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Whole Earth Discipline: An Ecopragmatist Manifesto (2009)

by Stewart Brand(Favorite Author)

4.12 of 5 Votes: 5

ISBN

0670021210 (ISBN13: 9780670021215)

languge

English

genre

Nonfiction

publisher

Viking Adult

review 1: I liked the ideas in the book. People need to live in dense cities. We need nuclear power to offset coal to reduce greenhouse gases. GMOs can help feed the population that is bursting at the seams. We might have to use Geo-engineering to reverse climate change. These are good ideas that might work. There is always unforeseen consequences but then again we have the perfectly visible trajectory of business as usual leading to catastrophe. A lot of good ideas a good read.
review 2: This was a fascinating book looking at issues that I am only partially acquainted with. Having said that, I suspect that this will be the only book on environmental issues I'll read this year and as they say, "a little knowledge is a dangerous thing". Having read Brand, I'm persuaded th... moreat nuclear is safe, the general condition of the planet is declining, genetic engineering is relatively safe, and cities are the way to go. How deep does this persuasion run? It's hard to say. Reading Brand was like being let in on a simmering family dispute. The book is caustic at times towards key figures in the environmental movement and a fair amount of time is spent calling out organizations like Green Peace for inconsistency and for turfing their prominent members over contrary views. All of the documentation backing up Brand's research is on his website and there aren't any footnotes to quickly turn to for evidence. I am undecided about the merits of that approach to citing sources. What I am decidedly against is the use of blogs and wikipedia in serious books about important matters and Brand makes use of both in numerous places.Read it critically as a wakeup call and an introduction into the possibilities that exist for mitigating the effects of rapid climate change. less

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