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Pacific
Northwest from a recent returnee there. With family roots in Seattle,
Durning
spent several years working in Washington, D.C., for
environmental-policy
groups. While he was visiting the Philippines in connection with his
work,
however, a tribeswoman asked him to describe his home. He could not,
he relates,
answering weakly, ``In America, we have careers, not places.'' Seeing
the pity
in her eyes, he decided to bring his wife and young children back to
the
Northwest and make a true home there. To gauge by this modestly
written but rich
book, he has done well. By making a home, Durning means knowing the
geology and
ecology of a place--but also knowing the patterns of human history and
change.
Dense with information lightly presented, Durning's book turns to
discussions of
such matters as recycling, the history of suburbs, and the causes of
urban
sprawl. He notes that the assumption that mobility, not accessibility
to goods
and services, underlies Americans' desire to own private cars ``is
lethal to
cities,'' and that each of us lives at some cost to the planet (``at
one cup a
day, I go through the harvest of a coffee tree every six weeks'').
Durning
proposes ways in which we can trim that cost by reducing materialist
expectations, by recycling, and by sharing things and talents with our
neighbors, making community as a result. (His account of erecting a
recycled
basketball hoop for the neighborhood children is a charming case in
point.)
Along the way he looks at large-scale efforts to make the Northwest
more
livable, among them the Boeing Corporation's installation of
energy-efficient
lighting at an annual savings of $375,000 and downtown Portland's
closing
several thoroughfares to create pedestrian malls. ``The politics of
place is a
politics of hope,'' Durning observes. This is a hopeful, and welcome,
addition
to the literature of place, and there is much to learn in its pages.
Book Description : Simplify, downshift, sustainability. What does it
all mean?
Alan Durning returns to his home ground to consciously carve out a new
life away
from the mainstream of politics and power. This Place on Earth is both
a
personal journey and a working blueprint for anyone interested in a
better life.
Customer Comments : platerb at ksg.harvar.edu from Cambridge, MA ,
November 22,
1998 Well written but could have been so much more. Durning pulled
his punches
on several topics in this book, depriving readers of his valuable
insight on
some of the most controversial topics in the environmental movement
today. The
two most glaring examples of this are his cursory discussions of
immigration and
abortion. He doesn't discuss whether we should address the
environmental impacts
of immigration, or even write about whether these impacts actually
exist. And
although Durning goes into great detail about his wife's precarious
health
during her second pregnancy and his own fears about overconsumption in
the US,
Durning doesn't dive into why he and his wife decided to carry to term
their
third pregnancy instead of aborting. Durning has written extensively
and
eloquently on the problems of overconsumption in the US, it would have
been very
enlightening to see how Durning reconciled their decision to have a
third child
with his environmental convictions. --This text refers to the
hardcover edition
of this title tomgray at igc.org from Vermont , September 7, 1998
Penetrating
look at the problem of sustainability. This is an excellent book,
covering the
topic of sustainability and mingling personal experiences and episodes
with
illustrative examples from the Pacific Northwest. Durning offers
up-to-the-minute ideas on the policies that are needed to achieve a
truly
sustainable society, and provides specific case studies where the
exist to back
up his recommendations. But this book is more than policy
blather--Durning
chronicles his own decision to return to the region of his childhood
and shares
his personal thoughts and reactions as that decision is played out.
Fine writing
and a message that our throwaway, consumer society badly needs to
hear. A
reader, January 21, 1997 One of the most important books of 1996
Durning has
written a fascinating book that examines the potential of the Pacific
Northwest
bioregion and the people that live there. This book demonstrates that
the
personal is political, and shows readers how his/her own impact on the
planet
can be lessened. It is, by far, one of the most important books
written in 1996,
and one of the most important books that you can read in the year
ahead! -
***************************************************
Beyond Growth : The Economics of Sustainable Development
by Herman E. Daly Our Price: $12.00 You Save: $3.00 (20%) Usually
ships in 24
hours Paperback - (September 1997) 264 pages
1st Fl, Shelves Alexander library 333.7 DAL
BENTLEY 333.7 DAL
Kalgoorlie-Boulder 333.7 DAL
ARMADALE 333.7 DAL
Public Library Stock 333.7 DAL
Reviews : Herman Daly is probably the most prominent advocate of the
need for a
change in economic thinking in response to environmental crisis. an
iconoclast
economist who has worked as a renegade insider at the World Bank in
recent
years, Daly has argued for overturning some basic economic
assumptions. He has a
wide and growing reputation among environmentalists, both inside and
outside the
academy. Daly argues that if sustainable development means anything at
this
historical moment, it demands that we conceive of the economy as part
of the
ecosystem and, as a result, give up on the ideal of economic growth.
