Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed400 reviews Jared Diamond Viking Adult, 2004 Warms up after the first couple chapters + Good overview of the relationship between the environment & politics + Critical topic, excellent scholarship, yet very accessible Not quite as good as his best-known book, "Guns, Germs and Steel", mostly because the first 50 pages are about Montana. Who cares about Montana? I barely even know where it is. But after that it gets wicked awesome. Unfortunately you can't really skip the Montana parts - too many concepts are ...             Natural Capitalism: Creating the Next Industrial Revolution84 reviews Paul Hawken, Amory Lovins, ... Back Bay Books, 2000 an optimistic vision of the future + Reinvention + Excellent book! + Prompt service. + Required Reading for the Twenty-First Century             The Manufacture Of Evil: Ethics, Evolution, and the Industrial System3 reviews Lionel Tiger Marion Boyars Publishers Ltd, 2000 Off the beaten track + Helps Understand the Lack of Ethics Behind Blackout + rational starting point for understanding our human turmoil I reviewed this book for a science journal not long after its publication. Rated it four out of five. Why come back eighteen years later? Charting the paths followed over the past three decades toward the goal of a `biosocial science' brought me back. The author is the collaborator with Robin ...             Alternative Energy Demystified1 review Stan Gibilisco McGraw-Hill Professional, 2006 Good introduction This book provides a good overview of present and future alternative energy sources. It discusses the fundamentals from wood stoves to nuclear fusion. Note, this is an overview book, NOT a HOW-TO book. You aren't going to get blueprints on building a wind turbine but you will get a brief discussion ...             The Ecology of Commerce40 reviews Paul Hawken Collins Business, 1994 Get it now, no need to think twice + Always timely and smart + Reshaping industrialism + Global Required Reading + Tough read but worth the time             Environment, Scarcity, and Violence.5 reviews Thomas F. Homer-Dixon Princeton University Press, 2001 A must read on the relationship of violence and scarcity... + Scholarly analysis + Thoughtful, General, Missing the Big Bang + Sources of strife + Seminal thoughtpiece, masterfully written             Cradle to Cradle: Remaking the Way We Make Things148 reviews William McDonough, Michael Braungart North Point Press, 2002 Visionaries! + excellent, even oustanding + Seeing ourselves as all being part of the great cradle to cradle cycle is an important step forward. + PERFECT!             The Ingenuity Gap: Facing the Economic, Environmental, and Other Challenges of an Increasingly Complex and ...18 reviews Thomas Homer-Dixon Vintage, 2002 Probably one of the best scholastic works I've ever read + Key Piece in a Body of Work of Great Import + What we don't know can hurt us... + Very lucid writer.             Pandora's Poison: Chlorine, Health, and a New Environmental Strategy22 reviews Joe Thornton The MIT Press, 2001 Double Value: on Environmental *and* Information Strategy + A Clear Eyed View of The Problem...And A Solution This is the best of the several environmentally-oriented books I have reviewed recently, and it offers a double value: not only does it lay out a persuasive social, economic, and political case for abandoning the Risk Paradigm of permissive pollution in favor of an Environmental Paradigm of zero ...             The Collapse of Complex Societies (New Studies in Archaeology)16 reviews Joseph Tainter Cambridge University Press, 1990 Utterly brilliant work of genius, joins Allott's Health of Nations + Best explanation of the rise and fall of civilization + Outstanding Scholarship This is an utterly brilliant stunning work of genius. It begins with a comprehensive review of what appears to be every work in English relative to the topic being considered. The author has done a phenomenal job of both dissecting and then discussed the varied authors contributing to each of the ...             Human Scale7 reviews Kirkpatrick Sale New Catalyst Books, 2007 A life-changing book + Should be Re-Issued, a Seminal Publication Relevant to Governance + a defense of anarchism in all human endeavors + A Needed Gospel: Get this book back in print!             The Blue Death: Disease, Disaster, and the Water We Drink14 reviews Robert D. Morris HarperCollins, 2007 Book Review + An EXCELLENT Must Read For Anyone Who Drinks Water + Engaging -- could not put the book down + Needs more on the role of population in water problems + Old microbe memories             Panarchy: Understanding Transformations in Human and Natural Systems4 reviews Island Press, 2001 Economics, Ecology, and Sociology Interactions + Mixed Feelings--Mix of Brilliance and Gobbly-Gook + Panarchy: Understanding Transformations + Highly Informative             Catastrophe & Culture: The Anthropology of Disaster (School of American Research Advanced Seminar Series)2 reviews Susanna M. Hoffman ;Anthony Oliver-Smith;Gregory V. Button ;Christopher L. Dyer;Virginia Garcia-Acosta;J. Terrence McCabe;Michael E. Moseley;Anthony Oliver-Smith;Robert Paine;S. Ravi Rajan ;Sharon Stephens SAR Press, 2002 Superb Focus on Culture Underlying Catastrophe + Unveiling Complexity This is one of those books where the Amazon.com referal system worked for me. I would never have found it otherwise. It is a timely book, and it has direct relevance to the 9-11 catastrophe because everything this book talks about in terms of "cultures of catastrophe" (one could call them ...             Lives Per Gallon: The True Cost of Our Oil Addiction12 reviews Terry Tamminen Island Press, 2006 If anything, puts the problem too mildly + More MPG Needed! + Not recommended for a superficial reading... + A Must Read for Citizens Concerned about Our Energy Future + a must read             The Triple Bottom Line: How Today's Best-Run Companies Are Achieving Economic, Social and Environmental ...10 reviews Andrew W. Savitz Jossey-Bass, 2006 If You Want To Get Fluent Fast, Read This Book + Great guide to adjusting your company's direction + Great Overview of Sustainaility's Advantage This book is for interested general consumption rather than a technical practitioners' text book and as such is more than successful in teaching the basics of the triple bottom line. I'm not quite sure why some of the Amazon reviewers seem so testy about this, as the majority of American business ...             The Battle for the Soul of Capitalism26 reviews John C. Bogle Yale University Press, 2006 Nobel Prize Material--Final Review + Exellent, details and outlines the problem with the stock market. + Very academic, excellent but suited for investment amateurs + He's got it right + About What We Investors Don't Know             Sustainable Construction: Green Building Design and Delivery, Second Edition1 review Charles J. Kibert US Green Building Council, 2007 Covers everything... Since I am the 1st person to review this book, I want to just say that I started with a smaller book that gave me the basics of green architecture, terminology and the run down on LEED and the USGBC. Next I followed up with this book and I must say that this book was EXTREMELY informative and ...             Small Is Beautiful, 25th Anniversary Edition: Economics As If People Mattered: 25 Years Later . . . With ...24 reviews E. F. Schumacher Hartley and Marks Publishers, 2000 Let's Get Small + Classic + Small IS Beautiful! This is one of the radical books of the '60s --read: life-changing/ world/ changing. About a million people love this book (I've told you a thousand times to stop exaggerating), and a zillion have reviewed it. I merely refer to a little-known interview in the Christian Century magazine with E.F. ...             Green to Gold: How Smart Companies Use Environmental Strategy to Innovate, Create Value, and Build ...18 reviews Daniel C. Esty, Andrew S. Winston Yale University Press, 2006 Green to Gold + Solid Book / Good Content + Must read + Green to Gold