Spotlight On – The Unitarian Universalist Church Social Action Committee Donation (Part 2)
--by Peg White
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Recently, members of The Unitarian Universalist Church Of Southeastern Arizona's Social Action Committee visited the Copper Queen Library to inquire about donating materials to several of our collections. After much hard work on the parts of the SAC and the CQL, the following books became permanent parts of the Adult Non-Fiction Collection:
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At Century's End: Great Minds Reflect on Our Times (Images Publishing) Essays and interviews by thirty noted leaders and thinkers as varied as V.S. Naipaul and Nelson Mandela examine the condition of the world at millennium's end and offer a variety of cautions and prescriptions for the world to come… Pierre Trudeau and Isaiah Berlin on nationalism, Akbar H. Ahmedon on Islam and the West, and Lee Kuan Yew on East Asia are among the distinguished contributors to the New Perspectives Quarterly, from which this work is drawn.
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Biomimicry (Janine Benyus)
Forget the notion that technology improves upon nature. Benyus introduces us to pioneering engineers making technological breakthroughs by uncovering and copying nature's hidden marvels. These engineers are devising solar fuel cells as efficient as plants, fibers as tough as abalone shell, and computers as sophisticated as the brain.
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Forget the notion that technology improves upon nature. Benyus introduces us to pioneering engineers making technological breakthroughs by uncovering and copying nature's hidden marvels. These engineers are devising solar fuel cells as efficient as plants, fibers as tough as abalone shell, and computers as sophisticated as the brain.
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The Carb
on Buster's Home Energy Handbook (Godo Stoyke)
The first book in North America to provide a detailed carbon accounting of a family’s carbon emissions and how to reduce them systematically analyzes energy costs and evaluates which measures yield the highest returns for the environment and the pocketbook. The book allows individuals to quickly and accurately assess which products are a good deal and which aren’t, enabling readers to dramatically reduce their carbon emissions — far below the levels targeted under the Kyoto Protocol. At the same time, readers implementing the recommendations will save an average of $15,000 in energy costs over the next five years.
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on Buster's Home Energy Handbook (Godo Stoyke)The first book in North America to provide a detailed carbon accounting of a family’s carbon emissions and how to reduce them systematically analyzes energy costs and evaluates which measures yield the highest returns for the environment and the pocketbook. The book allows individuals to quickly and accurately assess which products are a good deal and which aren’t, enabling readers to dramatically reduce their carbon emissions — far below the levels targeted under the Kyoto Protocol. At the same time, readers implementing the recommendations will save an average of $15,000 in energy costs over the next five years.
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Ecological 
Medicine: Healing the Earth, Healing Ourselves (Kenny Ausubel)
Drawn largely from luminous presentations given at the annual Bioneers Conference, this pathfinding book — the first in a new Bioneers Series published by Sierra Club Books — focuses on pragmatic solutions emerging at the fertile edges between the overlapping worlds of environmental restoration and holistic healing. In this kaleidoscopic collection, many of the world’s leading health visionaries show us how human health is inescapably dependent on the health of our environment.
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The rich array of voices in this book reflects the collective intelligence of the emerging movement known as Ecological Medicine. Its advocates look to the strategic public health measures that first do no harm to the environment and, in turn, successfully improve human health.
Medicine: Healing the Earth, Healing Ourselves (Kenny Ausubel)Drawn largely from luminous presentations given at the annual Bioneers Conference, this pathfinding book — the first in a new Bioneers Series published by Sierra Club Books — focuses on pragmatic solutions emerging at the fertile edges between the overlapping worlds of environmental restoration and holistic healing. In this kaleidoscopic collection, many of the world’s leading health visionaries show us how human health is inescapably dependent on the health of our environment.
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The rich array of voices in this book reflects the collective intelligence of the emerging movement known as Ecological Medicine. Its advocates look to the strategic public health measures that first do no harm to the environment and, in turn, successfully improve human health.
