HEALTHY LIVING BOOKSHELF
Life Extension Resources • Health • Environment • Politics & Culture
Here are some of our favorite books for healthy living. This Guide is a work in progress, so we invite you to recommend additions. Authors and publishers: Send review copies to OPEN EXCHANGE, 1442-A Walnut St., #51, Berkeley, CA 94709. Email your comments or suggestions to openexchange@earthlink.net. Live long and prosper!
Life Extension Resources
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THE BLUE ZONES:
Lessons for Living Longer
From the People Who've Lived the Longest
Random House, 2008, $26
Buettner and staff took a map of the world and colored "blue zones" showing areas with a high percentage of centenarians, giving the book its title. What do the world's most long-lived people have in common? Lots of fresh veggies, limited meat and sugar, physical activity, and a large social network. Yes, you'll find familiar "blue zones" such as Okinawa and Sardinia, but also some surprises, such as smoggy Loma Linda, California, home to long-lived Seventh Day Adventists.
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THE JUNGLE EFFECT:
A Doctor Discovers the Healthiest Diets from Around the World — Why They Work and How to Bring Them Home
HarperCollins, 2008, $17.95
Pizza, pasta, hamburgers, sushi, tacos, and french fries... how did we turn healthy cuisine into not-so-healthy junk food? How is it possible that relatively poor native populations in Mexico and Africa have such low levels of the chronic diseases that plague the United States? What is the secret behind the extremely low rate of clinical depression in Iceland, where dreary weather is the norm?
Daphne Miller, MD, loves to cook, loves adventure, and loves her patients. Over the past three years she has traveled around the world to find authentic indigenous recipes and traditions that can help preserve health and prevent the many modern diseases caused by a Western lifestyle. The Jungle Effect is filled with inspiring stories, interviews with world-renowned food experts, delicious recipes, and valuable diet secrets that will stick with you for a lifetime. Food, well-prepared, may be your very best medicine!
HEALTHY AT 100
How You Can—at any age—Dramatically Increase Your Life Span and Your Health Span
Ballantine Books, $14.95
In this follow-up to his ground-breaking Diet for a New America, John Robbins reveals the secrets for living an extended and fulfilling life. He explores four very different cultures that have produced some of the world's healthiest, oldest people, finding commonality in their diets and lifestyles. Bringing the traditions of these ancient and vibrantly healthy cultures together with the latest breakthroughs in medical science, Robbins isolates the characteristics that will enable us to live long and joyous lives.
Of particular interest to us was Robbins' take on long-lived omnivores. Robbins, an avowed vegan, doesn't shy away from the fact that traditional Okinawans, Hunzans, and other groups noted for their longevity supplement their plant-based diets with small amounts of dairy, meat, and fish. Weighing the evidence he writes:
"The debate about how much, if any, animal foods are optimum to include in one's diet will no doubt continue for some time. It is hard to argue, however, against the reality that most people eating the standard Western diet would benefit considerably by moving in a more plant-based direction.... If you eat any kind of meat, purchase products that you know to be truly range-free and organic."
THE OFFICIAL ANTI-AGING REVOLUTION:
Stop The Clock – Time Is On Your Side
Basic Health Publications, 2007, $22.95
Ronald Klatz coined the term "anti-aging" and is a pioneer of the movement. Taking off where diet and exercise leave off, the authors discuss pharmacological enhancements for stimulating metabolism, reducing fat, boosting vitality, increasing sexual drive and performance, elevating mood, and more. Many of these hormones, enzymes and mega-vitamins come with caveats, so it's always best to enter an anti-aging regimen under the advice of a physician. The World Anti-Aging Academy of Medicine (WAAAM) includes 100,000+ international medical professionals.
THE LIFE EXTENSION REVOLUTION:
The New Science of Growing Older Without Aging
Bantam Books, 2005, $17.00
For the next generation age "80 is the new 60." The authors take a holistic and integrative approach to anti-aging, giving diet, lifestyle, and heredity its proper due, and recommending supplements and additives in monitored dosages where the benefits clearly outweigh any potential risks. For example, the passage on DHEA replacement therapy discusses contra-indications as thoroughly as it touts the obvious benefits. We find this to be an excellent, balanced approach and recommend this book highly to anyone contemplating an anti-aging regimen.
THE CHINA STUDY:
Startling Implications for Diet, Weight Loss and Long-term Health
Benbella Books, 2006, $16.95
With a Foreword by John Robbins, author of Diet for a New America, and a cover endorsement by Dean Ornish, MD, it's easy to guess that the authors' findings support a plant-based diet rich in complex carbohydrates and low in animal products. What's new here is the range and depth of epidemiological evidence supporting a vegan lifestyle. Multiple graphs make provide visual support: almost no level of meat consumption is safe, and the more you eat, the more likely you are to die prematurely of heart disease, diabetes, or cancer.
THE 10% SOLUTION FOR A HEALTHY LIFE:
How to Reduce Fat in Your Diet and Eliminate Virtually All Risk of Heart Disease and Cancer
Crown Trade Paperbacks, 1993, $19.00
Ray Kurzweil is the world's leading authority on artificial intelligence and one very bright guy. Over 15 years ago he set about researching ways to extend his own lifespan and compiled the best evidence into this one compact volume. Reduce your fat intake to 10 percent, exercise moderately but regularly, and make time for fun and friends, and you can greatly reduce your risk for heart disease, cancer, diabetes, and a host of other diseases—and lose weight in the bargain!
