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Reinventing the Automobile: Personal Urban Mobility for the 21st Century
William J. Mitchell

This book provides a long-overdue vision for a new automobile era. The cars we drive today follow the same underlying design principles as the Model Ts of a hundred years ago and the tail-finned sedans of fifty years ago. In the twenty-first century, cars are still made for twentieth-century purposes. They're well suited for conveying multiple passengers over long distances at high speeds, but inefficient for providing personal mobility within cities—where most of the world's people now liv...

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Reinventing the Automobile: Personal Urban Mobility for the 21st Century
William J. Mitchell

This book provides a long-overdue vision for a new automobile era. The cars we drive today follow the same underlying design principles as the Model Ts of a hundred years ago and the tail-finned sedans of fifty years ago. In the twenty-first century, cars are still made for twentieth-century purposes. They're well suited for conveying multiple passengers over long distances at high speeds, but inefficient for providing personal mobility within cities—where most of the world's people now live. In this pathbreaking book, William Mitchell and two industry experts reimagine the automobile, describing vehicles of the near future that are green, smart, connected, and fun to drive. They roll out four big ideas that will make this both feasible and timely.

First, we must transform the DNA of the automobile, basing it on electric-drive and wireless communication rather than on petroleum, the internal combustion engine, and stand-alone operation. This allows vehicles to become lighter, cleaner, and "smart" enough to avoid crashes and traffic jams. Second, automobiles need to be linked by a Mobility Internet that allows them to collect and share data on traffic conditions, intelligently coordinates their movements, and keeps drivers connected to their social networks. Third, automobiles must be recharged through a convenient, cost-effective infrastructure that is integrated with smart electric grids and makes increasing use of renewable energy sources. Finally, dynamically priced markets for electricity, road space, parking space, and shared-use vehicles must be introduced to provide optimum management of urban mobility and energy systems.

The fundamental reinvention of the automobile won't be easy, but it is an urgent necessity—to make urban mobility more convenient and sustainable, to make cities more livable, and to help bring the automobile industry out of crisis.

Four Big Ideas That Could Transform the Automobile:

• Base the underlying design principles on electric-drive and wireless communications rather than the internal combustion engine and stand-alone operation
• Develop the Mobility Internet for sharing traffic and travel data
• Integrate electric-drive vehicles with smart electric grids that use clean, renewable energy sources
• Establish dynamically priced markets for electricity, road space, parking space, and shared-use vehicles

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Resource Wars: The New Landscape of Global Conflict With a New Introduction by the Author
Michael T. Klare

From the oilfields of Saudi Arabia to the Nile delta, from the shipping lanes of the South China Sea to the pipelines of Central Asia, Resource Wars looks at the growing impact of resource scarcity on the military policies of nations.

International security expert Michael T. Klare argues that in the early decades of the new millennium, wars will be fought not over ideology but over access to dwindling supplies of precious natural commodities. The political divisions of the Cold...

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Resource Wars: The New Landscape of Global Conflict With a New Introduction by the Author
Michael T. Klare

From the oilfields of Saudi Arabia to the Nile delta, from the shipping lanes of the South China Sea to the pipelines of Central Asia, Resource Wars looks at the growing impact of resource scarcity on the military policies of nations.

International security expert Michael T. Klare argues that in the early decades of the new millennium, wars will be fought not over ideology but over access to dwindling supplies of precious natural commodities. The political divisions of the Cold War, Klare asserts, have given way to a global scramble for oil, natural gas, minerals, and water. And as armies throughout the world define resource security as a primary objective, widespread instability is bound to follow, especially in those areas where competition for essential materials overlaps with long-standing territorial and religious disputes. In this clarifying view, the recent explosive conflict between the United States and Islamic extremism stands revealed as the predictable consequence of consumer nations seeking to protect the vital resources they depend on.

A much-needed assessment of a changed world, Resource Wars is a compelling look at warfare in an era of rampant globalization and intense economic competition.

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Rising Powers, Shrinking Planet: The New Geopolitics of Energy
Michael T. Klare

"Klare’s superb book explains, in haunting detail, the trends that will lead us into a series of dangerous traps unless we muster the will to transform the way we use energy."—Bill McKibben

Oil recently hit $140 a barrel, and it is still climbing. Unlike the oil shocks of the 1970s, this dizzying leap is not the product of an OPEC embargo or a sudden flare-up in the Middle East. Rather, it is a harbinger of a permanent new structure of world power, one in which market forc...

