Library News, by David W. Keeber
Red Rock News
Date: August 31, 2007
There is a song by the rock group Fleetwood Mac whose refrain is “World’s changing…” and from the news reports of late, it sure seems to be the case. Global climate change is the big topic, and not just at the national level. People everywhere are trying to understand the extent of the changes coming and what they can do to be prepared, and even to maybe exert a change for the better.
Sedona Public Library is in partnership with Sustainable Arizona and the Greater Sedona Community Foundation to present information to the public on this topic. In addition to a constantly rotating display of display panels throughout the Library, we have worked in partnership with Sustainable Arizona to present a series of programs, and even an exposition this past May on the topic of sustainability.
While all the high profile work is proceeding, we are also adding to our collection numerous items that can give the “newbie” to the topic a good grounding in the language and issues surrounding sustainability. New to the Library’s collection are many books you will find interesting and informative. Here are four new books and one old one, profiled for you.
While the titles may well put you off, the “For Dummies” series are solid, informative and easily read books on a range of topics. Michael Grosvenor has written Sustainable Living for Dummies, a well organized and absorbable primer on the topic. The introduction starts with the admonition that “this book is designed to help you adopt a lifestyle that helps heal the planet instead of harming it.” From there is goes on to the overall environment, home practices, recycling, sustainable shopping, sustainability at work, important information the main subject and travel, a chapter on references for further reading. I am sure you have heard conversations on the topics covered in the chapters, but getting them all in one place in an easily understood form makes this book a real solid beginning point in your education on the subject.
Hermann Scheer has written The Solar Economy: Renewable Energy for a Sustainable Global Future. With much in the news about this supposedly endless form of energy, it may sound like the best deal around. The challenge is the front end costs are high and that can well put it beyond the reach of many folks. Scheer’s book examines the problems and long-term costs of the petroleum model and then compares it to the solar model, suggesting that in the long run, solar is the least expensive technology. That being said, those pesky front end costs are still there and the author works to address this question very well.
Other aspects of the sustainability debate is that the conversion costs will be prohibitive to business and forced adherence to these new technologies will damage the economy. David. B. Goldstein, in his book Saving Energy, Growing Jobs: How Environmental Protection Promotes Economic Growth, Profitability, Innovation and Competition, shows that the move to sustainability is actually a money making endeavor. The book profiles the unexpected success of early energy regulations, shows how markets actually work and how they fail, provides a model for well-designed environmental policies, and offers guidelines for transforming the current political debate. You will find this book interesting for sure!
Another title to profile is World Changing: A User’s Guide for the 21st Century, edited by Alex Steffen. It is a “compendium of solutions, some little known but well proven, some innovative and new, some bold but as yet untried” that taken together, “present a picture of a future that is not dark or claustrophobic, but one that if full of hope and within our grasp.” This is a mammoth book with loads of interesting ideas from around the world, both real and only yet on the drawing board. The broad topics written about within cover “stuff,” shelter, cities, community, business, politics and the planet.
Finally, one book that I have been recommending for years is A Pattern Language, by Christopher Alexander, et. al. Whether you are building a home or trying to understand what makes a place, whether city-wide or just a house seem a better place to live, this is the book. The authors have codified a range of “patterns of existence” and written about them in short, easy-to-read and entertaining chapters. They range from city-wide macro level patterns (open market, public transportation, sleeping in public), to small, micro level patterns (couple’s bedroom, children’s play area, breezeway, shaded patio). When you read this book, the overarching sense one gets is that of humane spaces that take into account the real lives of the residents. Not just pretty, sterile buildings, but places you would want to call home.
Pick up any of these books and your interest will be sustained!