THE SUPERFOODS Rx DIET:
Lose Weight with the Power of SuperNutrients
Rodale, 2008, $25.95
Based on the New York Times bestseller SuperFoodsRx, this book includes appealing recipes and real-life prescriptions for losing weight and healthy dieting. An omnivore will find lots to love here, while at the same time learning to enjoy a menu packed with more fruits and veggies and whole grain goodies.
Health
DIET FOR A HOT PLANET:
The Climate Crisis at the End of Your Fork and What You Can Do About It
Bloomsbury, 2010
In 1971 Frances Moore Lappé launched an international crusade with her bestselling Diet For A Small Planet, her premise being that a plant based diet was more efficient than meat production to feed the world's starving masses.
Daughter Anna Lappé now shows a new generation how food choices impact our health as well as that of the planet. Her "Seven Principles of a Climate-Friendly Diet" include:
Reach for real food
Put plants on your plate
Go organic
Lean toward local
Finish your peas (reduce waste)
Send packaging packing
DIY (grow, cook, "do it yourself").
Anna Lappé, while not a strict vegetarian like her mother, recommends you "move plants to the middle of your plate. If you choose animal products, go for those raised humanely and sustainably, looking for the organic seal or grass-fed certifications."
THE VEGETARIAN MYTH:
food, justice, and sustainability
Flashpoint Press, 2009
According to Lierre Keith, factory farming is ruinous whether the bounty is cattle or corn. Commercial agriculture is waging a relentless assault against the planet and more of the same won't save us. It's agriculture that has laid waste forests, driven countless species extinct, altered the climate, and destroyed the topsoil.
Keith is a longtime former vegan who says that not eating animal products destroyed her health. Arguing from biology, Keith notes that gorillas can digest cellulose, whereas we humans, she says, need meat to build our muscles and big brains. She recommends a modified pre-agricultural diet that includes organ meats and creams and minimizes carbohydrates. An advocate for small family farms, Keith also argues that growing vegetables without foraging animals will deplete the topsoil. And she attacks vegan ethics directly: "If killing is the problem, the life of one grass-fed cow will feed me for an entire year. But a single vegan meal of plant babies—rice grains, almonds, soybeans—ground up or boiled alive, will involve hundreds of deaths. Why don't they matter?"
Yet Keith has stirred the most controversy with some provocative personal jibes at vegans, even implying that their diet causes brain damage. Vegans have predictably launched websites to rebut her claims in detail.
EATING ANIMALS
Little, Brown & Company, 2009
Eating Animals is no mere essay, but a compelling personal meditation on the author's relationship with animals as food, as companions, and as cohabitants on a fragile planet. Jonathan Safran Foer is as comfortable writing lyrical prose as he is with polemic, and this book is a brilliant mixture of both:
"Humans are the only animals that have children on purpose, keep in touch (or don't), care about birthdays, waste and lose time, brush their teeth, feel nostalgia, scrub stains, have religions and political parties and laws, wear keepsakes, apologize years after an offense, whisper, fear themselves, interpret dreams, hide their genitalia, shave, bury time capsules, and can choose not to eat something for reasons of conscience. Their justifications for eating animals and for not eating them are often identical: we are not them."
Foer details many health benefits to be derived by avoiding factory farmed meat, but it is his ethics and compassion that resonate most personally. After reading Foer's descriptions of clever pigs and scrappy chickens, and the suffering we inevitably cause farm animals, even when we kill them "humanely," empathic readers will want to consider going vegan, too. A tour de force!
FOOD. Inc.:
Movie and DVD
What Al Gore did for climate change in An Inconvenient Truth, Eric Schlosser does to dinner in FOOD, Inc. The same company made both movies, and the latter could have been subtitled "An Inconvenient Truth About Your Meat and Veggies." Less than 100 years ago all food was organic and natural, but my, how times have changed!
The idyllic ma and pa farms of yore are gone, only visible in advertising campaigns and on butter labels. Agriculture has become big business, and farmers are now factory workers, force-feeding pigs, cows, and chickens a chemical stew of steroids and antibiotics—bad for them and bad for us, too. Schlosser delicately directs our attention behind the scenes, where animals too sick to stand roll in their own feces and onto our dinner plates. Factory-farm animals spend their whole lives in dark torture chambers, to be sure. But instead of overwhelming us with the horror show (something PETA likes to do), Schlosser takes us to an independent farmer bucking the trend, where a happy pig and a plucky chicken live lives as carefree as you could imagine—before they become your future dinner.
Schlosser and company make the case that sustainable and organic farming methods could feed the world, if we'd only adopt them. Finally, the movie is an admonishment to vote with your dollar. Every dollar you spend on real and whole foods nudges the system toward sanity and sustainability. In summary, FOOD, Inc. serves up a rousing, positive message, nourishment for body and soul. The DVD features many extras not in the original theater presentation, including extended scenes of many of the interview subjects.
FOOD. Inc.:
A Participant Guide: How Industrial Food Is Making Us Sicker, Fatter, and Poorer - And What You Can Do About It
Paperback and Amazon Kindle
The book version of FOOD, Inc., is not a carbon copy of the movie and we heartily recommend consuming both! FOOD. Inc., the book, is an expanded series of essays from a chorus of writers, including notes by director Robert Kenner on the making of the movie and an eloquent chapter by Michael Pollan, author of The Omnivore's Dilemma and other culinary best-sellers. In another chapter documenting the dangers of pesticides we found the best reason of all for buying organic produce: Whether or not pesticide spraying is making us consumers seriously ill, it's absolutely killing farmworkers.
