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Book Study Group
by Nancy Chalker-Tennant

Break Through, From the Death of Environmentalism to the Politics of Possibility by Ted Nordhaus and Michael Shellenberger published by Houghton Mifflin

Review by Nancy Chalker-Tennant

The Sierra Book Study Group chose to read Break Through, because the authors, Nordhaus and Shellenberger, even though they have both been a part of the conservation movement, are critical of these groups, including Sierra Club.

Using post modern philosophy, Nordhaus and Shellenberger build their thesis for changing the way we act on global issues. They propose alternative ways of perceiving earth and the responsibilities of the human species, “as we have survived and propagated ourselves all over the the planet.” The authors suggest those of us, who already have a high standard of living, instead of being isolationist, need to develop new ways of sharing and using the market place to make it possible for emerging nations to grow and prosper, encouraging all people to strive for a life, which allows them time for individual development.

Therefore, we will all be nurturing new ideas and inventing different ways of working together on earth.
Break Through speaks of a change in rhetoric on how we can have the confidence and “shared hope” to direct our future on earth.

For additional reading, go to: www.sierraclub.org/carlpope/2007

The Sierra Club book study group has lively discussions. Everyone is welcome to join us.

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*** Sierra Club Study Group: Once and Future Reading by Dave Ruekberg

Beginning last June 0f 2006, we introduced a study group to help acquaint members and others in the community at large with details about current environmental problems. David, Nancy, and Sara wanted both to increase our understanding of these issues, and to enable us to develop responsible solutions. Below are reviews of some of our readings, which we have found provocative, disturbing, and certainly engaging. We hope more members will join us in our quest for knowledge and its transformation into action.

The World Without Us" by Alan Weisman. This book is raising many questions among us, which leads to an interesting discussion. We decided to "map" parts of the book to better understand the text. We have each chosen chapters to illuminate with whatever visuals or extra text we choose to share.

Plan B 2.0: Rescuing a Planet Under Stress and a Civilization in Trouble. We began with Lester Brown’s comprehensive and very readable exposé of issues confronting the planet. Considering the amount of technical data Brown shares, the book is very readable. You will know just from reading the Preface whether or not this book is for you. Right off the bat he presents distressing forecasts about the effect China’s burgeoning economy may have on the environment if things continue as they have. By the same token, projections such as “using cheap wind-generated electricity to recharge [automobile] batteries during off-peak hours costs the equivalent of 50¢-a-gallon gasoline!” offers reasons for hope. Two of our most faithful members gave copies of this book as presents to friends, families, and colleagues in an effort to spread the word!

Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed. Jared Diamond, the author of Guns, Germs and Steel, takes a comprehensive view of civilizations from Easter Islanders to our own in an effort to suggest what makes the difference between a civilization in which “the rich are merely the last to die” to one in which society makes sacrifices that benefit everyone, such as in 16th Century Japan. On the long side, this book is organized in a way that allows for “dipping” into it at any point to find vital perspectives that offer us the long view on our current dilemma. (Owing to its length, we read this in two months.)

The Meaning of the Twenty-First Century. We found James Martin’s analyses and projections of the ability of technology to rescue our civilization from its current dangers both provocative and, at times, simplistic – or even frightening! Martin is the “information age guru” who wrote The Wired Generation. Perhaps riding on his laurels, Martin makes a wide range of predictions about the coming “canyon” in 2050, and how we can hope to survive it, if we can.

For February, we decided that we wanted some good news, so we have chosen Bill McKibben’s Hope, Human and Wild. McKibben is the author of The End of Nature, which was surely sobering (and fairly ignored) news about global warming back in 1990. Among his books about the realities of harm done to the environment, this one is “about healing the land as well as our souls” (Terry Tempest Williams). Although this book is out of print, copies are available in the public library, and from your favorite used bookseller (including Amazon and Abebooks).

 

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