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Rising Powers, Shrinking Planet: The New Geopolitics of Energy
Michael T. Klare

"Klare’s superb book explains, in haunting detail, the trends that will lead us into a series of dangerous traps unless we muster the will to transform the way we use energy."—Bill McKibben

Oil recently hit $140 a barrel, and it is still climbing. Unlike the oil shocks of the 1970s, this dizzying leap is not the product of an OPEC embargo or a sudden flare-up in the Middle East. Rather, it is a harbinger of a permanent new structure of world power, one in which market forces and military strength matter far less than the scarcity of vital natural resources.

Now in paperback, Rising Powers, Shrinking Planet surveys the energy-driven dynamic that is reconfiguring the international landscape: Russia, the battered Cold War loser, is now the arrogant broker of Eurasian energy, and the United States, once the world’s superpower, must now compete with the emerging "Chindia" juggernaut for finite and diminishing resources. Forecasting a future of surprising new alliances and explosive danger, Michael T. Klare, the preeminent expert on resource geopolitics, argues that the only route to survival in our radically altered world lies through international cooperation.

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Blood and Oil: The Dangers and Consequences of America's Growing Dependency on Imported Petroleum (American Empire Project)
Michael T. Klare

In his pathbreaking Resource Wars, world security expert Michael Klare alerted us to the role of resources in conflicts in the post-cold-war world. Now, in Blood and Oil, he concentrates on a single precious commodity, petroleum, while issuing a warning to the United States—its most powerful, and most dependent, global consumer.

Since September 11 and the commencement of the "war on terror," the world's attention has been focused on the relationship between U.S. foreig...

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Blood and Oil: The Dangers and Consequences of America's Growing Dependency on Imported Petroleum (American Empire Project)
Michael T. Klare

In his pathbreaking Resource Wars, world security expert Michael Klare alerted us to the role of resources in conflicts in the post-cold-war world. Now, in Blood and Oil, he concentrates on a single precious commodity, petroleum, while issuing a warning to the United States—its most powerful, and most dependent, global consumer.

Since September 11 and the commencement of the "war on terror," the world's attention has been focused on the relationship between U.S. foreign policy in the Middle East and the oceans of crude oil that lie beneath the region's soil. Klare traces oil's impact on international affairs since World War II, revealing its influence on the Truman, Eisenhower, Nixon, and Carter doctrines. He shows how America's own wells are drying up as our demand increases; by 2010 the United States will need to import 60 percent of its oil. And since most of this supply will have to come from chronically unstable, often violently anti-American zones—the Persian Gulf, the Caspian Sea, Latin America, and Africa—our dependency is bound to lead to recurrent military involvement.

With clarity and urgency, Blood and Oil delineates the United States' predicament and cautions that it is time to change our energy policies, before we spend the next decades paying for oil with blood. Michael Klare is the director of the Five College Professor of Program in Peace and World Security Studies at Hampshire College in Amherst and the author of Resource Wars. The defense analyst for The Nation and NPR, he lives in Northampton, Massachusetts. In his pathbreaking Resource Wars, world security expert Michael Klare alerted us to the role of resources in conflicts in the post-cold-war world. Now, in Blood and Oil, he concentrates on a single precious commodity, petroleum, while issuing a warning to the United States—its most powerful, and most dependent, global consumer.

Since September 11 and the commencement of the "war on terror," the world's attention has been focused on the relationship between U.S. foreign policy in the Middle East and the oceans of crude oil that lie beneath the region's soil. Klare traces oil's impact on international affairs since World War II, revealing its influence on the Truman, Eisenhower, Nixon, and Carter doctrines. He shows how America's own wells are drying up as our demand increases; by 2010 the United States will need to import 60 percent of its oil. And since most of this supply will have to come from chronically unstable, often violently anti-American zones—the Persian Gulf, the Caspian Sea, Latin America, and Africa—our dependency is bound to lead to recurrent military involvement.