Of special interest are two chapters on genetically modified (GM) foods by authors who come to opposite conclusions, far more enlightening than hysterical critique or self-serving justification. The best argument against GM foods isn't that they're "Frankenfoods," because there are many documented benefits from genetic modification, such as adding Vitamin A to rice to prevent malnutrition in Asian populations. Attacking the science itself won't convince developing countries to avoid GM products. No, the politics of genetic engineering is far more dangerous than the science. Patent laws now allow corporations to own seed grain and thus life itself. GM patenting is dangerous because it leads to the deliberate economic enslavement of farmers as well potential ecological devastation from the adoption of a genetic "monoculture." Yes, support the science—preferably with public funding—but make sure that people, not corporations, benefit from the research. Whether to ban GM foods entirely or refine the applications becomes a spirited public policy debate within these pages.
Finally, the back of the book is filled with extensive references to organizations making a difference. Get involved!
WHY OUR HEALTH MATTERS:
A Vision of Medicine That Can Transform Our Future
A landmark book that illuminates how we have let healthcare in America become overpriced, ineffective and ultimately disastrous, and most importantly, what we can all do to fix it.
Almost everyone who has been treated by—or works within—the American healthcare system at least suspects that it is deeply dysfunctional and on the verge of collapse. Although politicians have weighed in on all sides, in these pages bestselling author Andrew Weil, MD, identifies the root of the problem. He shows precisely how American medicine, manipulated by profiteering drug companies and abandoned by government overseers, has lost its way. He then presents a solution that will not only make healthcare affordable, but will also dramatically improve the rapidly deteriorating health of the nation's citizens
"We have a right to good healthcare," Dr. Weil states, "healthcare that is effective, accessible, and affordable." But our health is far from the best in the world, even though we spend more on it than the people of any other nation. The World Health Organization recently rated America 37th in health outcomes, on a par with Serbia. Meanwhile, our costs are more than twice as high per capita as those in other developed nations, leading medical care to become a leading cause of personal bankruptcy.
And it only promises to get worse. As Dr. Weil writes, "If predictions hold, a family of four, in the next seven to nine years, will spend around $64,000 annually on health care." Our healthcare system is on the verge of collapse and it has the potential to take our whole economy down. Discover why:
• An estimated 81 percent of Americans now take at least one prescription medication every day.
• We are the only developed country without a national system of health care.
• Exorbitant medical costs have become a leading cause of personal bankruptcy.
• The health care industry generates enormous profits: The profit margin of three of our largest insurance companies in 2006 ranged from 26 percent to 29 percent.
• America has a glut of specialists and a serious deficiency of generalists due to skewed pay scales: Internists may make as much as $204,000, but a radiologist can earn as much as $911,000.
• Although new technology usually brings costs down, half of recent increases in the cost of health care are attributable to new technologies, including new drugs.
• Without lifestyle strategies that promote health, chronic, degenerative disease will dramatically increase as baby boomers reach old age.
• Few of the many pharmaceutical drugs on the market are actually safe and effective.
• Safe and effective alternatives to drugs do exist: we should look to them first for managing the most common health problems.
• We must change the education and training of all health professionals if we are going to solve the health care crisis.
• Our long-term goal must be to shift our health care efforts from disease intervention to disease prevention and health promotion.
The solution involves nothing less than the creation of a new culture of health and a complete transformation of medicine in this country, changes we can each start working on today. While it sounds daunting, the task is far from impossible. By embracing a commonsense medical philosophy known as integrative medicine, says Dr. Weil, "I am certain we will improve health outcomes and bring costs down.... I invite you to join me in making it happen."
Hailed by the New York Times, noting that he "has arguably become America's best-known doctor," Andrew Weil, MD, is a graduate of Harvard Medical School and founder and director of the Arizona Center for Integrative Medicine at the University of Arizona where he is a Clinical Professor of Medicine and Professor of Public Health. He is the author of five consecutive #1 New York Times bestsellers.
SKINNY BITCH:
A no-nonsense, tough-love guide for sassy girls who want to stop eating crap and start looking fabulous!
Running Press, 2005, $13.95
We love the Skinny Bitch book! Are you shocked? Well, it caught our eye, first, as "How could they publish such a book?" Then, "We've got to see it!" After a quick perusal it seemed interesting, even intriguing. So we bought it under the wary scrutiny of a skeptical clerk. This New York Times #1 Bestseller says it will help you stop being a moron and start getting skinny. The authors, Rory Freedman and Kim Barnouin, are smart-mouthed and don't mince words about eating to be healthy. They tell you what foods are crap and what they are doing to your health. Check out the chapter titled "The Dead, Rotting, Decomposing Flesh Diet." Try enjoying a Big Mac after you read it. Or, how about the chapter titled "Sugar Is The Devil"? Also, there's a chapter about "Carbs" and even one titled "Pooping."
This is a tough love guide that advocates veganism, eating organic foods, and they even give you a list of healthy "junk" foods. They have a diet plan and lists of websites for buying healthy food and getting more information about healthy products. Maybe all their advice and information is not something you'll follow to the letter, but they do make some very good points. They say things in a graphic, blunt way that you may recoil from initially, but then you'll think about it and probably conclude they're right. For example, they say "Eating onions and garlic makes your breath smell like someone took a shit down your throat. But they fight cancer and detoxify your liver. So, eat 'em!" Or, how about when the authors recommend that whenever you see "fat free" or "low fat" you think of the words "Chemical Shit Storm!" They also let you in on a little secret: They don't care if you're skinny or get skinny; they just hope the book will help you be healthy, strong and confident.
Skinny Bitch is a fun read, and you don't have to be a committed organic-vegan-locavore to benefit from it. The Bitches pitch, "Just because we wrote this book doesn't mean we're perfect. If you see us eating junk food or doing beer bongs don't hold it against us. We believe in enjoying life and maintaining a healthy balance."
