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According to Stewart Brand, a lifelong environmentalist who sees everything in terms of solvable design problems, three profound transformations are under way on Earth right now. Climate change is real and is pushing us toward managing the planet as a whole. Urbanization-half the world’s population now lives in cities, and eighty percent will by midcentury-is altering humanity’s land impact and wealth. And biotechnology is becoming the world’s dominant engineering tool. In light of these changes, Brand suggests that environmentalists are going to have to reverse some longheld opinions and embrace tools that they have traditionally distrusted. Only a radical rethinking of traditional green pieties will allow us to forestall the cataclysmic deterioration of the earth’s resources.

Whole Earth Discipline shatters a number of myths and presents counterintuitive observations on why cities are actually greener than countryside, how nuclear power is the future of energy, and why genetic engineering is the key to crop and land management. With a combination of scientific rigor and passionate advocacy, Brand shows us exactly where the sources of our dilemmas lie and offers a bold and inventive set of policies and solutions for creating a more sustainable society.

In the end, says Brand, the environmental movement must become newly responsive to fast-moving science and take up the tools and discipline of engineering. We have to learn how to manage the planet’s global-scale natural infrastructure with as light a touch as possible and as much intervention as necessary.

Related Info

Stewart Brand proclaims 4 environmental ‘heresies’ in this TED Talk video.

Click here to view the embedded video.

See larger image Whole Earth Discipline: An Ecopragmatist Manifesto (Hardcover) By Stewart Brand List Price: $25.95 USD New From: $7.96 In Stock Used From: $7.96 In Stock

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A manifesto for a radically different philosophy and practice of manufacture and environmentalism

“Reduce, reuse, recycle” urge environmentalists; in other words, do more with less in order to minimize damage. As William McDonough and Michael Braungart argue in their provocative, visionary book, however, this approach perpetuates a one-way, “cradle to grave” manufacturing model that dates to the Industrial Revolution and casts off as much as 90 percent of the materials it uses as waste, much of it toxic. Why not challenge the notion that human industry must inevitably damage the natural world, they ask.

In fact, why not take nature itself as our model? A tree produces thousands of blossoms in order to create another tree, yet we do not consider its abundance wasteful but safe, beautiful, and highly effective; hence, “waste equals food” is the first principle the book sets forth. Products might be designed so that, after their useful life, they provide nourishment for something new-either as “biological nutrients” that safely re-enter the environment or as “technical nutrients” that circulate within closed-loop industrial cycles, without being “downcycled” into low-grade uses (as most “recyclables” now are).

Elaborating their principles from experience (re)designing everything from carpeting to corporate campuses, the authors make an exciting and viable case for change.

Related Info

Learn more about Cradle to Cradle design from the MBDC website or William McDonough’s website. You can also learn about the wisdom of designing Cradle to Cradle from this 20-min TED video by William McDonough.

Click here to view the embedded video.

See larger image Cradle to Cradle: Remaking the Way We Make Things (Paperback) By William McDonough, Michael Braungart List Price: $27.50 USD New From: $16.98 In Stock Used From: $10.98 In Stock

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Worldchanging is packed with information, resources, reviews, and ideas that give readers access to the tools they need to build a better future. Written by a diverse collaborative of innovators, Worldchanging demonstrates that the means for making a difference lie all around us.

This team of top-notch writers, brought together by Worldchanging.com founder Alex Steffen, includes Cameron Sinclair, founder of Architecture for Humanity, Geekcore founder Ethan Zuckerman, and sustainable food expert Anne Lappé, among many others.

Each chapter offers practical answers to important questions, such as: Why does buying locally produced food make sense? What steps can we take to influence our workplace toward sustainability? How can we travel, live, work, and learn in world-changing ways? How, in short, can we participate in building a better future locally and globally?

Worldchanging proves that a life that is sustainably prosperous, thoughtful and democratic, dynamic and peaceful, is not just possible, it’s here.

Related Info

Visit Worldchanging.com for more bright green solutions. Or watch this TED Talk by Alex Steffen on Inspired Ideas for a Sustainable Future:

Click here to view the embedded video.

See larger image Worldchanging: A User's Guide for the 21st Century (Paperback) By Alex Steffen List Price: $19.95 USD New From: $5.50 In Stock Used From: $2.25 In Stock

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Biomimicry is a revolutionary new science that analyzes nature’s best ideas — spider silk and prairie grass, seashells and brain cells — and adapts them for human use. Science writer and lecturer Janine Benyus takes us into the lab and out in the field with the maverick researchers who are applying nature’s ingenious solutions to the problem of human survival: stirring vats of proteins to unleash their signaling power in computers; analyzing how spiders manufacture a waterproof fiber five times stronger than steel; studying how electrons in a leaf cell convert sunlight to fuel in trillionths of a second; discovering miracle drugs by observing what animals eat — and much more.

The products of biomimicry are things we can all use — medicines, “smart” computers, super-strong materials, profitable and earth-friendly business. Biomimicry eloquently shows that the answers are all around us.

Related Info

Watch Janine Benyus’s TED Talk on Biomimicry in action:

Click here to view the embedded video.

The Biomimicry Institute promotes learning from and then emulating natural forms, processes, and ecosystems to create more sustainable and healthier human technologies and designs.

See larger image Biomimicry: Innovation Inspired by Nature (Paperback) By Janine M. Benyus List Price: $14.99 USD New From: $5.25 In Stock Used From: $5.22 In Stock Released September 17, 2002.