With clarity and urgency, Blood and Oil delineates the United States' predicament and cautions that it is time to change our energy policies, before we spend the next decades paying for oil with blood. "A steady poli-sci elaboration of U.S. foreign policy of the past 60 years as viewed through the lens of oil . . . [Blood and Oil] is elaborately sourced [and] dismayingly convincing."—Lisa Margonelli, San Francisco Chronicle "A thoughtful and well-researched history of oil and geopolitics . . . Mr. Klare provides a service when he puts America's close ties with Saudi Arabia in a historical context."—The Economist

"A steady poli-sci elaboration of U.S. foreign policy of the past 60 years as viewed through the lens of oil . . . [Blood and Oil] is elaborately sourced [and] dismayingly convincing."—Lisa Margonelli, San Francisco Chronicle

"Michael Klare's Blood and Oil is the best book among the recent outpouring of studies on oil and world affairs. I am using it in three classes this semester. Indeed, it is a model of how to research and write contemporary history. Carefully researched, convincingly argued, and clearly written, it shows how oil's role in American society and politics influences U.S. relations with the rest of the world. Blood and Oil is essential reading for anyone concerned about the sources and dynamics of U.S. foreign policy."—David Painter, Walsh School of Foreign Service, Georgetown University

"Donald Rumsfeld famously declared that the Iraq War 'has nothing to do with oil, literally nothing to do with oil.' Nonsense, demonstrates Michael Klare, in Blood and Oil, a compelling new assessment of America's bet on Middle Eastern oil as the lifeblood of the U.S. economy. Klare's mastery of the interplay of natural resources and conflict is unrivaled, and his new study is timely and vitally important."—Jeffrey D. Sachs, Director of the Earth Institute at Columbia University

"Blood and Oil throws into sharp relief the political and social dimensions of the most important problem of our times. Reasoned and readable, it sketches out the terrible consequences of our nation's immense and growing addiction to petroleum. This is an important book."—David Goodstein, author of Out of Gas

"You don't have to be a conspiracy theorist or a Michael Moore enthusiast to think that Donald Rumsfeld and his colleagues in the Bush administration are being disingenuous when they declare that the war in Iraq is not about oil . . . Klare, a professor of peace and world-security studies at Hampshire College and defense correspondent for The Nation, suggests that the United States has never resolved the inherent tension between our need for assured supplies of petroleum to keep the economy cooking and our growing reliance on overseas sources of that oil, especially from areas, like the Persian Gulf, that have a long and continuing history of instability . . . But the questions [raised in this book] transcend approval or disapproval of any one administration, and go to the core of whether any country can—purposefully and without vast disruptions—make the transition from an economy dependent on one finite resource to an economy based on renewable, nonpolluting resources . . . [Klare notes that] such a transition would be difficult in the best of times, and that these are not the best of times . . . Klare [also argues that] the Bush administration's war on terrorism, the impulse of its neoconservative supporters to spread 'democracy' to the Middle East, and our desperate need for stable supplies of oil have merged into a single strategy—one that will commit us to maintaining military forces in many parts of the world and to using those forces to protect oil fields and supply routes. 'It is getting hard,' he writes, 'to distinguish U.S. military operations designed to fight terrorism from those designed to protect energy assets' . . . We are headed into uncharted territory, led by a government that seems prepared to use force, when necessary, to preserve the current system. We face growing competition from other countries for a finite resource at a time of growing animosity toward the United States."—Malcolm G. Scully, The Chronicle of Higher Education

"The rapid increase in the price of gasoline is a direct result of the failure of the U.S. to develop a realistic energy policy. As Michael Klare demonstrates in this provocative new book, we will continue to pay high prices and use military force unless we reduce our dependence on oil from the Middle East. A must read for Americans concerned about national security and economic growth."—Lawrence Korb, Senior Fellow at the Center for American Progress and former Assistant Secretary of Defense

"Inci

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Traffic: Why We Drive the Way We Do (and What It Says About Us)
Tom Vanderbilt

A New York Times Notable Book

One of the Best Books of the Year
The Washington Post • The Cleveland Plain-Dealer • Rocky Mountain News

In this brilliant, lively, and eye-opening investigation, Tom Vanderbilt examines the perceptual limits and cognitive underpinnings that make us worse drivers than we think we are. He demonstrates why plans to protect pedestrians from cars often lead to more accidents. He uncovers wh...

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Traffic: Why We Drive the Way We Do (and What It Says About Us)
Tom Vanderbilt

A New York Times Notable Book

One of the Best Books of the Year
The Washington Post • The Cleveland Plain-Dealer • Rocky Mountain News

In this brilliant, lively, and eye-opening investigation, Tom Vanderbilt examines the perceptual limits and cognitive underpinnings that make us worse drivers than we think we are. He demonstrates why plans to protect pedestrians from cars often lead to more accidents. He uncovers who is more likely to honk at whom, and why. He explains why traffic jams form, outlines the unintended consequences of our quest for safety, and even identifies the most common mistake drivers make in parking lots. Traffic is about more than driving: it's about human nature. It will change the way we see ourselves and the world around us, and it may even make us better drivers.

