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Deep Economy: The Wealth of Communities and the Durable Future
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Rating:  - Passionate and useful
This last year has seen a crop of great books which share a common message: that solutions are possible, and a sustainable society is within our reach. I'd put Deep Economy on the same shelf as Design Like You Give a Damn: Architectural Responses to Humanitarian Crises, Worldchanging: A User's Guide for the 21st Century and (judged from its early reviews) Blessed Unrest: How the Largest Movement in the World Came into Being and Why No One Saw It Coming.
It's enough to make even an old cynic hopeful.
Rating:  - how less is more
In this his newest book, Bill McKibben argues for the heretical notion that More is not Better. In fact, he says, More has become unsustainable, and is generating gross inequalities and insecurities, both among individuals and entire nations. He thus proposes a "quiet revolution begun by ordinary people with the stuff of our daily lives," beginning with our every day habits and our way of viewing the world. His favorite metaphor for this radical change is your local Farmer's Market; its antithesis is Wal-Mart, or perhaps the television show Survivor, the goal of which is "to end up alone on the island, to manipulate and scheme until everyone else goes away and leaves you by yourself with your money."
Free market capitalism has been based upon the premise and goal of unlimited growth, by any means and at all costs. Growth as both a means and an end, so goes this gospel, is good. But unsustained growth now faces three huge problems, says McKibben. Politically, unrestrained growth is "producing more inequality than prosperity, more insecurity than progress." Economically, unrestrained growth is unsustainable at present levels, especially if China and India intend to consume coal, oil, natural gas, and their by-products like Americans do. China, for example, is adding the equivalent of California to their electric grid every year. Global warming, species extinction, and resource depletion are all now a matter of the scientific record, and the earth can't sustain much more of it. McKibben's third observation is "less obvious and even more basic: growth is no longer making us happy." Our houses, to take but one example, are bigger than ever with fewer people living in them, with less sense of community than ever (cf. Robert Putnam, Bowling Alone).
Beyond economics and environmentalism, McKibben's real concern is our isolating affluence and hyper-individualism. He would move us to the truth wealth of durable communities that not only care for the earth but for each other. Along the way he illumines his research with personal anecdotes about the power of localized economies, advertisement, energy, public transportation, local radio, community supported agriculture, third world development, and housing. Such is the "economics of neighborliness." In one chapter he describes his effort to eat only locally grown food for one year--no mean feat in his home state of Vermont. If it bothers you that three-quarters of Americans say they do not know their neighbors, that Wal-Mart is "now the largest seller of food in this country (and on the planet)," and that the world produces more food more cheaply than ever and yet half the world goes to bed hungry, then read McKibben, look in the mirror, and make a few small changes to discover how less can lead to more.
Rating: - Must Read for All Human Kind..
This was probably the most profound book I have read this year. Bill's viewpoint of our society is right on. In a culture that does nothing but push us to grow, what is our breaking point and how will we know when we get there? It really has made me take a step back and not only think about the energy I use and the food that I eat, but how those choices impacts my small little world and beyond.
Hyper-individualism will be the word used to describe our generation.
Rating: - Finally An Articulate Arguement For A New Path
McKibben doesn't expose any new data but his interpretation is refreshingly different or maybe just a reaffirmation of what we knew in the Sixties but didn't follow -- Think Global Act Local. I have been thinking alot lately about why there aren't any more Southern restaurants in the South, why my kids aren't happy when we buy them yet another game, toy or gadget, why all the radio stations sound alike, why we have a dumpster packed to the gills with "stuff" in our driveway, and why I can buy tilapia imported from China for $2.50 per pound in our local supermarket but no fish from North Carolina. Apparently I am not the only one thinking about these things but judging by the number of reviews this engrossing book has garnered thus far there still aren't that many of us.
The concepts McKibben puts forth are important and hopefully gain a wider audience.
Rating: - Absolutely Essential Reading...In Conjunction with 'Only One'
Bill McKibben's concepts in his book 'Deep Economy' should be read by everyone in the world. This book should be required reading in all schools and for all political leaders as well, for it describes some key concepts we humans need to implement (now) to increase the odds of humanity surviving, and even prosepring, well into the future.
These concepts are summarized as:
1) We need to consume fewer goods and services per person (Past a certain point, More does NOT equal Better)
2) We need to produce the goods and services that we do consume in a much more efficent and environmentally sustainable way.
Mr. McKibben seems to have left the obvious 'third leg of the sustainability stool' on the woodshop-room floor:
3) We need to achieve population stability...that is, zero population gowth.
However, fear not, for this essential element of the suatainability triad is the subject of another one of Mr. McKibben's books, 'Only One'.
Even if we achieve huge strides in ideas #1 and #2, if the total number of people in the human population increases unchecked long enough, then humanity will inevitably exceed the carrying capacity of our planet.
'GNP Growth' and 'Be fruitful and multiply' should not be suicide pacts...'The Truth Shall Set You Free'...
I highly recommend reading 'Deep Economy' in conjunction with 'Only One'. Even though I have not read 'Only One' yet, I am sufficiently impressed with Bill McKibben's thinkging and writing that I am confident it will be just as enjoyable and necessary as 'Deep Economy'.
Mr. McKibben's easy-going, non-pretentious, conversational writing style combines with his inescapable logic to make this an enjoyable and profitable read.
Peace, Hope, Understanding, Love and Compassion for All.
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