Best of
Sustainability

2004

Earthbag Building: The Tools, Tricks and Techniques


Kaki Hunter - 2004
    This has led to widespread interest in using natural materials—straw, cob, and earth—for building homes and other buildings that are inexpensive, and that rely largely on labor rather than expensive and often environmentally-damaging outsourced materials.Earthbag Building is the first comprehensive guide to all the tools, tricks, and techniques for building with bags filled with earth—or earthbags. Having been introduced to sandbag construction by the renowned Nader Khalili in 1993, the authors developed this "Flexible Form Rammed Earth Technique" over the last decade. A reliable method for constructing homes, outbuildings, garden walls and much more, this enduring, tree-free architecture can also be used to create arched and domed structures of great beauty—in any region, and at home, in developing countries, or in emergency relief work.This profusely illustrated guide first discusses the many merits of earthbag construction, and then leads the reader through the key elements of an earthbag building: Special design considerations Foundations, walls and floors Electrical, plumbing and shelving Lintels, windows and door installations Roofs, arches and domes Exterior and interior plasters.With dedicated sections on costs, making your own specialized tools, and building code considerations, as well as a complete resources guide, Earthbag Building is the long-awaited, definitive guide to this uniquely pleasing construction style.Kaki Hunter and Donald Kiffmeyer have been involved in the construction industry for the last 20 years, specializing in affordable, low-tech, low-impact building methods that are as natural as possible. They developed the "Flexible Form Rammed Earth Technique" of building affordably with earthbags and have taught the subject and contributed their expertise to several books and journals on natural building.

Rocket Mass Heaters: Superefficient Woodstoves You Can Build


Ianto Evans - 2004
    This book explains in detail exactly how to build one, then how to use it in a range of applications. We discuss materials: where to find them, what to pay and how to make use of found and recycled parts. The section on fire and fuels is thorough but simple; we tried to keep away from numbers wherever possible. There are success stories, case studies, references and where to find further information, all heavily illustrated. Home heating can be expensive both in capital equipment and in running costs. If we heat by gas, oil or electricity we are supporting a big corporation and impoverishing ourselves. By building an extra efficient heating system you will be one more big step off the treadmill and your move to self-sufficiency and true wealth. Good luck with your stove! From the Introduction by Ianto Evans

Presence: An Exploration of Profound Change in People, Organizations, and Society


Peter M. Senge - 2004
    In wide-ranging conversations held over a year and a half, organizational learning pioneers Peter Senge, C. Otto Scharmer, Joseph Jaworski, and Betty Sue Flowers explored the nature of transformational change--how it arises, and the fresh possibilities it offers a world dangerously out of balance. The book introduces the idea of "presence"--a concept borrowed from the natural world that the whole is entirely present in any of its parts--to the worlds of business, education, government, and leadership. Too often, the authors found, we remain stuck in old patterns of seeing and acting. By encouraging deeper levels of learning, we create an awareness of the larger whole, leading to actions that can help to shape its evolution and our future.Drawing on the wisdom and experience of 150 scientists, social leaders, and entrepreneurs, including Brian Arthur, Rupert Sheldrake, Buckminster Fuller, Lao Tzu, and Carl Jung, Presence is both revolutionary in its exploration and hopeful in its message. This astonishing and completely original work goes on to define the capabilities that underlie our ability to see, sense, and realize new possibilities--in ourselves, in our institutions and organizations, and in society itself.

The End of the Line: How Overfishing Is Changing the World and What We Eat


Charles Clover - 2004
    Packed with nutrients and naturally low in fat, fish is the last animal we can still eat in good conscience. Or can we?In this vivid, eye-opening book—first published in the UK to wide acclaim and now extensively revised for an American audience—environmental journalist Charles Clover argues that our passion for fish is unsustainable. Seventy-five percent of the world’s fish stocks are now fully exploited or overfished; the most popular varieties risk extinction within the next few decades.Clover trawls the globe for answers, from Tokyo’s sumptuous fish market to the heart of New England’s fishing industry. He joins hardy sailors on high-tech boats, interviews top chefs whose menu selections can influence the fate of entire species, and examines the ineffective organizations charged with regulating the world’s fisheries. Along the way he argues that governments as well as consumers can take steps to reverse this disturbing trend before it’s too late. The price of a mouthwatering fillet of Chilean sea bass may seem outrageous, but The End of the Line shows its real cost to the ecosystem is far greater.

