Books - Sustainability
From Provisions
To recomend books on Sustainability, see the Sustainability- Further Reading page.
Books in the Exhibition
Tales of Water: A Child's View/ Cuentos del Agua: Una Vision de un Nin~o
Taco Anema
Umbrage Editions, 2006.
During his travels to five continents and fifteen nations while working with the World Conservation Union (IUCN), Dutch photographer Taco Anema listened to and recorded the voices of children telling their stories of the importance of water.
Nature’s Operating Instructions: The True Biotechnologies
Kenny Ausubel and J.P Harpignies, eds.
Sierra Club Book, 2004
The "true biotechnologies," described in this second volume in the Bioneers series, are working strategies grounded in the innate complexity, relatedness, and sustainability of natural ecosystems.
Blue Gold: The Battle Against Corporate Theft of the World's Water
The New Press, 2004
Maude Barlow and Tony Clarke, two of the most active opponents to the privatization of water show how, contrary to received wisdom, water mainly flows uphill to the wealthy, and why, as the vice president of the World Bank has pronounced, "The wars of the next century will be about water."
Capitalism 3.0: A Guide to Reclaiming the Commons
Peter Barnes
Berret-Kohler, 2006
Offers a practical alternative to our current flawed economic system, pointing the way to a future in which we can retain capitalism's virtues while mitigating its vices.
Who Owns the Sun?: People, Politics, and the Struggle for a Solar Economy
Daniel M. Berman et. al.
Chelsea Green Publishing, 1996
Environmental activists Berman and O'Connor offer a scathing explanation of why solar technology has played such an insignificant role in meeting America's energy needs.
Igniting a Revolution: Voices in Defense of the Earth
Steven Best
AK Press, 2006
A series of essays argues for a more radical approach to environmentalism, including militant opposition to corporate anti-environmentalism.
Silent Theft: The Private Plunder of Our Common Wealth
David Bollier
Routledge, 2002
skillfully weaves together debates about the Internet, the environment, biotechnology, and the communications revolution.
Malcolm Caldwell
Zed Press, 1977
integrates the Western energy crisis with Third World food shortage, analyzing the history and politics which have led to this explosive situation
Lords Of The Harvest: Biotech, Big Money, And The Future Of Food
Daniel Charles
Perseus Publishing, 2001
reveals for the first time the cutthroat scientific competition and backroom business deals that led to the first genetically engineered foods, and exposes the secrets of campaigns on both sides of the Atlantic aimed at bringing down the biotech industry
Critical Condition: Human health and the environment
Eric Chivian, M.D. ed.
Electronic Publishing Services, 1993
A report of Physicians for Social Responsibility, bringing together the best medical information available about global environmental degradation, including the effects on human health of war and military preparation, global warming, ozone depletion, species extinction, and loss of biodiversity.
Sue Coe & Judith Brody
Fantagraphics Books, 2005
An unflinchingly graphic expose of the wool and mutton industries.
Stormy Weather: 101 Solutions to Global Climate Change
Guy Dauncey
New Society Publisher, 2001
12 core methods of reducing our use of fossil fuels and filling our energy needs with solar, wind, tidal, and bio fuels. Each user-friendly solution is organized on two facing pages with a description, illustrations, quotations, resources, and a detailed “how-to” section.
When Smoke Ran Like Water: Tales of Environmental Deception and the Battle Against Pollution
Devra Davis
Basic Books, 2002
Gene Wars: The Politics of Biotechnology
Kristin Dawkins
Seven Stories Press, 2003
discusses the international policies that are shaping the future of global hunger, showing how a diversified gene pool is crucial to food production - and how corporate control of the gene pool threatens our collective security
Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed
Jared Diamond
Penguin Group, 2005
companion volume to Guns, Germs and Steel, probing what caused some of the great civilizations of the past to collapse into ruin, and what can be learned from their fates
One with Nineveh: Politics, Consumption, and the Human Future
Paul and Anne Ehrlich
Island Press, 2004
Through lucid explanations, telling anecdotes, and incisive analyses, these two respected and knowledgeable scientists tell of three looming problems: overpopulation, rising consumption, and economic inequity
Donald L. Fixico
University of Colorado Press, 1998
details the course of the struggle for land between Indians and whites, providing a wealth of information on the resources possessed by individual tribes and the way in which they were systematically defrauded and stripped of these resources.