SKINNY BITCH IN THE KITCH
Running Press, 2007, $14.95
Now, once you've read Skinny Bitch, you're asking, "What can I cook that's good for me but doesn't taste like crap?" Lucky for you, the Bitches have come out with a sequel, Skinny Bitch in the Kitch. Kick-ass recipes for every craving there is, including Bitchin' Breakfasts, PMS (Pissy Mood Snacks), Sassy Soups and Stews, and Happy Endings (Desserts.)
THE OMNIVORE'S DILEMMA
A Natural History of Four Meals
Penguin Books, $16.00
The question about what to have for dinner has confronted us since man first discovered fire. Unlike the koala bear, genetically programmed to eat only eucalyptus leaves, humans face "the omnivore's dilemma," uncertainty about how much of which foods should be consumed or avoided. Michael Pollan's eye-opening account of how we produce, market, and agonize about what we eat soon becomes a searing indictment of modern food industry practices.
Following the life of a steer in the chemical stew of a cramped American feedlot might turn anyone vegetarian. "How could it come to pass that a fast-food burger produced from corn and fossil fuel actually costs less than a burger produced from grass and sunlight?"
Unfortunately, the organic foods movement, now big business, doesn't fare much better. From "organic beef raised in 'organic feedlots' and organic high-fructose corn syrup," Pollan wonders if the industry hasn't lost its soul. If salvation is to be found, it is where chefs like Alice Waters of Chez Panisse have helped rebuild local food economies, sourcing much of their food from organic growers, and cooking only what is in season.
Pollan urges us to be wary of the meal which seems "a bargain but fails to cover its true cost, charging it instead to nature, to the public health and purse, and to the future."
EMOTIONAL FREEDOM:
Liberate Yourself From Negative Emotions
And Transform Your Life
Crown Publishing, 2009
Reviewed by Caroline Myss
We live in a tumultuous, fear-dominated period in history and must become masters at overcoming fear and other negative emotions so they don't sabotage our power. With skill and compassion, Dr. Judith Orloff shows us how to become heroes in our own lives by transforming anger, loneliness, and envy, rather than simply "reacting" when our buttons get pushed.
An Assistant Clinical Professor of Psychiatry at UCLA and intuition expert, Dr. Orloff shares her wealth of personal and professional knowledge to illuminate the field of emotions. She draws on wisdom from traditional medicine but goes light years beyond it by presenting emotions as a path to spiritual, energetic, and intuitive awakening. Why is this leap so important? The intellect has restricted vision about emotions, but bringing intuition into the feeling realm lets us go deeper within. Dr. Orloff asks us to see every success, every heartbreak, every loss, every gain as vehicles for transformation. She teaches readers to view emotions in a non-ordinary way, rather than simply making you happy or miserable. Everyone will benefit from the insightful instructions that continually guide us and also from the author's intimate personal journey and well-earned life wisdom. Judith is the kind of doctor we wish we all had. As an empath, Dr. Orloff knows the gigantic challenges of being an "emotional sponge" and teaches other empaths who've been labeled "overly sensitive" how to stay grounded in an often-overwhelming world.
You'll enjoy the "emotional vampire survival guide"—specific advice for dealing with emotional drainers. We've all met them. You're talking to someone, when suddenly you feel anxious, depressed, or tired. She describes the narcissist, the victim, the controller, and other types of vampires. Plus, there are quizzes to help you determine "Are you in a relationship with an emotional vampire?" or if you might be one yourself. Sometimes, we all have the capacity to be draining, but with mindful compassion we can catch ourselves early and make a shift.
Emotional Freedom is the rare book that can open your mind and your heart to more empowerment. Give yourself a gift and read it.
VEGAN A GO-GO:
A Cookbook & Survival Manual For Vegans On The Road
Arsenal Pulp Press, 2008, $17.95
Named "The World's Coolest Vegan" by Herbivore magazine, Sarah Kramer is a vegan superstar as well as a bestselling author. This book includes recipes both new and adapted from her previous books, with up-to-date tips for vegan travelers. Small enough to slip into one's pocket or purse, you'll enjoy this high-energy nutrition and Sarah's spicy wit.
Environment
THE VANISHING FACE OF GAIA:
A Final Warning
Basic Books, 2009
Speaking at a recent conference, noted environmentalist James Lovelock declared that renewable energy and conservation would not be sufficient to thwart the impact of "global heating," a term Lovelock prefers because it is less friendly than "global warming." Lovelock is a staunch advocate of nuclear power, saying that only nuclear fission plants will provide the power we need to run our factories and preserve a semblance of civilization over the coming decades.
Lovelock's scientific creds are formidable. In the 80s he discovered the cause for the "hole" in the Earth's ozone, leading to an international ban on aerosol CFCs and thereby avoiding countless cases of skin cancer and cataracts. He is perhaps most famous as co-creator of The Gaia Hypothesis, suggesting that the Earth behaves much like a single, self-regulating organism. The problem, writes Lovelock, is that humanity's use of fossil fuels has given Mother Earth a raging fever. Gaia is lurching ever closer to a permanent "hot state"—and much more quickly than most specialists think.
Climate change has already passed a critical tipping point, declares Lovelock, and civilization itself is now at risk. "As the earth heats, dries, and loses land to the ocean, seven billion people will be squeezed into an ever decreasing area of fertile land...." Within the next century we may have to retreat from our homes and move to what were formerly plateaus of ice in the most extreme regions of the world. We will certainly be forced to give up many of the comforts of western living. Only the fittest—and the smartest—will survive.
