How do you change the world? Where do you start, locally or globally? For inspiration and a way out of the paralysis that stymies so many of us, two remarkable women – Jane Jacobs and Frances Moore Lappé – offer some practical ideas.
Community
The War in the Country: How the Fight to Save Rural Life Will Shape Our Future
In The War in the Country, Thomas Pawlick has done a great service. He documents recent tensions and traumas that have battered every rural community across Ontario. Moreover, he reports in the voice of family farmers, small businesses, native people and back-to-the-landers. These stories are worth keeping in your library to […]
Obsessive Consumption: What Did You Buy Today?
You don’t often come across a book of innocent-looking doodles that has the power to make you reflect on the deeper meaning of life. Kate Bingaman-Burt’s Obsessive Consumption does just that.
Storms of My Grandchildren: The Truth About the Coming Climate Catastrophe And Our Last Chance to Save Humanity
It’s odd. At 68, James Hansen, arguably the planet’s most renowned climatologist and one of the earliest prophets of human-induced global climate change, has finally published his first book. “Odd” is a fitting description for the book as well.
Open Wide a Wilderness
Nancy Holmes, a professor in the Faculty of Creative and Critical Studies at the University of British Columbia Okanagan, is to be congratulated for this plump and sumptuous anthology of English language Canadian nature poetry.
The Transition Handbook: From Oil Dependency to Local Resilience
At last, here is a book about our common future that we don’t have to be afraid to read. Written by “transition movement” founder Rob Hopkins, The Transition Handbook offers an inspiring and practical blueprint for community-based action in response to the challenges of climate change and peak oil.
The Sacred Universe: Earth, Spirituality, and Religion in the Twenty-First Century + The Christian Future and the Fate of the Earth
In June 2009, Thomas Berry, the historian, priest, author and self-described “geologian,” passed away at his home in Greensboro, North Carolina. He was 94. Uniting recent scientific discoveries concerning the provenance and progression of the universe with religious insights into the nature of creation, Berry’s writing blended empirical and spiritual elements […]
Generation A + The Year of the Flood
Information is important, but stories are essential. While scientists can tell us about the extinction of species and the loss of Arctic sea ice, we need stories to help us make sense of these events. But we are buried in unfinished stories. After decades of expert analysis, we remain unable […]
Guerilla Gardening: A Manualfesto + Interwoven Wild: A Ecologist Loose in the Garden
Of all the possible definitions of a garden, I like Don Gayton’s best: “A garden is a gift, a celebration and a revelation.” Gayton’s idea applies equally well to his own efforts, as an ecologist landscaping his suburban yard, as to the more political and activist agenda of guerrilla gardener […]
Choreographing Sustainable Communities
We don’t often compare a city with a beehive. According to Marilyn Hamilton, however, perhaps we should. In her book Integral City, Hamilton presents a radical new framework that can be used to design and regenerate the spaces in which we live. Her approach involves a view of city planning […]
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