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Ecoversity blogs:
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Vortex
John Allen (right) at the book launch for "Me and the Biospheres"; with Ecoversity web editor Stephen Miller (left) and the poet Rose (center).
(see more pics)
Photos: Lisa Law
| Ecoversity: Recent Books of Note | |
 
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The Empathic Civilization The Race to Global Consciousness in a World in Crisis Jeremy Rifkin "a new rendering of human history and the meaning of human existence." Arianna Huffington has chosen The Empathic Civilization for this month's HuffPost Book Club. She writes: "The Emphatic Civilization is a fascinating book that boldly challenges the conventional view of human nature embedded in our educational systems, business practices, and political culture - a view that sees human nature as detached, rational, and objective, and sees individuals as autonomous agents in pursuit primarily of material self-interest. And it seeks to replace that view with a counter-narrative that allows humanity to see itself as an extended family living in a shared and interconnected world. "Please read The Empathic Civilization and join in our month-long discussion about it. Not only will Jeremy Rifkin be regularly blogging about the issues his book raises, we will also be featuring posts from over 30 of the world's leading scientists, scholars, and public policy intellectuals in a many fields, which will allow us to have a robust and informed discussion on what it will take to create and nurture a truly empathic civilization." (HuffPo Book Club) |
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Storms of My Grandchildren The truth about the coming climate catastrophe and our last chance to save humanity James Hansen At some point in the not-too-distant future, we will either have succeeded in mobilizing ourselves and will have avoided the worst effects of anthropogenic climate change, in which case James Hansen will have been the hero of the story, or we will have failed, in which case Hansen will be known as the Cassandra that too few listened to. The Director of NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies, and an adjunct professor at Columbia's Earth Institute, Hansen was the first to sound the alarm on the likely climate impacts of CO2 forcing at a Senate hearing in the hot summer of 1988. In this important volume he recapitulates the science of climate change and CO2, including the most recent (and more dire) findings, and surveys just what we can expect to happen in the future. Hansen, muzzled under the Bush administration, is determined to get the word out about the threat to the biosphere. "In order for a democracy to function well, the public needs to be honestly informed. But the undue influence of special interests and governmental greenwash pose formidable barriers to a well-informed general public. Without a well-informed public, humanity itself and all species on the planet are threatened." |
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An Ocean of Air
Why the Wind Blows and Other Mysteries of the Atmosphere Gabrielle Walker An Ocean of Air is a highly engaging history of the discovery of the nature of our world's atmosphere, and the reader will quickly discover there is much more to the story than he or she might have thought. Gabrielle Walker has been climate-change editor at Nature and features editor at New Scientist; she has presented many programs for the BBC, and is visiting professor at Princeton University. |
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Mycelium Running
Paul Stamets Willem Malten has reviewed "Mycelium Running" on his Vortex blog; here is an excerpt: Paul Stamets is a legendary observer of the fungi kingdom, and has been, ever since his first encounter with mushrooms as a forester some 30 years ago. They soon took over his imagination. Over the years Stamets wrote a series of beautiful books which generously informed an increasingly fungi-philic public on every step of his investigations into the life-form of mushrooms: their growth and cultivation, their phenomenal reach and expansive properties, their potential in medicine and environmental re-mediation strategies, and their key role as decomposers. "... Mycelium is the neurological network of nature....interlacing mosaics... information-sharing membranes... in constant molecular communication with its environment ..." (view full post at Vortex) - Mycelium Running: How Mushrooms Can Help Save the World 
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Gardening at the Dragon's Gate
Wendy Johnson "Wendy Johnson follows in the footsteps of Thoreau . . . Her book is succulent, full of surprises, wise, tender, tough, and delicious to read. It is for everyone who wants to live a rich, deep, life." - Jack Kornfield, author of The Path With Heart 
and After the Ecstasy, the Laundry
"A glorious book . . . deep philosophy with dirt beneath its fingernails." - Bill McKibben, author of Deep Economy 
and The End of Nature
"If Earth took a human voice, it would be Wendy's: wry, fierce, passionately attentive to detail, and so startling in its wild freedom it's almost scary.. . . This book is a tonic to the soul. I dare anyone to read it and not be shaken into a fuller, gladder life." - Joanna Macy, author of World as Lover, World as Self 
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Field Notes from a Catastrophe; Man, Nature, and Climate Change Elisabeth Kolbert Highly acclaimed in it's original form as a series in the New Yorker magazine, this smart and lucidly written book is composed of vignettes of the people who are in effect the scouts out there on the front lines of the approaching catastrophe of climate change. |
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With Speed and Violence: Why Scientists Fear Tipping Points in Climate Change
Fred Pearce This is an absolutely fascinating and compelling read... a survey in 37 chapters of the triggers to rapid climate change which most concern climate scientists now. No summary can do Pearce's book justice, so I'll defer to Lester Brown's endorsement from the book jacket: "If you want to quickly get up to date on climate change and its consequences, I recommend With Speed and Violence. If you can only read one book on climate change, this is it." |
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New Green History of the World
Clive Ponting Ponting masterfully surveys the impact of humanity on the biosphere of earth, starting with our hunter-gatherer period (99% of human history), the agricultural revolution, rapid population growth and the beginning of large scale human-caused exterminations (e.g. chapter 8, "The Rape of the World"), and through the petroleum age until now. This guide is an easy, compelling read, which in the end builds a portrait of our species' impact on the planet over the last 10,000 years, with many surprising narratives filling in the details along the way. Clive Ponting's "New Green History of the World" is the 2007 updated version of his 1992 "Green History of the World". |
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The Creation: An Appeal to Save Life on Earth
E.O Wilson The Harvard pioneer of conservation biology and creator of The Encyclopedia of Life, wrote this impassioned plea from a 'secular humanist' to a Southern Baptist pastor- a plea to fully appreciate the wonder of life on Earth and cooperate to preserve it in it's full healthy diversity. "In my opinion, Pastor, the ascent to Nature and the restoration of Eden do not need more spiritual energy. Of that, people have a superabundance. Rather, spiritual energy must be more broadly applied, and more exactly guided by an understanding of the human condition. Humanity's self-image has risen far during the past three hundred centuries. First lifted by religion and the creative arts, it can rise still higher on the wings of science." |
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The Superorganism
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Me and the Biospheres
John Allen From the press release: "Anyone suffering from the Global Warming Blues will cherish this uplifting account of the most ambitious environmental experiment of our time: Biosphere 2, a miniature Earth under glass, the world's largest laboratory for global ecology. John Allen's memoir, 'Me and the Biospheres' is a rich and complex narrative, filled with rollicking adventure, exceptional camaraderie and mind-bending science." |
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Browse recent Amazon listings: Climate Change
Eco-Sustainability
Oceana
Polar Warming
Earth Future
Bees and Beasts
Hosting Bounty
Biodiverse
Water
Films: Climate Change
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More Amazon Listings:
Climate Change
Eco-Sustainability
Oceana
Biodiversity
Water
Polar Warming
Earth Future
Bees and Beasts
Hosting Bounty
Films on Climate Change
Plan B 3.0: Mobilizing to Save Civilization
Lester Brown's new book can be read or downloaded online at Earth Policy.
Lester Brown spoke at the Lensic in Santa Fe on Oct 29. Watch a 5-part Youtube sequence of Lester giving essentially the same presentation at Greenfest 08 here.