Humanity is unlikely to become extinct by global heating, says Lovelock, but we may be cut back to one billion people or less—approximately a seventh the world's current population. Lovelock's final advice is to move north, gain altitude, grow your own food, learn to be locally self-sufficient, and get to know your neighbors.
ED BEGLEY, JR's
GUIDE TO SUSTAINABLE LIVING:
Learning to Conserve Resources
and Manage an Eco-Consious Life
Speaking at a recent conference, noted environmentalist Ed Begley, Jr. declared that renewable energy and conservation could make a critical difference in slowing the impact of global warming. Begley is a staunch foe of nuclear fission, saying that the only "nuclear" energy we need comes from inside the sun—sunshine for our solar panels and windmills.
Currently one of the most popular speakers on eco-living in America, Begley's theme, "Live Simply So That Others Can Simply Live," has received standing ovations at over 50 events in just the last year. An Emmy Award-wining actor, Begley has since leveraged his fame to speak out for environmental causes. He has devoted much of his time in service with numerous environmental organizations, including serving on the boards of the Environmental Media Association and the Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy, and he has earned awards from prestigious organizations such as the Natural Resources Defense Council for his work with environmental issues.
"Ed Begley, Jr. is not only a talented and accomplished actor, but also a passionate advocate for environmental issues," said James Smith, president and CEO of Green Building Focus.
Guide to Sustainable Living shows how every person can green their household and reduce consumption and carbon emissions. Begley says that little changes all add up, and he's not just an eloquent spokesman but also a sterling role model. The Begley home in Los Angeles is well insulated and covered in solar panels. Begley waters his organic garden with captured rainwater, toasts his bread by pedal power, and sparingly drives an all-electric Toyota RAV.
THE GREEN COLLAR ECONOMY:
How One Solution Can Fix Our Two Biggest Problems
Foreword By Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
HarperOne, 2008, $25.95
"When many people hear the term 'green' today, they still automatically think the message is probably for a fancy, eco-elite set—and not for themselves. And as long as that remains true, the green movement will remain too anemic politically and too alien culturally to rescue the country."—Van Jones
Yale Law graduate and internationally acclaimed activist Jones calls for a "Green New Deal" to tackle the twin problems of poverty and environmental degradation. Jones' new "green-collar" jobs should, like blue-collar jobs, pay family wages and provide opportunities for advancement along a career track. While many green-collar jobs are brand new, others require only a modicum of retraining in the transition to a clean energy economy.
As Jones explains, "Much of the work we have to do to green our economy involves transforming the places we live and work in and changing the way we get around. These jobs are difficult or impossible to outsource. For instance, you can't pick up a house, send it to China to have solar panels installed, and have it shipped back.... Cities and communities should begin thinking now about ways their green strategies can also create local jobs."
Will the new alliance between unemployed rust belt workers, chronically underemployed minorities, and the environmental elite bear fruit? There's reason to be hopeful. "Van Jones demonstrates conclusively that the best solutions for the survivability of our planet are also the best solutions for everyday Americans," cheers Al Gore.
BEYOND GROWTH:
The Economics of Sustainable Development
Beacon Press,1996, $21.00
"A book by that most far-seeing and heretical of economists, Herman Daly. For twenty-five years now, Daly has been thinking through a new economics that accounts for the wealth of nature, the value of community and the necessity of morality."
—Donella Meadows, Los Angeles Times
"Considered by most to be the dean of ecological economics... Daly challenges the conventional notion that growth is always good, and he bucks environmentalist orthodoxy, arguing that the current focus on 'sustainable development' is misguided and that the phrase itself has become meaningless." —Mother Jones
"In Beyond Growth, . . . [Daly] derides the concept of 'sustainable growth' as an oxymoron. . . . Calling Mr. Daly 'an unsung hero,' Robert Goodland, the World Bank's top environmental adviser, says, 'He has been a voice crying in the wilderness.'" —G. Pascal Zachary, The Wall Street Journal
An iconoclast economist who has worked as a renegade insider at the World Bank in recent years, Daly has argued for overturning some basic economic assumptions. He has won a wide and growing reputation among a wide array of environmentalists, inside and outside the academy.
In the January-February 2009 edition of Adbusters, Daly promotes the "Big Idea" of a steady-state economy:
"The Earth as a whole is approximately in a steady state.... The most important change in recent times has been the enormous growth of one subsystem of the Earth, namely the economy, relative to the total system, the ecosphere. This huge shift from an 'empty' to a 'full' world is truly 'something new under the sun'.... Clearly the economy must conform to the rules of a steady state—seek qualitative development, but stop aggregate quantitative growth.... We have lived for 200 years in a growth economy. That makes it hard to imagine what a steady-state economy would be like."
Of course, the fate of the planet, or rather the fate of post-industrial civilization, depends upon our constructing a sustainable economy. To that end Daly calls for a number of specific programs, including resource cap-and-trade, pollution taxes, re-regulating international commerce, population stability, banking reform, and protecting the natural "commons."
THE SCIENCE OF LEONARDO:
Inside The Mind Of The Great Genius
Of The Renaissance
Doubleday, 2007, $26.00
Although primarily renowned for his works of art, Leonardo da Vinci applied his genius widely, studying flight, optics, hydraulics, biology, and more. In contrast to Descartes' dualism and Newton mechanism, Leonardo's worldview was organic and ecological. How different might the 21st century look had Leonardo's holistic science been the model for development? This is just one of many questions raised by Fritjof Capra, brilliant proponent of systems thinking and bestselling author of The Tao of Physics, The Turning Point, and The Web of Life.