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Yurts: Living in the Round
Becky Kemery

Yurts: Living in the Round journeys from Central Asia to modern America and reveals the history, evolution, and contemporary benefits of yurt living. One of the oldest forms of indigenous shelter still in use today, yurts have exploded into the twenty-first century as a multi-faceted, thoroughly modern, utterly versatile, and immensely popular modern structure whose possibilities are still being explored. Kemery introduces the innovators who redesigned the yurt and took it from ...

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Yurts: Living in the Round
Becky Kemery

Yurts: Living in the Round journeys from Central Asia to modern America and reveals the history, evolution, and contemporary benefits of yurt living. One of the oldest forms of indigenous shelter still in use today, yurts have exploded into the twenty-first century as a multi-faceted, thoroughly modern, utterly versatile, and immensely popular modern structure whose possibilities are still being explored. Kemery introduces the innovators who redesigned the yurt and took it from back country trekking and campground uses to modern permanent homes and offices.

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Handmade Home: Simple Ways to Repurpose Old Materials into New Family Treasures
Amanda Blake Soule

Handmade Home offers simple sewing and craft projects for the home that reflect the needs, activities, and personalities of today’s families. Filled with thirty-three projects made by reusing and repurposing materials—from vintage feedsacks to old sheets and towels—and including some projects that children can help with, all of the items here offer a practical use in the home. Amanda Soule does much more than simply present a collection of handmade items; she reveals crafting as ...

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Handmade Home: Simple Ways to Repurpose Old Materials into New Family Treasures
Amanda Blake Soule

Handmade Home offers simple sewing and craft projects for the home that reflect the needs, activities, and personalities of today’s families. Filled with thirty-three projects made by reusing and repurposing materials—from vintage feedsacks to old sheets and towels—and including some projects that children can help with, all of the items here offer a practical use in the home. Amanda Soule does much more than simply present a collection of handmade items; she reveals crafting as a lifestyle based on the principles of consuming less and reusing more, appreciating the earth, and connecting to our families. This is a craft book that gives you the tools for creating a life—and a home—full of beauty, integrity, and joy.
Projects include:
• Papa’s Healing Cozy: This hot water bottle cover becomes a simple way to offer comfort to a sick child
• Baby Sling: A simple pattern for an object that offers so much to a small child—refuge from the world and a place to lay their head next to a parent’ heart
• Beach Blanket To-Go: Repurpose old sheets to create the perfect picnic blanket for special outdoor meals
• Cozy Wall Pockets: A creative solution for storing a child's small treasures.

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The Vegetable Dishes I Can't Live Without
Mollie Katzen

Sometimes we need a little inspiration when it comes to adding more vegetables to our plate. Thankfully for us, Mollie Katzen knows a thing or two about vegetables! On the 30th anniversary of her groundbreaking Moosewood Cookbook, Mollie presents just under 100 delicious vegetable side dishes in this delightful and beautiful cookbook. Whether you need an appetizer, a quick and easy snack for the kids, or something to accompany a main dish, this cookbook offers creative recipes and coun...

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The Vegetable Dishes I Can't Live Without
Mollie Katzen

Sometimes we need a little inspiration when it comes to adding more vegetables to our plate. Thankfully for us, Mollie Katzen knows a thing or two about vegetables! On the 30th anniversary of her groundbreaking Moosewood Cookbook, Mollie presents just under 100 delicious vegetable side dishes in this delightful and beautiful cookbook. Whether you need an appetizer, a quick and easy snack for the kids, or something to accompany a main dish, this cookbook offers creative recipes and countless ways to infuse more vegetables into our diets.

Both vegetarians and meat-eaters alike can benefit from these tasty and healthy side dishes, many of which you can even serve as stand-alone meals. The Vegetable Dishes I Can’t Live Without is an assortment of mostly new recipes, with new twists on some old favorites. Presented in her signature style and with her classic hand-drawn illustrations, these are the recipes she loves the most, and the recipes her millions of fans will most cherish.

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Cephalopods: A World Guide
Mark Norman

Octopuses, squids, cuttlefishes and their relatives ("cephalopods") are some of the most "alien" creatures on earth. They have complex behaviours and many are experts at spectacular color and shape changes. They come in all shapes and sizes, from pygmy octopuses to giant scams (> 15 m long), and occur from shallow reefs to the deep sea (> 7,500 m deep). This guide includes information and images for species from around the world as well as general stories on their unique lives and biza...

