2010 Sustainable Living Book Discussion
(More news)Sustainable Living Book Discussion at the Calgary Public Library
We have an exciting list of books to discuss over the next nine months. We'll begin on September 15th with George Monbiot's Bring on the Apocalypse, a penetrating analysis of current issues from climate change to the "Christian Taliban."
When: 6:00 – 7:30 p.m.
Where: 4th Floor North Meeting Room, Calgary Public Library - 616 Macleod Tr. S.E.
Everyone is welcome. The Book Club is free. You can drop in or register using your library card online to ensure a seat at calgarypubliclibrary.com or by calling 403-260-2620.
Check out the complete list of books we'll be talking about!
Topic
Title/Author
Meeting Date
Sociology
Bring on the Apocalypse, George Monbiot, 2008
15 September, 2010
"Tell people something they know already and they will thank you for it. Tell them something new and they will hate you for it". Monbiot's essays on self destruction deal with themes of science, political power, war, religion, economics and culture. He has strong opinions and expresses them with concise, intense broadsides against everything from climate change deniers, to the fundamentalist “Christian Taliban,” to the evils of teen magazines, and what continued interest in the Loch Ness monster says about our attitude to real monsters. Some of the issues he reveals will make you very angry, especially at the wasteful incompetence and sheer self-centredness of government.
Business/ Economics
The Price of a Bargain, Gordon Laird, 2009
20 October, 2010
Calgarian investigative journalist Gordon Laird provides a brilliant investigation into the true cost of our bargain economy — and the end of consumerism as we know it. Ours is the age of discount: we want more, cheaper, better. But the result is low wages, urban blight, environmental damage, labour abuses, a cookie-cutter model of progress, and now an international economic crisis. Laird traces the bargain from its humble dollar-store origins to its place as global juggernaut. From Alberta’s tar sands to China’s factories, from Las Vegas to the Arctic Circle, a single question emerges: how will we survive the bargain?
Oil/Energy
The End of Energy Obesity, Peter Tertzakian, 2009
17 November, 2010
Is it any wonder that our energy needs are so great? Nearly everything that defines our way of life requires energy-consuming devices, from cars, planes, trains, and air conditioning to lights and computers. And our global appetite for energy keeps growing as population and wealth obliges consumption on an unfathomable scale. Increasing the efficiency of our devices, ironically, makes us consume even more energy. We've periodically cut back our energy use only to revert back to bad habits. Now we are energy obese. How can the world reduce its energy appetite and change its diet of fuels for a prosperous and secure tomorrow? Peter Tertzakian, a Calgary economist and energy expert, explores solutions to this question by analyzing the role of technology and circumstance on our energy use. Tertzakian focuses on the most practical options that provide the highest leverage for resolving our energy problems and reveals how evolving habits, lifestyles, mind-sets, and innovations—that might seem improbable now—will help curb our insatiable energy appetite.
Classics
A Sand County Almanac, Leopold, Aldo & Sewell, Michael, 1949, 2001.
08 December, 2010
Published in 1949, shortly after the author's death, A Sand County Almanac is a classic of nature writing, widely cited as one of the most influential nature books ever published. Writing from the vantage of his summer shack along the banks of the Wisconsin River, Leopold mixes essay, polemic, and memoir in his book's pages. The collection of essays advocate Leopold's idea of a "land ethic", or a responsible relationship existing between people and the land they inhabit. The book is considered a landmark in the American conservation movement.
Food
Animal Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life. New York: Harper Collins, Kingsolver, Barbara, 2007
19 January, 2011
Kingsolver very skillfully combines an entertaining memoir of her family's year of living on local provisions, mostly home grown on their farm in southern Appalachia, with humorous and serious reflections on rural life, the food industry, the environment, health and local farmers' economics. Her science background and success as a fiction writer allows her to captivate her audiences. She address some serious questions regarding the food we choose to eat. Issues range from protection local seeds and biodiversity to industrialization of our food system and the environment impacts that we are facing today and in the future. Readers are encouraged to ask ourselves some fundamental questions about our own approach to food, where it comes from, how far it traveled to reach us, and how we make important economic and environmental as well as health choices every day.
Sociology
The Spirit Level: Why Greater Equality Makes Societies Stronger. Bloomsbury Press., Wilkinson and Pickett, 2009
16 February, 2011
The authors emphasize that it is not the poor and the deprived in isolation who suffer from the effects of inequality, but also the bulk of that nation's population. According to their findings. incidences of mental illness, for example, are 500% higher across the whole population spectrum in the most unequal societies than they in the most 'equal' ones. Countries like Scandinavia and Japan have the narrowest of divergence between highest and lowest incomes and, indeed, boast the best psychological health of all. Conversely and rather predictably, those nations like the US and Britain, with the widest gulf between rich and poor, are plagued by the highest occurrence of health-related and social problems. Why is this? Their answer is simple, profound and disquieting; they argue that inequality, ipso facto, breeds stress across the full spectrum of society, not just among down trodden. The authors themselves urge that greater equality becomes grounded and 'built in' to the models of present and future societies.
Sociology
A Short History of Progress, Ronald Wright, 2004
16 March, 2011
Paleolithic hunters who learned how to kill two mammoths instead of one had made progress. Those who learnt how to kill 200 - by driving a whole herd over a cliff - had made too much. Many of the great ruins that grace the deserts and jungles of the earth are monuments to progress traps, the headstones of civilizations which fell victim to their own success. The twentieth-century's runaway growth has placed a murderous burden on the planet. "A Short History of Progress" argues that this modern predicament is as old as civilization. Only by understanding the patterns of progress and disaster that humanity has repeated since the Stone Age can we recognize the inherent dangers, and, with luck, and wisdom, shape its outcome.
Design
The Nature of Design: Ecology, Culture and Human Intention. , Orr, David (2004), Oxford University Press
13 April, 2011
The environmental movement has often been accused of being overly negative--trying to stop "progress." The Nature of Design, on the other hand, is about starting things, specifically an ecological design revolution that changes how we provide food, shelter, energy, materials, and livelihood, and how we deal with waste. Ecological design is an emerging field that aims to recalibrate what humans do in the world according to how the world works as a biophysical system. Design in this sense is a large concept having to do as much with politics and ethics as with buildings and technology. The Nature of Design combines theory, practicality, and a call to action.
Renewal
The Transition Handbook: From Oil Dependency to Local Resilience, Rob Hopkins, 2008
18 May, 2011
We live in an oil-dependent world, and have got to this level of dependency in a very short space of time, using vast reserves of oil in the process without planning for when the supply is not so plentiful. Most of us avoid thinking about what happens when oil runs out (or becomes prohibitively expensive), but The Transition Handbook shows how the inevitable and profound changes ahead can have a positive outcome. These changes can lead to the rebirth of local communities, which will grow more of their own food, generate their own power, and build their own houses using local materials.
Sustainable Calgary and the EcoLiving Fair gratefully acknowledge the support of the Calgary Public Library.
PLEASE NOTE: Check if copies of current books are available at the 4th Floor Information Desk, Castell Central Library (403) 260-2785.