There Is Still Time: To Look at the Big Picture...and Act - Softcover

Seidel, Peter

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0578155435 ISBN 13: 9780578155432

Publisher: 360 Editions, 2015

Synopsis

Irrefutable evidence makes it clear that we are headed for massive human misery as our planets health rapidly worsens, yet we fail to respond in a rational, meaningful way. There Is Still Time shows us how we can fix this. We must look at the big picture. This means facing and dealing with the basic cause of most of our problems, ourselves. This book pulls all of the issues we need to deal with together, and looks at how they affect one another. Part One looks at us as individuals, how we work together as a society, and at the way our governments and businesses operate, and suggests things we can do to change direction. Part Two gives a concise but comprehensive overview of the state of our planet today. There is, looming ahead of us, a point beyond which there is no return. But There Is Still Time to prevent it. This book will put us firmly on the road to how.

About this title

About the Author

PETER SEIDEL: After having been a farmhand, factory worker, Alaska salmon fisherman, and carpenter, Seidel became an architect. While working on environmentally damaging office and institutional buildings, he read a book describing the dangers of excessive population growth and looming resource shortages. Disturbed by this, he turned to teaching (over time, at five different institutions, including universities in China and India). He developed ideas on environmentally and socially sustainable communities, which led to employment as master planner for a community of 60,000. When this ran into funding difficulties he took up developing, designing, and building energy-conserving urban infill projects. As public interest in sustainability evaporated after the end of the Arab oil boycott, Peter started to investigate the troublesome question of why, when we understand the many environmental dangers we face, we don’t take meaningful action to deal with them. This led to publishing a number of articles in academic journals on this subject and three books.  PETER SEIDEL'S HOME: Cincinnati, Ohio OTHER BOOKS BY PETER SEIDEL: "Invisible Walls: Why We Ignore the Damage We Inflict on the Planet...and Ourselves," Prometheus Books, 1998 "Global Survival: The Challenge and Its Implications for Thinking and Acting," edited with Ervin Laszlo, SelectBooks, 2010 "2045: A Story of Our Future," Prometheus Books, 2009.GARY GARDNER: Gary is a Senior Fellow at the Worldwatch Institute, an environmental research organization. He has written on a broad range of sustainability issues, from cropland loss and water scarcity to malnutrition and bicycle use. Gary contributes regularly to Institute publications, including State of the World and Vital Signs. He is the author of the 2006 book Inspiring Progress: Religions’ Contributions to Sustainable Development. Gary has done interviews in both English and Spanish with international media outlets including the BBC, Voice of America, National Public Radio, and the Los Angeles Times. Before joining Worldwatch in 1994, Gary was project manager of the Soviet Nonproliferation Project, a research and training program run by the Monterey Institute of International Studies in California. There, he authored Nuclear Nonproliferation: A Primer, which is also published in Spanish and Russian. He has also developed training materials for the World Bank and for the Millennium Institute in Arlington, Virginia. GARY GARDNER’S HOME: Grass Valley, California OTHER BOOK BY GARY GARDNER: "Inspiring Progress: Religions' Contributions to Sustainable Development," W. W. Norton & Company, 2006

From the Inside Flap

"The premise behind 'There Is Still Time' is the biggest question in human history: Ingenious as our species may be, is it also wise enough to do what it will take to keep our civilization viable, before it's too late?  Peter Seidel lays out all that ails the Earth in this make-or-break century, and leaves it to us to decide whether our saga continues, or ends all too soon." --Alan Weisman, author of "Countdown: Our Last, Best Hope for a Future on Earth?" and "The World Without Us" "There is a lot here that needs to be said.... As a species, we are in deep trouble, and this book helps explain why this is so. Then the question is, what can we do about it?" --Lester Brown, founder of the Worldwatch Institute and the Earth Policy Institute, author of Plan B 4.0 "The author has packed this book with wisdom and insight. It highlights substantial flaws in current institutions, misguided cultural beliefs, and dangerous psychological biases, all of which hold us back from reversing the current trends toward self-destruction." --Mathis Wackernagel, co-creator of the Ecological Footprint and President of the Global Footprint Network "There is nothing to fear, not even fear. What we need to fear is complacency and ignorance. Anyone reading this book will no longer suffer from ignorance. This is a potent wake-up call because it rests on facts and data. Facts and data that tell us not what will be, but what would be if... ." --Ervin Laszlo, Founder and President of The Club of Budapest "Many years of thought, practical work, and reflection are distilled in Peter Seidel's careful analysis and urgent call to action. The book is wide-ranging and accessible to the public, yet without any 'dumbing down.' Highly recommended." --Herman Daly, one of the founders of the field of ecological economics, and author of "Beyond Growth: The Economics of Sustainable Development" "This uniquely structured, crystal-clear book is the culmination of long-term, deep thinking about the prospect of the human race to escape the catastrophic outcomes of a bloating economy. 'There Is Still Time' should be required reading for policy makers, civic leaders, and most of all in the 'sustainability' courses cropping up in college curricula." --Brian Czech, President, Center for Advancement of the Steady State Economy, author of "Supply Shock: Economic Growth at the Crossroads and the Steady State Solution" "This book combines admirable honesty about the human predicament with suggestions for regaining hope by focusing on what is realistically possible in the available time." --Robert Engelman, former President Worldwatch Institute."Seidel is a true child of the Enlightenment. A man who believes that men can think and act rationally." --Jeffery van Davis, award-winning filmmaker, Only God Can Save Us "Seidel's blend of pessimism and idealism brings intellectual heft to this unconventional approach so that we might 'move beyond our current stalemate and make real progress towards sustainability.'...An astute look at the many negative influences currently shaping our world, along with ideas to overcome them." --Kirkus Review

About this edition

• Publisher: 360 Editions
• Publication date: 2015
• ISBN 10: 0578155435
• ISBN 13: 9780578155432
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 197