Table of Contents
- REVIEWS BY DAN ARMSTRONG:
- THE DISPOSSESSED
- Ursula Le Guin wrote many noteworthy pieces of science fiction, but this one is her masterpiece.
- CULTIVATING AN ECOLOGICAL CONSCIENCE: Essays from a Farmer Philospher
- Frederick L. Kirschenmann's recently published collection of essays, CULTIVATING AN ECOLOGICAL CONSCIENCE, with its clear concern for the part petroleum plays in modern agriculture, offers significant common ground for farmers and carbon-footprint conscious, twenty-first century environmentalists. This alone would make Kirschenmann's book important, but it also does such a thorough job of describing the current state of agriculture, it would be difficult to find a more comprehensive compilation of essays on the subject.
- COSMIC INFLUENCES ON AGRICULTURAL PROCESSES
- Half wizard and half scientist, Harry MacCormack weaves together sources as diverse as the teachings of Native American elders, the interpretation of the Mayan Calendar, the work of Rudolph Steiner, and data from NASA's fifty years of space exploration and places them into a single context–seeking resonance with these cosmic cycles in a way that both advances personal self-realization and allows insight into the optimization of agricultural processes on planet earth.
- THE TRANSITION DOCUMENT: Toward a Biologically Resilient Agriculture
- Harry MacCormack has written an important book about the most crucial task of our time–the transition from conventional agriculture to organic farming practices.
- THE FINAL EMPIRE
- William Kötke's visonary classic is now out in a second edition. Read review. Access entire book online.
- EATING FOSSIL FUELS
- Dale Allen Pfeiffer adds a disturbing corollary to the thesis of peak oil.
- OSWALD'S TALE
- Norman Mailer uses a masterful psychological portrait of Lee Harvey Oswald to re-visit Dealey Plaza, November 22, 1963.
- SUSTAINABLE OPERATING SYSTEMS: The Post Petrol Paradigm
- Michael Richards details what is necessary to create a sustainable world as we transition out of the age of oil.
- GARDEN PLANET
- William Kötke takes a clear clean look at rebuilding after the collapse of empire.
NEW! REVIEWS OF BOOKS BY DAN ARMSTRONG
- FILM REVIEWS:
- MOTHER: Caring for Seven Billion
- "Christophe Fauchere's documentary film MOTHER: CARING FOR SEVEN BILLION," writes reviewer Frank Kaminski, "takes a penetrating look at overpopulation, what fuels it and why the world has become complacent about the issue after making a good start in addressing it during the late 60s. The film dispels some key myths about overpopulation–chief among them the belief that it's long been solved–even if it stops short of admitting the inevitability of a world population crash as the Earth's resources deplete."
- ADAM AND I: One Real-life Aspie's Personal Response to the Movie Adam
- If you haven't heard of Asperger's syndrome, then you need to read this movie review. If you have heard of Asperger's syndrome, than you also need to read this review. The point being–everyone should read this review!
- WHAT A WAY TO GO
- T.S. Bennett and Sally Erickson's documentary "What a Way to Go: Life at the End of Empire" is a grim and emotional view of our world through the lens of peak oil, climate change, and population overshoot.
- THE BOOK AS SCULPTURE:
- ART AND BOOKS
- This is a fascinating pictoral of the book used as sculpture.
- REVIEWS BY FRANK KAMINSKI
- A PLACE BEYOND MAN and THE WEBS OF VAROK
- "When Cary Neeper first published excerpts of her novel The Webs of Varok on Resilience.org, one commenter dismissed the work as being 'merely a polemic pretending to be a novel.' Only the first charge is correct. The book clearly is an impassioned polemic against the extravagance and destructiveness of industrial society, but it's hardly 'pretending to be a novel.' Rather, it is an involving, well-plotted story that does justice to both the hard science underpinning its interplanetary settings and the long evolutionary perspectives typical of the old scientific romances."
- THE LOCALIZATION READER: Adapting to the Coming Downshift
- Frank Kaminski reviews THE LOCALIZATION READER, a collection of essays about preparing for the post-carbon age, edited by Raymond De Young and Thomas Princen.