The Weather Makers: How Man Is Changing the Climate and What It Means for Life on Earth
Tim Flannery
Atlantic Monthly Press, 2005
an urgent warning and a call to arms, outlining the history of climate change, how it will unfold over the next century, and what we can do to prevent a cataclysmic future. Offers specific suggestions for action for both lawmakers and individuals
Sustainable Agriculture and Resistance: Transforming Food Production in Cuba
Fernando Fune et al.
Food First Books, 2002
Cuban authors offer details of Cuba’s remarkable recovery from a food crisis brought on by the collapse of trade relations with the former Socialist Bloc and the tightening of the US trade embargo
Resource Rebels: Native Challenges to Mining and Oil Corporations
Al Gedicks
South End Press, 2001
Traces the development of movements in the US, Asia, Africa and Latin America to stop the extinction of indigenous people due to the greed of mining and oil companies.
Green Map Atlas: Mapmaking Stories
Green Map Systems, 2004
tells the behind the scenes story of 10 key projects in Asia and North America. Filled with 350 images and map views, these stories are powerful catalysts for new sustainability projects of all kinds
Nature in the Global South: Environmental Projects in South and Southeast Asia
Paul Greenough & Anna Lowenhaupt Tsing, eds.
Duke University Press, 2003
Dolores Hayden
W. W. Norton & Company, 2004
engages the meaning of 'sprawl,' explains common building patterns, and illustrates the visual culture of sprawl. Contains 75 color photographs with accompanying definitions.
Food for Thought: Towards a Future for Farming
Patrick Herman and Richard Kuper
Pluto Press, 2002
demonstrates how the European Union's Common Agricultural Policy and now the WTO’s Agreement on Agriculture are both designed to encourage an increasingly free-market, profit-maximising, destructive agriculture. Also outlines alternatives implemented by farmers who hold out the possibility of a radical, human-centred way of producing our food and organising our society.
GMO Free: Exposing the Hazards of Biotechnology to Ensure the Integrity of Our Food Supply
Mae-Wan Ho et. al.
Vital Health Publishing, 2004
More than 600 scientists from 72 countries have called for a moratorium on the environmental release of genetically modified organisms (GMOs). The evidence they have compiiled makes a compelling case for a worldwide ban on GMO crops and a shift to sustainable agriculture and organic farming
Permaculture: Principles and Pathways Beyond Sustainability
David Holmgren
Holmgren Design Services, 2002
builds on the extraordinary success of the permaculture concept (which the author co-originated with Bill Mollison 25 years ago) and the global permaculture movement, to provide a more cerebral and controversial contribution to the sustainability debate.
Welcome to the Machine: Science, Surveillance, and the Culture of Control
Derrick Jensen and George Draffan
Chelsea Green Publishing, 2004
Dying for Growth: Global Inequality and the Health of the Poor
Jim Yong Kim et al. (Ed.)
Common Courage Press, 2000
Fatal Harvest: The Tragedy of Industrial Agriculture
Andrew Kimbrell
Island Press, 2002
includes more than 250 profound and startling photographs and more than 40 essays by leading ecological thinkers including Wendell Berry, Wes Jackson, David Ehrenfeld, Helena Norberg-Hodge, Vandana Shiva, and Gary Nabhan, and offers a compelling vision for an organic and environmentally safer way of producing the food we eat
The Value of Nature: Ecological Politics in India
Smitu Kothari et al. ed.
Rainbow Publishing, 2003
Examines the role of nature in life in India, both as the source of life and a brutish force that brings starvation, conflict and strife.
James Howard Kunstler
Grove Press, 2005
tells us just what to expect after the honeymoon of affordable energy is over, preparing us for economic, political, and social changes of an unimaginable scale. A devastating indictment that brings new urgency and accessibility to the critical issues that will shape our future, and that we can no longer afford to ignore.