Nature's Way: Native Wisdom for Living in Balance with the Earth


Ed McGaa - 2004
    He then offers everyday lessons and values gleaned from Nature that endure for all times and people.In this call for spiritual awakening, McGaa explains how we can create a new global culture based not on dominance over nature for economic and political gain, but on values that endure for all times and all people. Nature's Way explores Native American belief systems, oppression of Native Americans by the dominant society, the desacralisation of Nature, and the complicity of institutional religion.Taking on religion, politics, and culture, McGaa provides a template for readers – a path designed by Nature that anyone can follow. Using the lessons of eagle, bear, lion, wolf, orca, owl, tiger, buffalo, rat, deer – even the cottonwood tree, Nature's Way teaches all of us how we can overcome religious intolerance, treat women and men equally, preserve our environment, and live in peace.

The Trees of San Francisco


Mike Sullivan - 2004
    In The Trees of San Francisco he has combined his passions, offering a striking and handy compendium of botanical information, historical tidbits, cultivation hints, and more.Sullivan's introduction details the history of trees in the city, a fairly recent phenomenon. The text then piques the reader's interest with discussions of 71 city trees. Each tree is illustrated with a photograph--with its common and scientific names prominently displayed--and its specific location within San Francisco, along with other sites; frequently a close-up shot of the tree is included. Sprinkled throughout are 13 sidelights relating to trees; among the topics are the city's wild parrots and the trees they love; an overview of the objectives of the Friends of the Urban Forest; and discussions about the link between Australia's trees and those in the city, such as the eucalyptus.The second part of the book gets the reader up

The Power and Promise of Humane Education


Zoe Weil - 2004
    Humane education does this, offering young people deeply meaningful education about the issues of our time, teaching them to be critical and creative thinkers, inspiring their reverence and respect, and empowering them to be conscientious decision-makers. This book offers teachers clear suggestions for implementing humane education in both classrooms and non-traditional educational settings. Inviting and easy to use, it describes the four elements of humane education, along with stories, examples, case studies, activities and resources.Zoe Weil is president of the International Institute for Humane Education. A frequent speaker, she authored Above All, Be Kind: Raising a Humane Child in Challenging Times.

Why Is Corporate America Bashing Our Public Schools?


Kathy Emery - 2004
    Corporate money. CEOs and American big business have blanketed United States public education officials with their influence and, as Emery and Ohanian prove, their fifteen year drive to undemocratize public education has yielded a many-tentacled private-public monster.With stunning clarity and meticulous research, Emery and Ohanian take you on a tour of board rooms, rightist think tanks, nonprofit concerned citizens groups, and governmental agencies to expose the real story of how current education reform arose, how its deceptive rhetoric belies its goals, and the true nature of its polarizing and disenfranchising mission.Why is corporate America bashing our schools? Because it's in their interestsnot yours. What can you do to promote your best educational interests? Read this expose and get ready to dismantle the education-reform machine.

Managing with Aloha: Bringing Hawaii's Universal Values to the Art of Business


Rosa Say - 2004
    Yet Rosa Say, founder of Say Leadership Coaching and former Vice President of Hualalai at historic Kaûpûlehu, boldly proposes that Hawaii is optimally suited to lead the world in the pursuit of values-centered business, because we all live with something good and right by its very nature: Aloha and all it embraces. Managing with Aloha explores nineteen different Hawaiian values, and in the tradition of Dr. George Kanahele this book demonstrates how managers can bring these universal values into every kind of business practice today. Say draws on many examples of how she put these values into profitable practice in her own successful career as a manager, and she eloquently shares her common-sense approaches to blending the social and economic goals of business enterprise in ways that define a Hawaiian sensibility for the way we work and live.

