The Creation: An Appeal to Save Life on Earth – E. O. Wilson
December 23, 2009 by Bookman
Filed under People and Education, Science and Nature
A sincere plea by Edward O. Wilson for an alliance between science and religion to save Earth’s biodiversity.
From Amazon
The Creation is E. O. Wilson’s most important work since the publications of Sociobiology and Biophilia. Like Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring, it is a book about the fate of the earth and the survival of our planet. Yet while Carson was specifically concerned with insecticides and the ecological destruction of our natural resources, Wilson, the two-time Pulitzer Prize-winner, attempts his new social revolution by bridging the seemingly irreconcilable worlds of fundamentalism and science. Like Carson, Wilson passionately concerned about the state of the world, draws on his own personal experiences and expertise as an entomologist, and prophesies that half the species of plants and animals on Earth could either have gone or at least are fated for early extinction by the end of our present century.
Astonishingly, The Creation is not a bitter, predictable rant against fundamentalist Christians or deniers of Darwin. Rather, Wilson, a leading “secular humanist,” draws upon his own rich background as a boy in Alabama who “took the waters,” and seeks not to condemn this new generations of Christians but to address them on their own terms. Conceiving the book as an extended letter to a southern Baptist minister, Wilson, in stirring language that can evoke Martin Luther King’s “Letter from Birmingham Jail,” tells this everyman minister how, in fact, the world really came to be. He pleads with these men of the cloth to understand the cataclysmic damage that is destroying our planet and asks for their help in preventing the destruction of our Earth before it is too late. Never a pessimist, Wilson avers that there are solutions that may yet save the planet, and believes that the vision that he presents in The Creation is one that both scientists and pastors can accept, and work on together in spite of their fundamental ideological differences.
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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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Worldchanging: A User’s Guide for the 21st Century – Alex Steffen
December 17, 2009 by Bookman
Filed under Business and Economics, Cities and Buildings, Design and Technology, Energy and Climate, Government and Politics, Lifestyle and Wellness, People and Education, Recommended Books, Resources and Waste, Science and Nature
This book compiles the bright green solutions that are found in the Worldchanging website.
From Amazon
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:
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Biomimicry: Innovation Inspired by Nature – Janine M. Benyus
December 17, 2009 by Bookman
Filed under Design and Technology, Featured, Recommended Books, Science and Nature
This is an excellent book on bio-inspired design and points the way forward for designers, scientists and engineers to learn from nature and adopt eco-friendly methods of making stuff.
From Amazon
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:
The Biomimicry Institute promotes learning from and then emulating natural forms, processes, and ecosystems to create more sustainable and healthier human technologies and designs.
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