After reading my New Year’s Resolution, (see here) a friend asked me for resources that would help us make the kind of changes we each need to make to reduce our carbon footprint, and create a more sustainable and resilient community for our children.
Education is key. My friends and I started the New Economy Book Club a few years ago to share and discuss many of these ideas. I recommend starting with David Wann’s book — The New Normal: An Agenda for Responsible Living. And here are some other titles to consider.
Tomorrow I will post links to organizations that have great, transformative ideas for personal change.
- Human Scale by Kirkpatrick Sale (2007) http://www.newsociety.com/bookid/3990
- Deep Economy: The Wealth of Communities & the Durable Future, by Bill McKibben (or his newest, Eaarth)http://www.billmckibben.com/deep-economy.html
- The Green Collar Economy: How One Solution Can Fix Our Two Biggest Problems, by Van Jones
- http://www.treehugger.com/files/2008/10/van-jones-green-collar-economy-book-review.php
- Economics Unmasked: from Power & Greed to Compassion & the Common Good, by Manfred Max-Neef & Phillip Smith (pub. December 2010)http://www.democracynow.org/2010/9/22/chilean_economist_manfred_max_neef_us
- The Return of Depression Economics and the Crisis of 2008 by Paul Krugman http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2008/dec/27/return-of-depression-economics-paul-krugman
- In Fed We Trust – Ben Bernanke’s War on the Great Panic by David Wessel http://www.infedwetrust.com/about-in-fed-we-trust.html
- Common Wealth: Economics for a Crowded Planet, by Jeffrey Sachs http://www.sachs.earth.columbia.edu/commonwealth/
- The Sustainability Revolution: Portrait of a Paradigm Shift, by Andres R. Edwards http://www.andresedwards.com/Writing/tsr.html
- People First Economics: Making a Clean Start for Jobs, Justice & Climate, essays by Walden Bello, Barbara Ehrenreich, Noam Chomsky, Naomi Klein, Susan George, Evo Morales, et al. (2009) http://green-changemakers.blogspot.com/2009/11/people-first-economics.html
- Freefall: America, Free Markets & the Sinking of the World Economy, by Joseph E. Stieglitz http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2010/jan/30/freefall-global-economy-joseph-stiglitz
- What Matters? Economics for a Renewed Commonwealth, by Wendell Berry http://civileats.com/2010/06/10/review-of-wendell-berry%E2%80%99s-new-collection-of-essays-what-matters-economics-for-a-renewed-commonwealth/
- The Great Reset – How New Ways of Living and Working Drive Post-Crash Prosperity by Richard Florida
- http://www.creativeclass.com/richard_florida/books/the_great_reset/
- Blessed Unrest, by Paul Hawken http://www.blessedunrest.com/
- The Next Hundred Million: America in 2050 by Joel Kotkin
- http://www.joelkotkin.com/content/0091-next-hundred-million-america-2050
- The Blue Economy by Gunter Pauli http://empowermentworks.org/inspired/?p=119
- Building Social Business – The New Kind of Capitalism that Serves Humanity’s Most Pressing Needs by Muhammad Yunus
http://www.muhammadyunus.org/Publications/coming-in-may-2010-building-social-business-the-new-kind-of-capitalism-that-serves-humanitys-most-pressing-needs/ - Confronting Collapse – The Crisis of Energy and Money in a Post Peak Oil World – A 25-Point Program for Action by Michael C. Ruppert http://www.wisebread.com/book-review-confronting-collapse
- Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting by in America by Barbara Ehrenreich http://www.barbaraehrenreich.com/nickelanddimed.htm
- Cradle to Cradle by William McDonough and Michael Braungart http://www.mcdonough.com/cradle_to_cradle.htm
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Good list, Lora! I’m sending it to myself and other friends. Happy New Year! Linda