Nature's Operating Instructions: The True Biotechnologies


Kenny Ausubel - 2004
    These are not utopian fantasies but proven strategies developed by experts who have discovered how to exploit the innate intelligence of living systems to create “true biotechnologies.”The Bioneers (“biological pioneers”) are a network of scientists, writers, economists, artists, and other leaders with practical and visionary solutions for our most pressing environmental and social challenges. Their annual conference draws global attention, and its most inspiring presentations become source material for books in the Bioneers series.In this volume, Bioneers founder Kenny Ausubel gathers reports from leaders in the fields of biomimicry (mimicking nature to restore environments and transform production processes), “living technologies” that break down toxics biologically; and ecologically sound design for buildings and industries. These are set alongside essays by such writers as Paul Hawken, Terry Tempest Williams, and Michael Pollan that underscore the need to work in harmony with natural systems. Unlike corporatized genetic manipulation, the “true biotechnologies” explored here illuminate a future of hope by wedding human ingenuity to the wisdom of the wild.

The Philosophy of Sustainable Design: The Future of Architecture


Jason F. McLennan - 2004
    In 'The Philosophy of Sustainable Design', Jason McLennan outlines the major ideas and issues that have emergend in the growing movement of green architecture and sustainable design over the last 30 years.

The Essential Exponential! (For the Future of Our Planet)


Albert A. Bartlett - 2004
    

The Lilypad List


Marian Van Eyk McCain - 2004
    Focusing on the popular trend of downshifting, this guide includes advice for those those who desire a simpler way of life.

The Rammed Earth House


David Easton - 2004
    By rediscovering the most ancient of all building materials --earth--forward-thinking homebuilders can now create structures that set new standards for beauty, durability, and efficient use of natural resources.Rammed earth construction is a step forward into a sustainable future, when homes will combine pleasing aesthetics and intense practicality with a powerful sense of place. Rammed earth homes are built entirely on-site, using basic elements--earth, water, and a little cement. The solid masonry walls permit design flexibility while providing year-round comfort and minimal use of energy. The builder and resident of a rammed earth house will experience the deep satisfaction of creating permanence in a world dominated by the disposable.

Troubled Water: Saints, Sinners, Truth Lies About The Global Water Crisis


Brooke Shelby Biggs - 2004
    the rest improvises. the number of people who die worldwide from lack of access to safe water is equivalent to an area the size of Canada.Water. You drink it, wash in it, cook with it, bathe in it, swim in it, float on it, make your morning tea with it. the earth is 70% water; so is the human body. Water, for many of us, is so ubiquitous as to be easy to overlook or take for granted. But we do so at our own peril. the amount of water that exists on earth today is exactly the amount that existed at the beginning of time. But humanity is putting greater demands on this precious, limited resource than ever before.Around the world, a billion people don?have access to clean water. Droughts, floods, and waterborne diseases kill tens, perhaps hundreds of millions of people (mostly children) every year. And huge multinational corporations see a profit opportunity unparalleled even by oil or gold. From Bolivia to Britain, water supplies are being privatised and sold for profit, cutting millions off from the single most crucial human need.Meanwhile, consumers in industrialised countries such as Italy, Britain, Australia and the United States eagerly drink millions of litres of bottled water every day - some of which is less pure than the stuff flowing from their taps at home.Why are the politics of water so skewed, and what?being done about it? this book explores the problems and the solutions, and provides resources for ordinary readers to get involved.

Planetary Citizenship: Your Values, Beliefs and Actions Can Shape A Sustainable World


Hazel Henderson - 2004
    Two world-renowned global activists explore the rise of grassroots globalists -- citizens all over the world who are taking responsibility to build a more peaceful, harmonious, and sustainable future -- in this wide-ranging dialogue.