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The
Ecology of Commerce: A Declaration of Sustainability (Paul Hawken)
Hawken thoughtfully reviews ecological theories and disasters and insists that "ecology offers a way to examine all present economic and resource activities from a biological rather than a monetary point of view." Calling for a restorative economy, he proposes rational, achievable goals: stop "accelerating the rate that we draw down capacity"; refrain from "buying or degrading other people's environment"; and avoid displacing "other species by taking over their habitats."
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The
Ecology of Commerce: A Declaration of Sustainability (Paul Hawken)Hawken thoughtfully reviews ecological theories and disasters and insists that "ecology offers a way to examine all present economic and resource activities from a biological rather than a monetary point of view." Calling for a restorative economy, he proposes rational, achievable goals: stop "accelerating the rate that we draw down capacity"; refrain from "buying or degrading other people's environment"; and avoid displacing "other species by taking over their habitats."
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vening Thoughts (Thomas Berry, Mary Evelyn Tucker)
Among the contemporary voices for the Earth, none resonates like that of noted cultural historian Thomas Berry. His teaching and writings have inspired a generation’s thinking about humankind’s place in the Earth Community and the universe, engendering widespread critical acclaim and a documentary film on his life and work.
vening Thoughts (Thomas Berry, Mary Evelyn Tucker)Among the contemporary voices for the Earth, none resonates like that of noted cultural historian Thomas Berry. His teaching and writings have inspired a generation’s thinking about humankind’s place in the Earth Community and the universe, engendering widespread critical acclaim and a documentary film on his life and work.
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This new collection of essays, from various years and occasions, expands and deepens ideas articulated in his earlier writings and also breaks new ground. Berry opens our eyes to the full dimensions of the ecological crisis, framing it as a crisis of spiritual vision. Applying his vast knowledge in cultural history, science, and comparative religions, he forges a compelling narrative of creation and communion that reconciles modern evolutionary thinking and traditional religious insights concerning our integral role in Earth’s society.
This new collection of essays, from various years and occasions, expands and deepens ideas articulated in his earlier writings and also breaks new ground. Berry opens our eyes to the full dimensions of the ecological crisis, framing it as a crisis of spiritual vision. Applying his vast knowledge in cultural history, science, and comparative religions, he forges a compelling narrative of creation and communion that reconciles modern evolutionary thinking and traditional religious insights concerning our integral role in Earth’s society.
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..The Great Work: Our Way into the Future (Thomas Berry)
The future can exist only if humans understand how to commune with the natural world rather than exploit it, explains author and renowned ecologist Thomas Berry (The Dream of the Earth, The Universe Story). Because Berry has a science background as well as a spiritual orientation (he is the founder of the History of Religions Program at Fordham University), he brings a balanced and fresh voice to social ecology.
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Green from the Ground Up: Sustainable, Healthy, and Energy-Efficient Home Construction (David Jo
hnston, Scott Gibson)
hnston, Scott Gibson) Eco-friendly housing used to be thought of as expensive, ugly or just plain weird. Now it's becoming common. David Johnston and Scott Gibson offer guidance on environmentally sensitive home building, helping builders and homeowners create houses that conserve natural resources and are energy-efficient and healthful. It's packed with information, tips, illustrations, and case studies that offer wisdom earned from experience.
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Last Oasi
s: Facing Water Scarcity (Sandra Postel)
Imagine America going to war over water. Don't think it will ever happen? Think again. Water scarcity is a real problem, one which is growing exponentially. The fact that water seems so readily available and inexpensive (the "illusion of plenty" as the author states it), and people's overuse and lack of respect towards this life-sustaining resource are only some of the causes for the water crisis. Sandra Postel has written a stunning account which discloses the atrocious amount of neglect and mismanagement of water. Fortunately, there are solutions that offer hope for restoring and sustaining our essential lifeline, all of which are economically and environmentally friendly.