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Cephalopods: A World Guide
Mark Norman

Octopuses, squids, cuttlefishes and their relatives ("cephalopods") are some of the most "alien" creatures on earth. They have complex behaviours and many are experts at spectacular color and shape changes. They come in all shapes and sizes, from pygmy octopuses to giant scams (> 15 m long), and occur from shallow reefs to the deep sea (> 7,500 m deep). This guide includes information and images for species from around the world as well as general stories on their unique lives and bizarre habits. With over 800 photos of cephalopods taken in their natural habitat.

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Hell and High Water: Global Warming--the Solution and the Politics--and What We Should Do
Joseph Romm

Global warming is the story of the twenty-first century. It is the most serious issue facing the future of humankind, and American energy and environmental policy is driving the whole world down the path of global catastrophe. Hell and High Water is nothing less than a wake-up call to the country. It is a searing critique of American environmental and energy policy and a passionate call to action by a writer with a unique command of the science and politics of climate change.

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Hell and High Water: Global Warming--the Solution and the Politics--and What We Should Do
Joseph Romm

Global warming is the story of the twenty-first century. It is the most serious issue facing the future of humankind, and American energy and environmental policy is driving the whole world down the path of global catastrophe. Hell and High Water is nothing less than a wake-up call to the country. It is a searing critique of American environmental and energy policy and a passionate call to action by a writer with a unique command of the science and politics of climate change.

We have ten years, at most, to start making sharp cuts to our greenhouse gas emissions or we will face catastrophic consequences. The good news is that there is something we can do—but only if the leadership of the U.S. government acts immediately and asserts its influence on the rest of the world—in particular such emerging powers as China and India—to join an international effort to stop global warming.

Joseph Romm, an expert in the science, business, and politics of climate change, lays out a plan of action that involves:

• reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 50 percent by midcentury
• adopting a California-style energy-efficiency effort nationwide
• embracing high-mileage, advanced "hybrid" cars that can run on both electricity and biofuels

Unfortunately, the required government policies and spending are strongly opposed by conservatives, who have blocked serious action on climate change and continue to publicly deny the dire warnings of scientists. Never before has there been such a sharp divergence between what top scientists know and what policymakers, the general public, and the media believe. And, sadly, never has so much been at stake.

Romm, who ran the largest program in the world that was concentrated on climate solutions, offers an authoritative dissection of this disastrous policy. Hell and High Water goes beyond ideological rhetoric to offer pragmatic solutions to avert the threat of global warming—solutions that must be taken seriously by every American.

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Fast, Fresh & Green
Susie Middleton

This new bible for all things vegetable from Fine Cooking's Vegetable Queen is ideal for the millions of eaters who want to get the recommended five to nine servings of fruits and greens into their daily diet. Susie Middleton shares her love of healthful, delicious veggies with a guide to shopping for and cooking delectable meatless meals, including such delights as Spinach with Shallots and Parmigiano and Roasted Eggplant, Bell Pepper, and Fresh Basil Salad. More than 100 recipes fo...

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Fast, Fresh & Green
Susie Middleton

This new bible for all things vegetable from Fine Cooking's Vegetable Queen is ideal for the millions of eaters who want to get the recommended five to nine servings of fruits and greens into their daily diet. Susie Middleton shares her love of healthful, delicious veggies with a guide to shopping for and cooking delectable meatless meals, including such delights as Spinach with Shallots and Parmigiano and Roasted Eggplant, Bell Pepper, and Fresh Basil Salad. More than 100 recipes for appetizers, snacks, entrees, and side dishes, many of them vegan, make Fast, Fresh & Green an excellent resource for vegetarians and omnivores.

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The Transition Handbook: From Oil Dependency to Local Resilience (Transition Guides)
Rob Hopkins

We live in an oil-dependent world, arriving at this level of dependency in a very short space of time by treating petroleum as if it were in infinite supply. Most of us avoid thinking about what happens when oil runs out (or becomes prohibitively expensive), but The Transition Handbook shows how the inevitable and profound changes ahead can have a positive outcome. These changes can lead to the rebirth of local communities that will grow more of their own food, generate their own power...

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The Transition Handbook: From Oil Dependency to Local Resilience (Transition Guides)
Rob Hopkins

We live in an oil-dependent world, arriving at this level of dependency in a very short space of time by treating petroleum as if it were in infinite supply. Most of us avoid thinking about what happens when oil runs out (or becomes prohibitively expensive), but The Transition Handbook shows how the inevitable and profound changes ahead can have a positive outcome. These changes can lead to the rebirth of local communities that will grow more of their own food, generate their own power, and build their own houses using local materials. They can also encourage the development of local currencies to keep money in the local area.