SIMPLE PROSPERITY:
Finding Real Wealth In A Sustainable Lifestyle
St. Martin's Griffin, 2007, $14.95
In his bestesller Affluenza, David Wann and his coauthors diagnosed the debilitating disease of overconsumption. Now Wann shows us how we can overcome it to recapture a more abundant and sustainable lifestyle without sacrificing all the things we love. Keep your plasma TV if you really want to, but start with small, everyday changes that add up to a big difference in everything that matters most. "A friendly, personal guidebook for living a more enjoyable, healthy, loving life."—Hazel Henderson
"I wish I'd said that!"—Vicki Robin, coauthor of Your Money or Your LIfe.
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GORGEOUSLY GREEN:
8 Simple Steps to an Earth-Friendly Life
HarperCollins Publishers, 2008, $16.95
Written in a modified 'Valley Girlese', Gorgeously Green by Sophie Uliano encourages changes in our extravagant lifestyle—all while still keeping the style part. Here, at last, is "every girl's guide to an Earth- Friendly life." Many of the topics are of special interest to women—safe cosmetic ingredients and organic fabrics for clothes—but Sophie also delves into guy-friendly nitty-gritty such as green cars, alternative fuels, and composting with worms. On this matter Sophie may be a better writer than she is a gardener. When the author appeared with Julia Roberts (who wrote her Foreword) on Oprah, her gardening worms escaped and crawled around on the stage. Neither Julia, Oprah, nor Sophie herself wanted to pick them up, so a stagehand came out and took care of it. Even though Oprah seemed a little squeamish about the whole situation, Sophie forged ahead and encouraged us to compost our garbage, grow vegetables, and recycle, recycle, recycle—all to have an impact on the greening of our damaged earth. The book itself is a breezy compendium of all that's wrong with our modern culture's "fancy" lifestyle with suggestions for change. It includes lists of chemicals and why they're bad for us, and sources for healthy makeup products, including Sophie's own line of safe cosmetics. You'll also find websites, checklists, recipes. Especially of note, the Green weddings and Green vacations sections. Sophie's motto is, "One change makes a difference." Oh, and she's sooo glad we caught it in time, while we can still save the planet. You gotta love her spunk!
WAKE UP AND SMELL THE PLANET:
The Non-Pompous, Non-Preachy Grist Guide
to Greening Your Day
Slipstone, 2007, $14.95.
You haul yourself out of bed and stagger into the kitchen for coffee. But what kind of coffee? And what should you drink it in? Are those free-range eggs? What soap will clean the pan without polluting the water? The alarm went off and Earth is calling!
Our environmental soul-mates at Grist magazine (www.grist.org) have come out with a new book which distills mountains of data into a handy green guide for consumers. From cleaning supplies to travel tips, diaper options to eco-fashion, Wake Up And Smell The Planet offers lots of little choices you can make during the day that add up to a big contribution toward greening Mama Earth.
Think you've heard it all before? This book might just surprise you! Vegan condoms. Pig poop to fuel your car. How not to shave your legs (with the shower running, where you'll waste 2-5 gallons of water each minute.) And how about this—enviro-engineers are developing a shoe device to capture walking energy and use it to power portable electronic devices. From Pods to Peds, it's all here and more.
Check it out! You have nothing to lose but your liberal eco-guilt!
Politics & Culture
TRANSCENDENT MAN:
The Life & Ideas of Ray Kurzweil
iTunes Downloadable Documentary Film
Millionaire inventor and futurist Ray Kurzweil envisions that in the very the near future humans will literally merge with machines, biologically as well as technologically. Self-aware computers will easily surpass human intelligence, solve heretofore insoluble problems, accelerate evolution, eliminate disease. We'll be able to grow new bodies, upload our consciousness into robots, communicate telepathically across the internet, live "virtually" forever.
Part of what drives this brilliant inventor is a deep longing to resurrect his father, a gifted musician who died prematurely of heart disease. "Death is a profound tragedy, a profound loss," says Kurzweil. "I don't accept it." Graveyards, he claims, are at best a source of useful DNA. Is this the unholy dream of a mad scientist?
To be fair, the documentary also interviews several experts who are critical of Kurzweil's claims: "Pseudo-religious predictions with no basis in reality." "We shouldn't arrogantly think we have transcended the wisdom of five million years." "Ray is a bit more of an optimist than is warranted by reality."
Whether you embrace Kurzweil's vision or not, you'll find Transcendent Man thought provoking, a wild ride.
AN OPTIMIST'S TOUR OF THE FUTURE
Penguin Group, 2011
"Are we going to cure cancer? Are the robots finally coming? What's all that nanotechnology stuff about? How will the Internet continue to shape society? If the climate is changing, how will that affect us and can we do anything about it? What's next?" inquires Mark Stevenson. His answers may just surprise you on the upside. It's not blind optimism that informs the author, but a refreshing faith in mankind's ability to correct it's course and take the actions necessary to create a brighter future.
Stevenson's inquiries take him around the globe where he visits Australian farmers who can save us from climate change, meets a robot with mood swings, ponders the nature of intelligence itself, discusses how to end disease with genetic engineers, and talks to a Spaniard who is putting a hotel in space.
"Mark Stevenson is a futurist endowed with abundant optimism. Where some fear that robotics and artificial intelligence will dehumanize the world, he sees an enhancement of freedom... invigorating!" —Henry Pollack
Stevenson, a young Brit, puts his faith in inventors and entrepreneurs—more than governments and bureaucracies—to solve the problems of modernity. Whether this represents good judgment or naivete only time will tell.
