March 1, 2017
Be kindly unto the scientists, for they may just save our skin--and make us happier and wealthier in the bargain.Environmentalist and entrepreneur Hawken (Blessed Unrest: How the Largest Movement in the World Came into Being and Why No One Saw It Coming, 2007, etc.), best known as a purveyor of gardening implements and as an exemplar of hippie capitalism, brings good news: not only is the world worth saving, but we can correct some of the worst effects of global warming. "Nothing new needs to be invented," he writes by way of introduction. "The solutions are in place and in action." The book that ensues is a searching, accessible, though decidedly wonky tour of those solutions. Some of them are self-evident, such as the replacement of fossil fuel energy with renewable means, including wind power ("ongoing cost reduction will soon make wind energy the least expensive source of installed electricity capacity, perhaps within a decade"). Controversially, in the energy mix, which includes such heady things as cogeneration and mirror-concentrated solar power, Hawken and contributors see possibilities for nuclear power, though they caution that existing regulations and prevailing technologies make nuclear a slow-to-market solution. Some of the planks in this broad platform are less obvious but fascinating, such as the authors' observation that "girls' education...has a dramatic bearing on global warming"; the logic is that educated girls have more control over their reproductive lives and are thus instrumental in curbing population overgrowth. The book is interspersed with essays by ecologically minded thinkers such as Pope Francis, Michael Pollan, and Andrea Wulf, but they tend to be less meaty than the technical pieces. Trees may be "social beings," as Peter Wohlleben writes in a brief think piece, but that doesn't have much to do with the climate change-ameliorating virtues of building with them. An optimistic program for getting out of our current mess, well deserving of the broadest possible readership.
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Starred review from March 1, 2017
Ten years ago, environmentalist, entrepreneur, and writer Hawken reported, in Blessed Unrest, on diverse activist groups working independently toward ecological sustainability and social justice. The results of their efforts, along with those of numerous scientific inquiries, generated Hawken's latest contribution to the global sustainability movement, Project Drawdown. Drawdown is the point at which greenhouse gases will peak and begin to decline, the most important goal for humanity to undertake. And one toward whichas Hawken and his contributors so assiduously record in this comprehensive and exacting compilation of vivid exposition and datawe are making progress. Hawken's coalition of experts in fields as varied as biology and economics, geology and engineering, along with such writers as Elizabeth Kolbert, Bill McKibben, and Michael Pollan, take full measure of the 100 most effective solutions in a meticulous inventory of current global-warming-reversing practices that are commonly available, economically viable and scientifically valid. Richly illustrated and accessible, if fervently detailed, this enlightening inventory, backed by an open-source database, covers advances in energy, land use, food, transport, and buildings. The diverse discoveries and achievements, all lucidly explained, from modest domestic adaptations to infrastructure advances, forest restoration to wave and tidal energy, do attest, as Hawken observes, to the power of our collective imagination, creativity, and conviction. A rigorous and profoundly important resource.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2017, American Library Association.)
November 1, 2016
Edited by environmentalist/entrepreneur Hawken, whose national best sellers include The Next Economy, this book taps 200 scientists, policymakers, business leaders, and activists for more than 100 rock-solid ideas not simply on combating but on reversing climate change. Printed on recycled paper.
Copyright 2016 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.