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Making Room: Finding
Space in Unexpected Places (Wendy Adler Jordan)
Most homeowners long for more space as well as space that better fits their needs. But building an addition is expensive, time-consuming, and disruptive to the household. What homeowners don't realize is that just about every house has room to spare, much of it unrecognized. Making Room showcases creative ideas for areas that are underused or taken for granted — a broom closet, an empty wall, window bays, and corner nooks — focuses entirely on creating new spaces within the existing footprint of the home, and explores commonly overlooked spaces and scores of clever ideas for putting those spaces to use. More than 100 creative ideas highlight transformations that are small in scale but big in impact.
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Managing Without Growth: Slower by Design, Not Disaster (Peter A. Victor)
Overcoming our addiction to economic growth is one of the most important challenges for the 21st century. Peter Victor's masterful summary of the history and fallacies of this particularly pervasive and increasingly dangerous addiction will be a great help in getting over it. A sustainable and desirable future requires clearly differentiating between "bigger" and "better" and recognition that in the overdeveloped West these two have parted ways. Peter Victor's book will help us slow down by design, not disaster, and understand how that slowing down will in fact increase our quality of life.
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The Nature of Design: Ecology, Culture, and Human Intention (David W. O
rr)
Ecological design is an emerging field that aims to recalibrate what humans do in the world according to how the world works as a biophysical system. Design in this sense is a large concept having to do as much with politics and ethics as with buildings and technology. The book begins by describing the scope of design, comparing it to the Enlightenment of the 18th century.
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Subsequent chapters describe barriers to a design revolution inherent in our misuse of language; the clockspeed of technological society; shortsighted politics; and the critical role educational institutions might play in fostering design intelligence and what he calls "a higher order of heroism."
s: Facing Water Scarcity (Sandra Postel)Imagine America going to war over water. Don't think it will ever happen? Think again. Water scarcity is a real problem, one which is growing exponentially. The fact that water seems so readily available and inexpensive (the "illusion of plenty" as the author states it), and people's overuse and lack of respect towards this life-sustaining resource are only some of the causes for the water crisis. Sandra Postel has written a stunning account which discloses the atrocious amount of neglect and mismanagement of water. Fortunately, there are solutions that offer hope for restoring and sustaining our essential lifeline, all of which are economically and environmentally friendly.
.
Making Room: Finding
Space in Unexpected Places (Wendy Adler Jordan)Most homeowners long for more space as well as space that better fits their needs. But building an addition is expensive, time-consuming, and disruptive to the household. What homeowners don't realize is that just about every house has room to spare, much of it unrecognized. Making Room showcases creative ideas for areas that are underused or taken for granted — a broom closet, an empty wall, window bays, and corner nooks — focuses entirely on creating new spaces within the existing footprint of the home, and explores commonly overlooked spaces and scores of clever ideas for putting those spaces to use. More than 100 creative ideas highlight transformations that are small in scale but big in impact.
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Managing Without Growth: Slower by Design, Not Disaster (Peter A. Victor)
Overcoming our addiction to economic growth is one of the most important challenges for the 21st century. Peter Victor's masterful summary of the history and fallacies of this particularly pervasive and increasingly dangerous addiction will be a great help in getting over it. A sustainable and desirable future requires clearly differentiating between "bigger" and "better" and recognition that in the overdeveloped West these two have parted ways. Peter Victor's book will help us slow down by design, not disaster, and understand how that slowing down will in fact increase our quality of life.
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The Nature of Design: Ecology, Culture, and Human Intention (David W. O
rr)Ecological design is an emerging field that aims to recalibrate what humans do in the world according to how the world works as a biophysical system. Design in this sense is a large concept having to do as much with politics and ethics as with buildings and technology. The book begins by describing the scope of design, comparing it to the Enlightenment of the 18th century.
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Subsequent chapters describe barriers to a design revolution inherent in our misuse of language; the clockspeed of technological society; shortsighted politics; and the critical role educational institutions might play in fostering design intelligence and what he calls "a higher order of heroism."
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No Rich, No Poor (Charles Andrews)
The economic crash of 2008 has deep roots. Since 1973, the rewards of work have been shrinking for most of us. The US is well on the way to losing its entire middle class, becoming a country of rich and very rich in one camp and common people struggling with distress in the other. Yet, as the saying goes, things change. No Rich, No Poor explains how we got to this condition and why a program of common prosperity is the historical task of our time.
