Decline and Fall – Book Review
Very few people will read this book without bristling at least once at things Greer says…which I regard as one of its virtues.
book review
The New Farmer’s Almanac
Like the Old Farmer’s Almanac, the New Farmer’s Almanac offers long range weather forecasts, full moon dates, sunrise and sunset times, best planting dates, crop advice, tides tables, riddles, games, recipes, songs, and folk wisdom.
Review: Snake Oil: how fracking’s false promise of plenty imperils our future
For those who thought the ‘fracking’ issue was just about water pollution and earthquakes, Richard Heinberg’s Snake Oilmight be a little perplexing.
Review: Paradise Lot
In practice, self-reliance can be harder than permaculture experts sometimes make it sound. This is where Eric Toensmeier’s ‘Paradise Lot’ comes in. Anyone who finds him or herself discouraged in their permaculture garden efforts should take heart and read this book.
Less is more, more or less
The basic tenet of the steady state economy (or SSE) is an observation that makes complete sense: you can’t have infinite growth in a finite system. Unfortunately, conventional economics – perhaps in an attempt to defy its characterization as the dismal science – says otherwise. Its faith in unending growth portrays it as both possible and desirable.
Economies should be shaped to suit man
Sacred Economics is a hugely ambitious book. It takes aim at the most basic intellectual and moral foundations of our modern industrial societies. The author, Charles Eisenstein, is fully aware that many of his arguments and proposals will seem naïve, utopian and hopelessly idealistic to sceptical readers, versed in the realities of current-day economic theory and practice. However, as he puts it, these ideas only ‘await a deepening of the crisis for the unthinkable to become common sense.’
Review: The Localization Reader, edited by Raymond De Young and Thomas Princen
For general audiences and experts alike, this is an engaging, accessible reader that takes an affirmative social change approach to localization.
Energy literacy through an astonishing coffee table book
It is hard to imagine a more unlikely vehicle for advancing energy literacy than a finely crafted large format picture book. Energy, after all, is invisible. We see its effects, but never the thing itself. And yet, Energy: Overdevelopment and the Delusion of Endless Growth succeeds and succeeds profoundly.
No place sacred: ENERGY (review)
They say a picture is worth a thousand words. With that in mind, the 195 color, mostly full page — often double page — photographs in the Post Carbon Institute’s latest book, ENERGY: Overdevelopment and the Delusion of Endless Growth, speaks volumes beyond its gigantic sized pages about the energy and environmental predicament humanity is immersed in today.
What happens when we shock a system?
Have you ever noticed that some things in the world like to be disrupted? Rogue militant groups set out to garner counter-attacks that distract their opponents while draining their resources. Viruses encourage multi-cellular organisms to activate their immune systems in attempts to wipe them out. Teenagers seek the disdain – and occasional wrath – of authority figures in their lives.
The desert and the settlement: three American anarchists
Akshay Ahuja reviews A Paradise Built in Hell, Good News, and The Long Loneliness.
If you’re not doing politics, you’re not doing enough
If you look closely, you’ll see that local government is not just something you need to get around and that you don’t, in fact, have to fight City Hall. Indeed, City Hall may be just waiting for you to walk through the front door and take your place as an active citizen.