Books we have read




Books we have read
Gaia                                                                 James Lovelock
Silent Spring                                                     Rachel Carson
The Road                                                         Cormac McCarthy
Then                                                                Julie Myerson
Solar                                                                Ian McEwan
Animal, Vegetable, Miracle                                Barbara Kinsolver
Soil not Oil                                                       Vandana Shiva
How Bad are Bananas                                       Mike Berners-Lee
Collapse                                                           Jared Diamond
The Secret Life of Stuff                                    Julie Hill
The Story of Stuff                                            Annie Leonard
Confessions of an Eco-Sinner                           Fred Pearce
Small is Beautiful                                              E.F. Schumacher
The Natural History of Selborne                        Gilbert White
Storms of my Grandchildren                             James Hansen


Suggestions of future books:
When Rivers Run Dry                                       Fred Pearce
Silent Spring Revisited                                      Conor Mark Jameson
Children of Men                                               P.D. James
Rethinking Macroeconomics for Sustainability   Alejandro Nadal
Sustainable Energy without the Hot Air              David J.C. Mackay
  (Downloadable for free from www.withouthotair.com)
The End of Oil                                                  Paul C. Roberts
The End of Food                                              Paul C. Roberts
Only One Earth                                                 Barbara Ward & Rene Dubos
Bad Food Britain                                               Joanna Blythman
How to Live a Low Carbon Life                        Chris Goodall
Operating Manual for Spaceship Earth               R. Buckminster Fuller
Critical Path                                                      R. Buckminster Fuller
Prosperity without Growth                                Tim Jackson
Sacred Economics                                            Charles Eisenstein
Peak Everything                                                Richard Heinberg
Six Degrees                                                      Mark Lynas
The Killing of the Countryside                           Graham Harvey
Carbon Fields                                                   Graham Harvey

2 comments:

  1. I have just finished ‘How much is Enough?’ by Robert and Edward Skidelsky which I found a very thought provoking read. It begins by considering how we got to the current state of ever increasing growth and consumption via a look at economic history, in particular the classic economic theory of Keynes and the philosophy of Aristotle. Keynes thought that increasing production and national wealth would lead to lower work hours and more leisure for citizens. This has not happened in the rush for increasing growth, and so the Sidelskys wonder why, where is all this increasing wealth going and what is it all for.
    They consider happiness is too fleeting and subjective a concept to aim for, but the meeting of certain basic goods would lead to a ‘good life’ which all citizens could enjoy. They identify the 7 basic goods to be Health, Security, Respect, Personality, Harmony with Nature, Friendship and Leisure. Once these basic goods are met the suggestion is that most citizens would experience a happy and fulfilled life, a good life, without endlessly being encouraged to want more.
    As the Sidelskys unpick the elements of each basic good, I found that this made a lot of sense, and although they have some challenging things to say about environmentalism and the provision of a basic income for all, it did make me think. It is also an optimistic glimpse of how things could be, if we citizens wanted it enough to ignore the calls of the advertisers, big companies, and the politicians in thrall to continuing national growth at all costs. So I would certainly recommend this book, it should be on the Green Readers list to read, and some of our group have certainly read it.

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    1. Hey Maggie, thanks for your critique of the book! I will consider reading it as well. A few years ago, I read The Last Wild trilogy with my older son. Now, I'm reading it with my younger son, and I would recommend it for your Green Books. It would break up the streak of non-fiction books you've read, and it shows the link between fascism and environmental degradation that Trump now threatens us with today. The first of the trilogy was written in 2013 and the other two followed quickly after.

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