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The economic crash of 2008 has deep roots. Since 1973, the rewards of work have been shrinking for most of us. The US is well on the way to losing its entire middle class, becoming a country of rich and very rich in one camp and common people struggling with distress in the other. Yet, as the saying goes, things change. No Rich, No Poor explains how we got to this condition and why a program of common prosperity is the historical task of our time.
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Pillar of Sand
: Can the Irrigation Miracle Last? (Sandra Postel)
The overriding lesson from history is that most irrigation-based civilizations fail. As we enter the third millennium the question arises: Will ours be any different? For 6,000 years, irrigation has ranked among the most powerful tools of human advancement. The story of settled agriculture, the growth of cities, and the rise of early empires is, to no small degree, a story of controlling water to make the land more prosperous and habitable. Pillar of Sand examines the history, challenges, and pitfalls of irrigated agriculture — from ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia to twentieth-century India and the US. By unmasking the risks faced by irrigation-based societies — including water scarcity, soil salinization, and conflicts over rivers — water specialist Sandra Postel connects the lessons of the past with the challenge of making irrigation thrive into the 21st century and beyond.
: Can the Irrigation Miracle Last? (Sandra Postel)The overriding lesson from history is that most irrigation-based civilizations fail. As we enter the third millennium the question arises: Will ours be any different? For 6,000 years, irrigation has ranked among the most powerful tools of human advancement. The story of settled agriculture, the growth of cities, and the rise of early empires is, to no small degree, a story of controlling water to make the land more prosperous and habitable. Pillar of Sand examines the history, challenges, and pitfalls of irrigated agriculture — from ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia to twentieth-century India and the US. By unmasking the risks faced by irrigation-based societies — including water scarcity, soil salinization, and conflicts over rivers — water specialist Sandra Postel connects the lessons of the past with the challenge of making irrigation thrive into the 21st century and beyond.
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Plan B 4.0: Mobilizing to Save Civilization (Lester R. Brown)
As fossil fuel prices rise, oil insecurity deepens, and concerns about climate change cast a shadow over the future of coal, a new energy economy is emerging. Wind, solar, and geothermal energy are replacing oil, coal, and natural gas, at a pace and on a scale we could not have imagined even a year ago. For the first time since the Industrial Revolution, we have begun investing in energy sources that can last forever. Brown explores both the nature of this transition to a new energy economy and how it will affect our daily lives..
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Plan B 4.0: Mobilizing to Save Civilization (Lester R. Brown)
As fossil fuel prices rise, oil insecurity deepens, and concerns about climate change cast a shadow over the future of coal, a new energy economy is emerging. Wind, solar, and geothermal energy are replacing oil, coal, and natural gas, at a pace and on a scale we could not have imagined even a year ago. For the first time since the Industrial Revolution, we have begun investing in energy sources that can last forever. Brown explores both the nature of this transition to a new energy economy and how it will affect our daily lives..
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Plan C: Community Survival Stra
tegies for Peak Oil & Climate Change (Pat Murphy)
"Plan C" explores the risks inherent in trying to continue our energy-intensive lifestyle. Using dirtier fossil fuels ("Plan A") or switching to renewable energy sources ("Plan B") allows people to remain complacent in the face of potential global catastrophe. Dramatic lifestyle change is the only way to begin to create a sustainable, equitable world. The converging crises of Peak Oil, climate change, and increasing inequity are presented in a clear, concise manner, as are the twin solutions of community (where cooperation replaces competition) and curtailment (deliberately reducing consumption of consumer goods). Plan C shows how each person’s individual choices can dramatically reduce CO2 emissions, offering specific strategies in the areas of food, transportation, and housing.
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The Post-Petroleum Survival Guide & Cookbook: Recipes for Changing Times (Albert Bate
s)
Over the coming years, we will need to move from a global culture addicted to cheap, abundant petroleum to a culture of compelled conservation, whether through government directive or market forces. Bates provides useful practical advice for preparing your family and community to make the transition. Also including lighthearted, playful recipes — some using basic, wholesome foods, some illustrating food growing or preservation, and all emphasizing organic, flavorful, and locally grown produce that can readily substitute one for another — this book is about having your catastrophe and eating it, too.