- END OF GROWTH: Adapting to Our New Economic Reality
- "While 'experts' assure us that the economy is slowly emerging from recession," writes Frank Kaminiski in this timely review, "a growing camp of well-informed dissenters thinks not. The scant evidence of recovery, insists this group, is not an anomaly but the sign of a profound sea change. THE END OF GROWTH, one book unequivocally calls it, next to a cover image of a burst balloon and a pin. The book's author, Richard Heinberg, makes his case by far the most eloquently and comprehensively–and though it may be a decidedly unwelcome one for those now struggling, that doesn't detract from its validity."
- More Book Reviews by Frank Kaminski.
- Frank Kaminski has been a steady contributor to the Energy Bulletin. All of his his EB book reviews are archived here.
- REVIEWS BY ED O'ROURKE:
- WHY NATIONS FAIL
- Ed O'Rourke reviews Daron Acemoglu and James A. Robinson's new book WHY NATIONS FAIL, then offers ways that this book might be improved
- GROWTH HAS HIT A BRICK WALL
- Ed O'Rourke's critique of our growth-based economy blends the ideas of Richard Heinberg and James Speth.
- ABOLISH THE CENTRAL INTELLIGENCE AGENCY
- Ed O'Rourke give us a close analysis of Tim Weiner's LEGACY OF ASHES: THE HISTORY OF THE CIA.
- THE HARDEST WAR TO AVOID: U.S. Civil War
- A review of James M. McPherson's BATTLE CRY OF FREEDOM: THE CIVIL WAR ERA.
- AGENDA FOR A NEW ECONOMY: Phantom Wealth to Real Wealth
- "Many have written about the economic meltdown's causes and have proposed significant reforms," observes Ed O'Rourke. "David C. Korten's book, AGENDA FOR A NEW ECONOMY, draws a roadmap to a green economy that will deal with climate change and bring a more just world."
- THE FUTURE OF FREEDOM: Liberal Democracy at Home and Abroad
- "Fareed Zakaria explores the evolution of democracy in various countries," writes Ed O'Rourke, "and says there may be a point in that evolution when too much transparency and too much public access can be detrimental to the democratic process."
- OUTSMART YOUR CANCER: Alternative Non-toxic Treatments that Work
- Tanya Harper Pierce offers an alternative view of the treatment of cancer.
- INTERNAL COMBUSTION: How Corporations and Governments Addicted the World to Oil and Derailed the Alternatives
- Edwin Black tells the story behind the rise of automobiles and the demise of street cars in America.
- PLAN B 3.0: MOBILIZING TO SAVE CIVILIZATION
- Lester R. Brown, one of the most intelligent and outspoken advocates for planet Earth, lays out his latest plan for saving civilization from ourselves.
- THE GREAT TURNING: From Empire to Earth Community
- This is David C. Korten's latest and most important book, verifying that, "We are the ones we have been waiting for."
- THE SECRET HISOTRY OF THE WAR ON CANCER
- Devra Davis recounts the history of manufacturer's hiding or deliberately obscuring the harmful effects of their products.
- OUR FINAL HOUR
- Great Britain's top astrophysicist, Sir Martin Rees, issues a "a scientist's warning: How terror, error, and environmental disaster threaten humankind's future in this century–on Earth and beyond."
- HELL AND HIGH WATER: Global Warming–The Solution and the Politics–And What We Should Do
- Joseph Romm gives a detailed look at climate change and what we can do about it.
- CRADLE TO CRADLE: Remaking the Way We Make Things
- William McDonough and Michael Braungart tell us how to detoxify the things we manufacture.
- WHEN CORPORATIONS RULE THE WORLD
- David C. Korten provides a perspective on the influence of large corporations in twenty-first century society.
- HEAT: HOW TO STOP THE PLANET FROM BURNING
- British Journalist George Monbiot offers his ideas on how Great Britain can do her part in fighting climate change.
- NEMESIS: THE LAST DAYS OF THE AMERICAN EMPIRE
- Chalmers Johnson gives us a look inside the CIA in the third book of his Blowback Trilogy.