Women and Sustainable Agriculture: Interviews with 14 Agents of Change


Anna Anderson - 2004
    Food distribution has become so centralized that even those who live in rural areas can find it difficult to buy locally grown vegetables and dairy products. In the 1950s, American farmers acted on governmental advice that a single man could produce more with a machine and chemicals than several men could working the land the traditional way. Since American farming has mainly become agri-business, many opportunities exist for changes in the production of food that could positively impact the environment, health and community spirit. involved in different areas of agriculture. Each interview provides a broad perspective of the complexities of agriculture today - from conservation practices to court battles. The interviews, framed with brief overviews of the historical development of U.S agriculture, discuss agricultural policy and also give practical how-to information on changing farming practices.

Gardeners Of Eden: Rediscovering Our Importance To Nature


Dan Dagget - 2004
    He demonstrates case after case of positive human engagement in the environment and of managed ecosystems and restored areas that are richer, more diverse, and healthier than unmanaged ones. Much of pre-Columbian America, he contends, was not a pristine wilderness but an ancient garden managed over millennia by native peoples who shaped the plant and animal communities around them to the mutual benefit of all. What Dagget is proposing is a radical change in the way we define land health and the ways this health can be achieved. Rather than leaving the land alone, he recommends a new kind of environmentalism based on management, science, evolution, and holism, and served by humans who enrich the environment even as they benefit from it. In this way, we humans can resume our ancient role as gardeners and stewards of our world, reviving damaged land, facilitating the return of native species, restoring the land's ability to absorb and store water and carbon. ecological crisis and a new purpose for our human energies and ideals. This book is essential reading for anyone involved with the earth and anyone seeking a viable way for our burgeoning human population to continue to live upon it.

Tending Fire: Coping With America's Wildland Fires


Stephen J. Pyne - 2004
    Traces the ancient alliance between fire and humanity, delves into the role of European expansion and the creation of fire-prone public lands, and then explores the effects wrought by changing policies of letting burn and suppression.

Sustainable Architectures: Critical Explorations of Green Building Practice in Europe and North America


Steven A. Moore - 2004
    Knowing how to build more technically efficient, or ecologically responsible, buildings, and being able to assemble the social resources to do so, requires different forms of knowledge and practice. There is wide contestation over the optimal pathways to greener buildings design and great diversity in practices of sustainable architecture.This volume brings together leading researchers from across the European Union and North America both to illustrate the diversity of practice and to provide a critical commentary on this key debate. The reader is provided with an introduction to competing perspectives on the sustainable architecture debate, international exemplars of differing practice and an overview of new theoretical and methodological resources for understanding and meeting the conceptual, social and technical challenges of sustainable architecture.

The Treasures of Simple Living and Radical Simplicity and the Fourth Step


Tyra Arraj - 2004
    Our children would go to school and we would see them as much as our busy schedules allowed. But such a future held no attraction for us. So we packed up, left it all behind and drove into the unknown. Our journey took us beyond the electric lines, telephone, paved roads and television. We built our own house, grew salads year-round in a solar greenhouse, and taught our children at home, all in the midst of a forest where the nearest neighbors are wild animals, and the snow gets four feet deep. The inconveniences were soon forgotten in the joys of living under our own roof, watching our children blossom, and discovering abilities we never knew we had. The simplicity took away economic pressures and gave us time to search for life's deeper meanings. PART I explains why we left the city, how we solved the problem of earning a living and what we went through once we bought a piece of land in the middle of a forest. PART II tells about the treasures we found in our simple life, and why our experiment paid us back a thousand-fold. PART III describes common obstacles to creating a new lifestyle closer to nature, and some important skills that helped us along the way. We published The Treasures of Simple Living in 1987, and have left it here much as it first appeared. Radical Simplicity and the Fourth Step updates that story, but more importantly, tries to describe and distill how living in the forest changed the way we saw the world we had grown up in, and convinced us a better way of living was possible. Jim and Tyra, the forest, Summer 2004