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tegies for Peak Oil & Climate Change (Pat Murphy)"Plan C" explores the risks inherent in trying to continue our energy-intensive lifestyle. Using dirtier fossil fuels ("Plan A") or switching to renewable energy sources ("Plan B") allows people to remain complacent in the face of potential global catastrophe. Dramatic lifestyle change is the only way to begin to create a sustainable, equitable world. The converging crises of Peak Oil, climate change, and increasing inequity are presented in a clear, concise manner, as are the twin solutions of community (where cooperation replaces competition) and curtailment (deliberately reducing consumption of consumer goods). Plan C shows how each person’s individual choices can dramatically reduce CO2 emissions, offering specific strategies in the areas of food, transportation, and housing.
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The Post-Petroleum Survival Guide & Cookbook: Recipes for Changing Times (Albert Bate
s)Over the coming years, we will need to move from a global culture addicted to cheap, abundant petroleum to a culture of compelled conservation, whether through government directive or market forces. Bates provides useful practical advice for preparing your family and community to make the transition. Also including lighthearted, playful recipes — some using basic, wholesome foods, some illustrating food growing or preservation, and all emphasizing organic, flavorful, and locally grown produce that can readily substitute one for another — this book is about having your catastrophe and eating it, too.
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Revolutionary Spirits: The Enlightened Faith of America's Founding Fathers (Gary Kowalski) What did the Founding Fathers believe about God and the Bible? Unitarian Universalist minister Kowalski (The Souls of Animals) joins the chorus of answers with this elegantly written book, which clearly situates the Founders in an Enlightenment tradition that privileged reason. Charting a middle ground between those who claim the Founders either as orthodox Christians or total skeptics, Kowalski argues that they were religious liberals who believed in a Creator and in moral law.
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Rivers for Life: Managin
g Water For People And Nature (Sandra Postel, Brian Richter)
The conventional approach to river protection has focused on water quality and maintaining some "minimum" flow that was thought necessary to ensure the viability of a river. In recent years, however, scientific research has underscored the idea that the ecological health of a river system depends not on a minimum amount of water at any one time but on the naturally variable quantity and timing of flows throughout the year.
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In Rivers for Life, leading water experts Sandra Postel and Brian Richter explain why restoring and preserving more natural river flows are key to sustaining freshwater biodiversity and healthy river systems, and describe innovative policies, scientific approaches, and management reforms for achieving those goals.
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Slow is Beautiful: New Visions of Community, Leisure and Joie de Vivre (Ceci
le Andrews)
Through research and witty descriptions of her own experiences, Andrews reveals how an obsession with professional status and commercial/material success can be antithetical to joyful living. She peels back the shallow surface of these cherished "values" and exposes them as surface intoxications, spurred by corporate culture — and ultimately unsustainable. This builds her compelling case for the often repeated (but hitherto unheeded) message: personal happiness is more likely to emerge via simplicity than via complexity... more likely to emerge via community than via self-promotion.
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Rivers for Life: Managin
g Water For People And Nature (Sandra Postel, Brian Richter)The conventional approach to river protection has focused on water quality and maintaining some "minimum" flow that was thought necessary to ensure the viability of a river. In recent years, however, scientific research has underscored the idea that the ecological health of a river system depends not on a minimum amount of water at any one time but on the naturally variable quantity and timing of flows throughout the year.
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In Rivers for Life, leading water experts Sandra Postel and Brian Richter explain why restoring and preserving more natural river flows are key to sustaining freshwater biodiversity and healthy river systems, and describe innovative policies, scientific approaches, and management reforms for achieving those goals.
.