TRANSFORMING THROUGH 2012
Leading Perspectives on the New Global Paradigm
Yinspire Media, 2010
What is the meaning of 2012 and how will it change life as we know it? This collection of essays from 33 futurists and mystics, including George Noory, Jean Houston, Barbara Marx Hubbard, and Daniel Pinchbeck, offers hopeful and reassuring perspectives on the "great shift."
Speculation about 2012 has generated considerable interest, spawning a Hollywood blockbuster action film, television specials, and a variety of beliefs about what will happen, ranging from spiritually transformative to apocalyptic. Previous "end time" prophecies have passed without any remarkable events occurring. What makes 2012 different? Many believe that December 21, 2012 is both astrologically and astronomically significant, and numerically significant as well, signaling the end of the ancient Mayan Long Count Calendar.
Many of these writers see 2012 as an opportunity for the human race to come together in the face of adversity. To quote Bruce H. Lipton, "A miraculous healing awaits this planet once we accept our new responsibility to collectively tend the garden rather than fight over the turf." Well put, even if 2012 turns out to be like Y2K, just another date on your calendar. Let's review again in 2013....
THE POT BOOK
A Complete Guide to Cannabis
Part Street Press, 2010
Exploring the role of cannabis in medicine, politics, history, and society, The Pot Book offers a compendium of the most up-to-date information and scientific research on marijuana from leading experts, including Lester Grinspoon, MD, Rick Doblin, PhD, Allen St. Pierre (NORML), and Raphael Mechoulam, PhD. Also included are interviews with Michael Pollan, Andrew Weil, MD, and comedian Tommy Chong, as well as an ACLU lawyer and a forensic toxicologist growing cannabis for the U.S. government.
While there is plenty to debate regarding the benefits versus the (overblown?) risks of using marijuana, and the social and political implications of legalization as well, a consensus emerges which is best expressed here by former president Jimmy Carter:
"Penalties against possession of a drug should not be more damaging to an individual than the use of the drug itself, and where they are they should be changed."
Proceeds from the sale of this book will help fund therapeutic cannabis research.
PRACTICE ALOHA
Secrets to Living Life Hawaiian Style
Mutual Publishing, 2010
"To revere all of life, to live with natural sincerity, to practice gentleness and to be in service to others, is to live and Practice Aloha every day."
—Dr. Wayne Dyer (from the Foreword)
This heartwarming and inspiring collection of dozens of stories, recipes and lyrics from Hawaii quickly became a statewide bestseller. Now the authors have brought their book to the mainland to share this old fashioned, new age Aloha message with everyone. Here is Susan Moulton, who turned the grief of losing her young son into kindness by creating the Will Smith Foundation. And Rev. Bill Albinger, for whom "Aloha, like the Biblical 'shalom', is rooted in the sense of wholeness and well-being that comes from embracing life as a gift from God." And Chris Posadas from Oakland, for whom Aloha is "the simple kindness of saying hello to a passing stranger."
As the authors reflect, "On an island it just makes good sense to share what you can, take only what you need, and respect each other. Wouldn't it be wonderful if the world saw itself as the island it truly is?"
This Island Earth? Indeed!
OCCULT AMERICA
White House Seances, Ouija Circles, Masons &
the Secret Mystic History of our Nation
Bantam Books, 2009
We learned in high school that many colonists came to America to escape religious persecution. This book surveys a wide spectrum of alternative spirituality, from Freemasonry to Spiritualism, Madame Blavatsky to Edgar Cayce, yoga to EST, from America's earliest days to current New Age explorations.
This could be the most readable history of New World mysticism ever written, an indispensable introduction for any seeker or cultural historian. In order to cover the topic in such breadth, however, Horowitz couldn't always plumb its depths. The fascinating story of Mary Todd Lincoln's White House seances goes barely four pages. Later "Tao of Physics" author Fritjof Capra and Esalen founder Michael Murphy are characterized as "New Age intellects" and lumped together in just one paragraph, doing justice to neither.
While the definitive book on the New Age may yet to be written, Occult America offers a promising start.
OFF THE GRID
Inside The Movement For More Space, Less Government, And True Independence In Modern America
Penguin Books, 2010
Whether embarking on a quest for independence, a return to nature, or out of fear of impending societal collapse, increasing numbers of people across North America are living without municipal power and water, growing some or all of their own food, and moving "off-grid." These intrepid souls come from everywhere and include millionaires and foreclosure victims, right-wing survivalists and utopian enviros, veterans and ex-hippies, drug dealers and religious apocalyptics of every stripe.
Off-grid expert Nick Rosen introduces us to a colorful, eccentric cast of characters hidden in forests and canyons but also in plain sight across the United States and Mexico. Here are the ultimate cultural outliers! Many of these rural and urban off-gridders are delighted to speak at length and share their tips and tricks. (Ironically, many off-gridders find each other online via the internet.)
Living off-grid takes creativity, perseverance, and sometimes a willingness to bend the rules, too. Governmental agencies tend to make it difficult, if not illegal, to acquire the permits to build off-grid. Moreover, it's time consuming if not expensive to provide for one's own water and power and ingenious contraptions such as a compostable outhouse. (The woods, of course, are free.) Yet, there is an undeniable satisfaction in freeing oneself from the Corporate Matrix.
There is no one off-grid lifestyle. Some fulltime off-gridders live like nomads, in teepees or car camping, foraging or cooking over open fires. The most prosperous build designer homes with dazzling arrays of solar panels, propane generators, gravity-fed water systems, and greenhouse gardens. Often there are surprising compromises, too. Rosen enjoyed a delicious chicken stew served to him by a rugged, "do-it-yourself" desert homesteader, only to find out that it came out of a can!
