were. Continue reading “Embracing Limits—coming on Earth Day!”

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Degrowth & Strategy — (review)

Degrowth & Strategy: How to Bring About Social-Ecological Transformation. Nathan Barlow, Livia Regen, Noémie Cadiou, Ekaterina Chertkovskaya, Max Hollweg, Christina Plank, Merle Schulken and Verena Wolf, editors. MayFly Books, 2022. https://mayflybooks.org/.

Degrowth & Strategy is an impressive collection of essays by a variety of people on strategies to implement degrowth. (The price is right, too—get an e-copy for free on the publisher’s website!) Continue reading “Degrowth & Strategy — (review)”