Update Aug 25th: Brilliant talk by Hans Rosling, in which he explains “Child survival is the new Green”. Book review PeopleQuake by Fred Pearce Eden Project Books 2010 Pbck; 342pp There is a scary book I have a half-share in with a neo-Malthusian friend which contains graphs of the exponential growth curves in population for [...]
Book review: Requiem for a Species Why we resist the truth about Climate Change Clive Hamilton Earthscan 2010 Hdbck 286pp Climate change is here with us now and the processes and feedbacks already underway will guarantee at least a global average of a further 4 degrees warming this century no matter what we do, with [...]
Just got back from a short trip to Dublin to see controversial environmentalist Stewart Brand and Booker-prize winning British author Ian McEwan speak at the speak at the Dublin Writers Festival. They were discussing their respective books “Whole Earth Discipline” and “Solar”. Apparently the two writers have known each other for some time. Their recent [...]
Book Review: Creating a Forest Garden Working with nature to grow edible Crops by Martin Crawford Green Books Hardback 384 pp Forward by Rob Hopkins Martin Crawford, Director of the Agroforestry Research Trust in Devon, UK, has produced a beautiful and practical book which seems sure to become the definitive text for cool temperate forest [...]
Book Review: Whole Earth Discipline An Ecopragmatist Manifesto by Stewart Brand Atlantic Books 2009 316pp “Civilization is at risk, but civilization is the problem”. Stewart Brand is one of the iconic founders of the environmental movement, an original old hippy whose influence on the boomer generation should not be understated. With his latest book Whole [...]
Friday, December 18, 2009
Peak Water Civilisation and the World’s Water Crisis Alexander Bell Luath Press 2009 Hardback 208 pp If oil supply peaks and begins to decline times will be hard. Standard of living will decline and people may go hungry but they will be able to adapt by powering down and making do with less. If water [...]
Thursday, November 12, 2009
Book Review: The Heretic’s Guide to Vegan Cookery Warning! Not suitable for Breatharians Andy Murray The Good Elf Press 2009 187pp Astrology is an amazing tool to run your life by, without having to waste time with the fraudulent pseudo-scientific mumbo-jumbo of Science. Astrology explains wars, thunderstorms and plagues. We can even use it historically. [...]
Tuesday, October 27, 2009
Book Review: The Living Landscape: How to Read and Understand it Patrick Whitefield Permanent Publications 2009 334pp 48 color photos When I first saw in the recent Permaculture Magazine that Patrick Whitefield had written a book on reading the landscape I became very excited and thought, “That’s probably a book David Holmgren would have liked [...]
Book Review: The Transition Timeline for a local, resilient future Shaun Chamberlin Forward by Rob Hopkins 190 pp pbk Chelsea Green 2009 The follow-up to Rob Hopkins’ seminal The Transition Handbook uses the method of “backcasting” from an envisioned future from which we create a timeline of how the transition to a more local, resilient [...]
Book Review- Future Scenarios How Communities Can adapt to Peak Oil and Climate Change David Holmgren Chelsea Green 2009 When I first saw David Holmgren’s Future Scenarios talk and slide at a permaculture design course in Slovenia in 2005 I was still quite new to the concept of peak oil and listened transfixed at what [...]