Slow is Beautiful: New Visions of Community, Leisure and Joie de Vivre (Ceci
le Andrews)Through research and witty descriptions of her own experiences, Andrews reveals how an obsession with professional status and commercial/material success can be antithetical to joyful living. She peels back the shallow surface of these cherished "values" and exposes them as surface intoxications, spurred by corporate culture — and ultimately unsustainable. This builds her compelling case for the often repeated (but hitherto unheeded) message: personal happiness is more likely to emerge via simplicity than via complexity... more likely to emerge via community than via self-promotion.
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The Story of Stuff: How Our Obsession with Stuff Is Trashing the Planet, Our Communities, a
nd Our Health - and a Vision for Change (Annie Leonard)
Why is there so much garbage, and where does it go? A Time magazine "Hero of the Environment," Leonard has traveled the world tracking trash and its wake of destruction. Her investigations convinced her that the impossible dream of perpetual economic growth and the rampant consumer culture it engenders are the root causes of today’s environmental crises. A rigorous thinker in command of a phenomenal amount of information, Leonard believes that we must calculate the full ecological and social cost of our “stuff.” So she takes us through the extraction of natural resources and the production, distribution, consumption, and disposal of various products, documenting eco-hazards and the exploitation of workers along the way.
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Universal Design for the Home: Great Looking, Great Living Design for All Ages, Abilities, and Circumstan
ces (Wendy A. Jordan)
Jordan mixes a blend of beautiful projects, creative ideas, and substantive planning information. Highly visual, the book features projects showing room contexts, as well as detail shots. The mix of projects encompasses small and large houses; one-story and multi-story houses; and ideas for general accessibility and comfort as well as some targeted more directly at handicap accessibility. There is an emphasis on remodeled projects, but new homes designed with an eye toward accessibility — present and future — are included as well. Chapters cover the spectrum of accessible home planning, from room arrangements to kitchens, baths, entries, and exterior areas. Basic specifications, how-to tips, and other technical content are featured throughout the book in easy-to-find boxes and sidebars.
nd Our Health - and a Vision for Change (Annie Leonard)Why is there so much garbage, and where does it go? A Time magazine "Hero of the Environment," Leonard has traveled the world tracking trash and its wake of destruction. Her investigations convinced her that the impossible dream of perpetual economic growth and the rampant consumer culture it engenders are the root causes of today’s environmental crises. A rigorous thinker in command of a phenomenal amount of information, Leonard believes that we must calculate the full ecological and social cost of our “stuff.” So she takes us through the extraction of natural resources and the production, distribution, consumption, and disposal of various products, documenting eco-hazards and the exploitation of workers along the way.
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Universal Design for the Home: Great Looking, Great Living Design for All Ages, Abilities, and Circumstan
ces (Wendy A. Jordan)Jordan mixes a blend of beautiful projects, creative ideas, and substantive planning information. Highly visual, the book features projects showing room contexts, as well as detail shots. The mix of projects encompasses small and large houses; one-story and multi-story houses; and ideas for general accessibility and comfort as well as some targeted more directly at handicap accessibility. There is an emphasis on remodeled projects, but new homes designed with an eye toward accessibility — present and future — are included as well. Chapters cover the spectrum of accessible home planning, from room arrangements to kitchens, baths, entries, and exterior areas. Basic specifications, how-to tips, and other technical content are featured throughout the book in easy-to-find boxes and sidebars.
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You Can't Eat GNP: Economics As If Ecology Mattered (Eric Davidson)
Ecology and economics are not doomed to be adversaries. This lively and concise book presents the exciting new insights of environmental economics as well as the three fallacies of conventional economic analysis. You Can't Eat GNP offers a blueprint for a truly sustainable economy that recognizes the natural resources (like water, air, and soil) on which we ultimately depend.
.You Can't Eat GNP: Economics As If Ecology Mattered (Eric Davidson)
Ecology and economics are not doomed to be adversaries. This lively and concise book presents the exciting new insights of environmental economics as well as the three fallacies of conventional economic analysis. You Can't Eat GNP offers a blueprint for a truly sustainable economy that recognizes the natural resources (like water, air, and soil) on which we ultimately depend.
posted by msbw @ 12:49 PM
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