Hope’s Edge: The Next Diet for a Small Planet
Frances Moore Lappe
Putnam Penguin Inc., 2002
The Revenge of Gaia: Earth's Climate Crisis & the Fate of Humanity
James Lovelock
Basic Books, 2006
The originator of the "Gaia hypothesis" (now Gaia theory) posits that it is already too late to prevent the global climate from "flipping" and leaving the tropics uninhabitable.
On Biocultural Diversity: Linking Language, Knowledge and the Environment
Luisa Maffi ed.
Smithsonian Institution Press, 2001
brings together an interdisciplinary group of scholars from the social and natural sciences as well as cultural advocates, human rights specialists, and indigenous experts to discuss the ways in which the losses of biological, linguistic, and cultural diversity are linked.
In the Absence of the Sacred: The Failure of Technology & the Survival of the Indian Nations
Jerry Mander
Sierra Club Books, 1991
challenges the utopian promise of technological society and tracks its devastating impact on native cultures worldwide.
Paradigm Wars: Indigenous Peoples' Resistance to Globalization
Jerry Mander and Victoria Tauli-Corpuz eds.
Sierra Club Books, 2006
Gathers powerful firsthand reports on a momentous collision of worldviews that pits the forces of economic globalization against the Earth's indigenous peoples.
Silenced Rivers: The Ecology and Politics of Large Dams
Patrick McCully
Zed Books, 2001
This expanded edition of Patrick McCully's now classic study contains a long new introductory chapter analysing the report of the World Commission on Dams and updating information in the original book.
Something New Under the Sun: An environmental history of twentieth-century world
J.R. McNeil
W.W. Norton & Company, Inc., 2000
Dai Qing
M. E. Sharpe, Inc., 1998
in the ongoing courageous struggle of a relatively small group of Chinese to prevent the completion of the Three Gorges Dam in China, Dai Quig is the outspoken leader whose eloquent voice is always heard despite threats and intimidation by the Chinese authorities to silence it
Ecocities: Building Cities in Balance with Nature
Richard Register
Berkeley Hill Books, 2002
outlines a plan for developing existing cities in a way that lessens their destructive impact on the environment and increases their support of healthy social interaction
Trouble in Paradise: Globalization and Environmental Crises in Latin America
J. Timmons Roberts et al.
Routledge, 2003
presents an overview of the pressing nature of environmental degradation in Latin America and the scope of the problems and seeks to focus our attention by examining several types of environmental crises in Latin American countries.
Culture, Inc.: The Corporate Takeover of Public Expression
Herbert I. Schiller
Oxford University Press, 1991
Examining the effects of fifty years worth of corporate growth on American culture, Schiller argues that corporate control over such arenas of culture as museums, theaters, performing arts centers, and public broadcasting stations has resulted in a broad manipulation of consciousness as well as an insidious form of censorship
The Myth of the Market: Promises and Illusions
Jeremy Seabrook
Black Rose Books, 1991
argues that, if the rhetoric of a sustainable society is to be translated into practical politics, Greens in the West must stand up and resist the growing dictatorship of the market, with a passion and energy equal to that of the market system itself
Lifestyle Shopping: The Subject of Consumption
Rob Shields, ed.
Routledge, 1992
Earth Democracy: Justice, Sustainability, and Peace
Vandana Shiva
South End Press, 2005
Shiva updates the struggles she helped bring to international attention--against genetic food engineering, cultural theft, and natural resource privatization--uncovering their link to the rising tide of fundamentalisms, violence against women, and planetary death.
Stolen Harvest: The Hijacking of the Global Food Supply
Vandana Shiva
South End Press, 2000
Water Wars: Privatization, Pollution, and Profit
Vandana Shiva
South End Press, 2002
Red Sky at Morning: America and the Crisis of the Global Environment
James Gustave Speth
Yale University Press, 2001
offers intriguing insights into why we have been able to address domestic environmental threats with some success while largely failing at the international level, while setting forth eight specific steps to a sustainable future
WorldChanging: A User's Guide for the 21st Century
Alex Steffen, ed.
Abrams, 2006
Visionaries: People and Ideas to Change Your Life
Jay Walljasper et al.
New Society Publishers, 2001
Ecological Feminism: Environmental Philosophies
Karen J. Warren, ed.
Routledge, 1994
Against Civilization: Readings and Reflections
John Zerzan, ed.
Uncivilized Books, 1999
