Sustainability by Design: A Subversive Strategy for Transforming Our Consumer Culture
Author: John R Ehrenfeld
The developed world, increasingly aware of “inconvenient truths” about global warming and sustainability, is turning its attention to possible remedies—eco-efficiency, sustainable development, and corporate social responsibility, among others. But such measures are mere Band-Aids, and they may actually do more harm than good, says John Ehrenfeld, a pioneer in the field of industrial ecology. In this deeply considered book, Ehrenfeld challenges conventional understandings of “solving” environmental problems and offers a radically new set of strategies to attain sustainability.
The book is founded upon this new definition: sustainability is the possibility that humans and other life will flourish on Earth forever. There are obstacles to this hopeful vision, however, and overcoming them will require us to transform our behavior, both individually and collectively. Ehrenfeld identifies problematic cultural attributes—such as the unending consumption that characterizes modern life—and outlines practical steps toward developing sustainability as a mindset. By focusing on the “being” mode of human existence rather than on the unsustainable “having” mode we cling to now, he asserts, a sustainable world is within our reach.
Read also Multiple Sclerosis or Aura Soma
Barack Obama: This Improbable Quest
Author: John K Wilson
Barack Obama is quickly becoming America's most popular politician, and his run for the presidency has brought huge crowds at home and an unprecedented wave of international attention as well. Much more than a biography, this book is a political tour of Obama's legislative experience as well as his ideas about race, religion, and politics. Political writer John K. Wilson, author of four previous books including a study of Newt Gingrich, explores the reaction Obama has received from the left, the right, and the media. As the first presidential candidate from Generation X, Obama has generated an exciting movement of young people to support his campaign as he defines a new kind of broadly popular progressive politics. As improbable as such a quest may be this fresh new candidate may be just the right one to bridge not only generations but ideologies that often divide. Amid all the hype surrounding Obama, this book provides the first in-depth look at what he believes, what he represents, and how he might transform American politics.
Library Journal
Regarding freshman U.S. Senator Barack Obama's quixotic (at least by conventional standards) quest for the Oval Office, these books fall between the usual extremes of unabashedly promotional and critical policy analysis. The more thought-provoking is Steele's (senior fellow, Hoover Inst., Stanford Univ.; White Guilt ), who argues that while he shares much in common with Obama, he is convinced that the senator cannot prevail in his race for the White House. In his brief polemic, almost a literary jazzlike riff on U.S. politics, race relations, and contemporary sociology, Steele examines the significance and implications of Obama's candidacy, concluding that while it is historical-even iconic-he cannot be elected because he is "a bound man." By this he means that although Obama seeks to transcend superficial racial identities, he is in a double-bind, suspended between black racial solidarity and white liberal guilt. Steele admires Obama yet questions his character and policy commitments.
If Steele is an Obama agnostic, Wilson (How the Left Can Win Arguments and Influence People ), who studied law under Obama at the University of Chicago, is an Obama disciple. While Obama's candidacy is perhaps the "improbable quest" that he himself declared it in his announcement speech in 2007, Wilson contends that Obama is the most electorally appealing progressive candidate, one who has truly sparked a grassroots movement. While Steele argues that race may be the downfall of Obama's campaign, Wilson counters that Obama, through his policy proposals and charisma, has transcended race in large measure, and, if elected in 2008, would help the country move further down the road towardwhat Martin Luther King called the "beloved community." With caucuses and primaries upon us, we soon will find out which of these books proves the more deeply insightful. Neither is fully persuasive but each is essential reading for anyone wishing to try to make more sense of contemporary American presidential politics and social policy. Highly recommended for all libraries.-Stephen K. Shaw, Northwest Nazarene Univ., Nampa, ID
Copyright 2006 Reed Business Information.
Well-written piece. Relevantly, as many nationally influential voices have repeatedly noted, Obama is part of Generation Jones, born 1954-1965, between the Boomers and Generation X. Google Generation Jones, and you'll see it’s gotten a lot of media attention, and many top commentators from many top publications and networks (New York Times, Time magazine, NBC, Newsweek, ABC, etc.) are specifically referring to Obama, born in 1961, as part of Generation Jones.
ReplyDelete