Conversations with Green Gurus: The Collective Wisdom of Environmental Movers and Shakers – Laura Mazur and Louella Miles
January 12, 2010 by Bookman
Filed under New Books, People and Education
Conversations with Green Gurus introduces various environmental pioneers from different sectors, including business, government, academics and non-governmental organisations:
- Ray Anderson (Founder of Interface, Inc)
- James Cameron (Founder, Executive Director and Vice-Chairman of Climate Change Capital)
- Paul Dickinson (CEO of the Carbon Disclosure Project)
- John Elkington (Founding Partner and Director of Volans)
- John Grant (Author of The Green Marketing Manifesto)
- Denis Hayes (President and CEO of The Bullitt Foundation)
- Gary Hirshberg (President and CE-Yo of Stonyfield Farm)
- Tony Juniper (Former Executive Director of Friends of the Earth, England, Wales and Northern Ireland)
- Professor Sir David King (Former Chief Scientific Adviser to the UK Government)
- Amory B. Lovins (Chairman and Chief Scientist of the Rocky Mountain Institute)
- Professor Wangari Maathai (Founder of the Green Belt Movement and Nobel Peace Prize Winner)
- Ricardo Navarro (Founder and Director of the Salvadoran Centre for Appropriate Technology)
- Dr Vandana Shiva (Physicist, Environmental Activist and Author)
- Jeffrey Swartz (President and CEO of Timberland)
- Sir Crispin Tickell (Diplomat, Academic and Environmentalist)
These leaders share insights on their professional and personal lives, and their current views on sustainability. The book gives a concise overview of how these green gurus started their green journey, and their wish to see a more sustainable world.
Here’s some thoughts from the gurus:
Well, it’s easiest to start with the first principle of natural capitalism: radical resource efficiency. Just look for muda, that wonderful Japanese word that means waste, purposeless and futility. Look for any measurable input that produces no customer value, and set a goal of reducing it to zero. – Amory B. Lovins
So sustainability really can and should be at the core of what companies are now planning, in terms of, for example, where markets will go and what will be some of the future risk factors. At that fundamental level sustainability, for a company, is about being able to continue in business. – Tony Juniper
The beautiful thing about business is that it doesn’t have any ideology except to make money. If you can demonstrate that you make more money by saving the world, then businesses will save the world really quickly. And so all we have to do is wake up the consumer to stop putting money into their own endangerment. And that shouldn’t be very difficult. – Paul Dickinson
I think the biggest problem, which I must admit I’m still dealing with, is the fact that very many people do not see the environment as something that is integral to our daily lives. It tends to be seen as an outside issue, often associated with scientists and academics, but in fact it is very, very central to our lives. The air we breathe, the water we drink, the food we eat – all these things that we cannot live without. – Professor Wangari Maathai
Related Info
Watch this short introduction video of the book:
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Our Choice: A Plan to Solve the Climate Crisis – Al Gore
December 17, 2009 by Bookman
Filed under Bestsellers, Energy and Climate, New Books, Recommended Books
This book is the sequel to Al Gore’s bestseller, An Inconvenient Truth, and this time, he offers a comprehensive overview of different solutions to tackle climate change.
From the Book
It is now abundantly clear that we have at our fingertips all of the tools we need to solve the climate crisis. The only missing ingredient is collective will.
Properly understood, the climate crisis is an unparalleled opportunity to finally and effectively address many persistent causes of suffering and misery that have long been neglected, and to transform the prospects of future generations, giving them a chance to live healthier, more prosperous lives as they continue their pursuit of happiness.
Our Choice gathers in one place all of the most effective solutions that are available now and that, together, will solve this crisis. It is meant to depoliticize the issue as much as possible and inspire readers to take action—not only on an individual basis but as participants in the political processes by which every country, and the world as a whole, makes the choice that now confronts us.
There is an old African proverb that says,
‘If you want to go quickly, go alone;
if you want to go far, go together.’
We have to go far, quickly.
We can solve the climate crisis. It will be hard, to be sure, but if we can make the choice to solve it, I have no doubt whatsoever that we can and will succeed.
AL GORE, from the introduction
Related Info
Check out the Our Choice website for a preview of the book chapters.
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Whole Earth Discipline: An Ecopragmatist Manifesto – Stewart Brand
December 17, 2009 by Bookman
Filed under Cities and Buildings, Design and Technology, Energy and Climate, New Books, Science and Nature
Stewart Brand, co-author of the classic Whole Earth Catalog, gives a new perspective on how we can solve our problems and address opportunities for a green future.
From Amazon
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.
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No Impact Man: Saving the Planet One Family at a Time – Colin Beavan
December 17, 2009 by Bookman
Filed under Lifestyle and Wellness, New Books, People and Education, Resources and Waste
The No Impact Man project by Colin Beavan is a funny and sincere experiment to find out whether individuals can live without leaving any environmental impact.
From Amazon
In the growing debate over eco-friendly living, it seems that everything is as bad as everything else. Do you do more harm by living in the country or the city? Is it better to drive a thousand miles or take an airplane? In NO IMPACT MAN, Colin Beavan tells the extraordinary story of his attempt to find some answers – by living for one year in New York City (with his wife and young daughter) without leaving any net impact on the environment.
His family cut out all driving and flying, used no air conditioning, no television, no toilets…They went from making a few concessions to becoming eco-extremists. The goal? To determine what works and what doesn’t, and to fashion a truly ‘eco-effective’ way of life. Beavan’s radical experiment makes for an unforgettable and humorous memoir and an attempt to answer perhaps the most important question of all: What is the sufficient individual effort that it would take to save the planet? And what is stopping us?
Related Info
Check out Colin Beavan’s blog to read his thoughts and adventures during the No Impact Man project. The project is also made into a film, watch the trailer here:
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Waste: Uncovering the Global Food Scandal – Tristram Stuart
December 17, 2009 by Bookman
Filed under New Books, Recommended Books, Resources and Waste
An excellent look into how we waste food, from farmers, food producers, supermarkets to consumers, and what we can do about it.
From Amazon
With shortages, volatile prices and nearly one billion people hungry, the world has a food problem – or thinks it does. Farmers, manufacturers, supermarkets and consumers in North America and Europe discard up to half of their food– enough to feed all the world’s hungry at least three times over. Forests are destroyed and nearly one tenth of the West’s greenhouse gas emissions are released growing food that will never be eaten.
While affluent nations throw away food through neglect, in the developing world crops rot because farmers lack the means to process, store and transport them to market. But there could be surprisingly painless remedies for what has become one of the world’s most pressing environmental and social problems.
Travelling from Yorkshire to China, from Pakistan to Japan, and introducing us to foraging pigs, potato farmers, freegans and food industry directors, Stuart encounters grotesque examples of profligacy, but also inspiring innovations and ways of making the most of what we have. Combining front-line investigation with startling new data, Waste shows how the way we live now has created a global food crisis– and what we can do to fix it.
Related Info
Check out Tristram Stuart’s website for more facts, photos and campaigns on food waste.
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