We need a
global understanding of developing welfare that does not entail
expansion. These
simple ideas turn out to be fundamentally radical concepts, and basic
ideas
about economic theory, poverty, trade, and population have to be
discarded or
rethought, as Daly shows in careful, accessible detail. These are
questions with
enormous practical consequences. Daly argues that there is a real
fight to
control the meaning of "sustainable development," and that
conventional
economists and development thinkers are trying to water down its
meaning to
further their own ends. Beyond Growth is an argument that will turn
the debate
around. --This text refers to the hardcover edition of this title
Booknews,
Inc. , December 1, 1996 If you're beginning to feel that the phrase
"sustainable
development" might be going down the semantic doublespeak path where
being fired
from your job is now dubbed "occupationally challenged," then Daly is
the
economist for you. The innovative scholar and World Bank rabble rouser
argues
that the catchword of environmentalists and international financiers
is being
used by both to further their own ends. Sustainable development, as
conceived by
Daly, becomes a radical proposition of economy as part of the
ecosystem,
requiring that we give up an ideal of economic growth and reevaluate
basic ideas
about economic theory, poverty, trade, and population. Annotation c.
by Book
News, Inc., Portland, Or. --This text refers to the hardcover edition
of this
title
Customer Comments : Tom Birdwell (bim at fred.net) from Washington, DC ,
June 19,
1998 Fuses Christian ethics w/environmental economics effectively
Herman Daly
fills a spiritual void in the field of economics. He explains how
current
capitalist economic theories dependent on unlimited growth are not
only
destructive to the environmental resource base upon which the economy
depends,
but also morally indifferent to unwanted side effects such as the
unequal
distribution of wealth. The strength of Daly's work is such that it
may help
bring two important advocacy groups that are not normally associated
we each
other--environmentalists and Christians--together into a powerful
constituency.
***************************************************
For the Common Good : Redirecting the Economy Toward Community, the
Environment,
and a Sustainable Future
by Herman E. Daly, John B. Cobb (Contributor) Our Price: $16.00 You
Save: $4.00
(20%) Usually ships in 2-3 days Paperback - (April 1994) 534 pages
1st Fl, Shelves, Alexander library 330.1 DAL
Reviews : Booknews, Inc. , April 1, 1990 Daly (economist, the World
Bank) and
Cobb (philosophy, Claremont Graduate School) expose the outmoded
abstractions of
mainstream economic theory. They conclude, in particular, that
economic
growth--the prevailing yardstick for measuring economic success--is no
longer an
appropriate goal as energy consumption, overpopulation, and pollution
increase.
Instead, they propose a new measure for the economy--the Index of
Sustainable
Economic Welfare. Annotation copyright Book News, Inc. Portland, Or. -
Customer Comments : A reader from Iowa, USA , September 7, 1998
Interesting
though a bit biased in analysis The text is not bad in any way;
meaning that
the conclusions are reachable based on the assumptions made to get
there.
Although definitely biased against "free-market" (which is clearly not
"free"
nor a "market" in the examples chosen), it is not as prescriptive as I
had
expected. Perhaps four stars is a bit generous, but the book was
better than I
expected and better than most of this genre. If someone is interested
in getting
a left-end-of-center view on the issues of sustainability, it does
have some
good commentary. dgeson at plinet.com from Denver, CO , January 27,
1998 United
Nations proponent, environmentalist and socialist. A very leftist
view point
that encourages to not let the common individual make his own
decisions in a
free market place, unless of course those decisions are in line with
the
philosophy of the United Nations, otherwise they are over ruled by the
self-appointed "I am right" elitists.
Lawrence F. London, Jr. Venaura Farm
intergarden.com InterGarden
metalab.unc.edu/intergarden InterGarden
metalab.unc.edu/permaculture PermaSphere
metalab.unc.edu/intergarden/orgfarm AGINFO
lflondon at mindspring.com london at metalab.unc.edu
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