The permanent off-grid experience may not be for most of us, except perhaps while emulating Thoreau over a summer vacation. But having backup food and water, heat and light, is probably a good idea, especially for those of us who live in earthquake prone Northern California.
Rosen concludes that moving off-grid is essentially a political act, and one with positive environmental consequences. If you don't trust government or corporations to always provide the basic necessities, if you see dark forebodings in 9/11 or 2012, or if you're simply curious about how you'd survive off-grid, get out and read this book.
ENDGAME Volume One
The Problem of Civilization
Seven Stories Press, 2006
"A rare and original voice of sanity in a chaotic world. He has wisdom and wit, grace and style, and is a wonderful guide to a good life beautifully lived."—Howard Zinn
Deep ecologists maintain that our fragile planet cannot sustain more than half a billion humans, perhaps one billion at most. What happens to the other six or seven billion of us is usually too horrible to contemplate. Not so for anarcho-primitivist Derrick Jensen. With powerful, seductive prose, Jensen makes the case that civilization itself is violent, unsustainable, and thus should be dismantled forthwith.
Ready for a walk on the wild side? In books and blogs you'll find a motley crew of eco-dystopians, Christian millenarians, new age prophets, and anarchists "rooting for the quick arrival of the Long Doom." But of all the collapsiterian literature out there, Endgame is most persuasive. Here Jensen argues for killing the power grid, tearing out roads, abandoning agriculture, and for any survivors to return to wilderness. In Endgame Volume Two: Resistance, Jensen further develops his political action plan.
Still, no matter how seductive Jensen's lyrical call of the wild, most of us haven't given up on civilization quite yet. However long the odds of creating a just and sustainable culture, aren't the arts and sciences—indeed, our collective memory—worth preserving? Man's yearning for cultural immortality is not so easily denied.
NON-VIOLENCE:
The History Of A Dangerous Idea
Foreword By His Holiness The Dalai Lama
Modern Library Paperback, 2008, $14.00
Here is a timely, original narrative examining nonviolence as a distinct technique for overcoming social injustice and ending wars. Kurlansky offers a concise history of nonviolence from ancient Hindu times to the present day, showing how, time and again, violence is used to suppress nonviolence and its practitioners. A long view of history shows that violence has never been very successful, while nonviolence has a remarkable record.
"A sweeping body of pacifist history."—Salon
"These are powerful lessons that couldn't be more timely. The world needs this book."
—Daniel Ellsberg
HOW CAN I KEEP FROM SINGING?
The Ballad of Pete Seeger
Villard Books, 2008, $18.00
Pete Seeger is perhaps the most blacklisted performer in American history, harassed by the FBI and CIA, and literally stoned by conservatives. How did the son of a respectable Puritan family become the consummate singer-songwriter and American rebel? Updated with new research and interviews, unpublished photographs, and a new Foreword by Pete Seeger himself, this is an inside history of a seminal folk music artist. Bob Dylan called him a saint. Joan Baez said, "We all owe our careers to him." Seeger continues to sing to this day, his antiwar anthems reaching across generations with a call for peace and social justice.
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NEMESIS:
The Last Days of the American Republic
Henry Holt & Company, 2006, $16
The author of Blowback and The Sorrows of Empire explores the U.S. addiction to war and its corrosive impact on democratic institutions. Our vast network of global military bases fall in the same category as war: they're addictive. Once they're built everyone in the area becomes economically dependent on them, and they're impossible to close without a firestorm of outrage. Meanwhile we ignore healthcare, education, and the environment, bankrupting our budget, and mortgaging our children's future. So long as our leadership thinks we're the world's policeman the downward spiral continues. Yet what's at stake is far greater than our budget or even the lives squandered. We must change course or face the end of the American experience itself. As Johnson admonishes, "Failing such reform, Nemesis, the goddess of retribution and vengeance, the punisher of pride and hubris, waits impatiently for her meeting with us."
America I AM LEGENDS:
Rare Moments and Inspiring Words
Smiley Books, 2009
"Would America have been America without her Negro people?"
— W. E. B. Du Bois
America I AM: The African American Imprint, a national traveling museum exhibition, was conceived by award-winning broadcaster and bestselling author Tavis Smiley as a one-of-a-kind multimedia experience that chronicles the distinct history of African Americans.
This beautifully conceived companion volume addresses the central theme of the exhibition, posed by W. E. B. Du Bois: "Would America have been America without her Negro people?" Through exceptional photographic images and penetrating words, America I AM Legends captures the dynamism of 78 legendary African Americans, highlighting the indelible imprint each has made on the United States and the world. A statement illuminating a unique aspect of each iconic figure— made by the legend or by someone carrying on their legacy today—portrays the vision and contribution of each subject.
Whether black artistic genius, athletic excellence, political leadership, or the struggle to hold America true to its promise, each legend reminds us that America would be unrecognizable without its African American imprint. America I AM Legends takes us on an unforgettable journey to the heart of the American experience.
With his late-night television talk show, Tavis Smiley, on PBS, and his radio show The Tavis Smiley Show from NPR, Smiley was the first American ever to simultaneously host signature talk shows on both PBS and National Public Radio. Smiley's television program is the first show in the history of PBS to be broadcast from the West Coast. The Tavis Smiley Show on public radio is currently distributed by PRI, Public Radio International. He can also be heard weekdays on his nationally syndicated commentary, The Smiley Report. Additionally, Tavis offers political commentary on the nationally syndicated Tom Joyner Morning Show.
Tavis has authored nine books, including On Air and Keeping the Faith, an inspiring collection of personal narratives about love, loss, and faith by African Americans from all walks of life.
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