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Co-opportunity: Join Up for a Sustainable, Resilient, Prosperous World
John Grant

John Grant is back! Bestselling author of Green Marketing Manifesto fame returns to get you involved in creating a sustainable future!

In this book, green business guru John Grant shows how we, when we join forces through co-operative initiatives, can really make changes and work towards a better future.

John uses cases and examples from around the world, from social networks to social ventures, Carrot Mobbing to the Carbon Disclosure Project, to show how ...

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Co-opportunity: Join Up for a Sustainable, Resilient, Prosperous World
John Grant

John Grant is back! Bestselling author of Green Marketing Manifesto fame returns to get you involved in creating a sustainable future!

In this book, green business guru John Grant shows how we, when we join forces through co-operative initiatives, can really make changes and work towards a better future.

John uses cases and examples from around the world, from social networks to social ventures, Carrot Mobbing to the Carbon Disclosure Project, to show how a move to greater co-operation via what he calls Co-operative Networks can be a way forwards for all of us to increase the common well-being. 

Arguing that a climate for change can be created by engaging rather than alienating people, John also demonstrates ways of ‘relocating dreams’ to allow us to reassess our desires and priorities.

Whether you are a business leader, politician, armchair economist, environmentalist or general interest reader, the inspiration and ideas John Grant provides in Co-Opportunity encourages us all to think again about our individual behaviour and our actions – our ideas of what it is to be human - and to get co-creating to build a better world for all. Sit back and watch, or become part of this grass roots new movement.

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Wormwood Forest: A Natural History of Chernobyl
Mary Mycio

In 1986 when the Chernobyl nuclear reactor melted down, 135,000 people were evacuated. Almost twenty years later, the area remains a no-man’s land, with radiation too intense for people to live there safely. Amazingly, though, it is nevertheless home to a unique and extraordinary new ecosystem.

When the explosion ripped through the Number Four reactor complex that fateful day, spewing flames and chunks of burning, radioactive material into the air, one of the world’s worst nightmare...

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Wormwood Forest: A Natural History of Chernobyl
Mary Mycio

In 1986 when the Chernobyl nuclear reactor melted down, 135,000 people were evacuated. Almost twenty years later, the area remains a no-man’s land, with radiation too intense for people to live there safely. Amazingly, though, it is nevertheless home to a unique and extraordinary new ecosystem.

When the explosion ripped through the Number Four reactor complex that fateful day, spewing flames and chunks of burning, radioactive material into the air, one of the world’s worst nightmares was realized. As the news gradually seeped out of the USSR and the extent of the disaster was confirmed, it became clear how horribly wrong things had gone. Dozens died – two from the explosion and many more from radiation illness over the following months – while scores of additional people became ill with acute radiation sickness. The prognosis for Chernobyl and its environs – succinctly dubbed the Zone of Alienation – was grim.

But if fears of the Apocalypse and a lifeless, barren radioactive future have been constant companions of the nuclear age, twenty years later Chernobyl shows us a different view of the future. Not only have pockets of defiant local residents remained behind to survive and make a life in the Zone, the area surrounding Chernobyl has become Europe’s largest wildlife sanctuary, a flourishing – at times unearthly – wilderness teeming with large animals, many of them members of rare and endangered species. Like the forests, fields, and swamps of their unexpectedly inviting habitat, both the people and the animals are all radioactive. Cesium-137 is packed in their muscles and strontium-90 in their bones. But quite astonishingly, they are also thriving.

Donning dosimeter and protective gear, intrepid journalist Mary Mycio explored the world’s only radioactive wilderness to report on the long-term effects of the disaster. A vivid blend of reportage, popular science, and illuminating encounters that explode the myths of Chernobyl with facts that are at once beautiful and horrible, Wormwood Forest brings a remarkable land – and its people and animals – to life to tell a unique story of science, surprise, and suspense.

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The Story of Stuff: How Our Obsession with Stuff Is Trashing the Planet, Our Communities, and Our Health-and a Vision for Change
Annie Leonard

We have a problem with Stuff. With just 5 percent of the world’s population, we’re consuming 30 percent of the world’s resources and creating 30 percent of the world’s waste. If everyone consumed at U.S. rates, we would need three to five planets!

This alarming fact drove Annie Leonard to create the Internet film sensation The Story of Stuff, which has been viewed over 10 million times by people around the world. In her sweeping, groundbreaking book of the same name, Leo...

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The Story of Stuff: How Our Obsession with Stuff Is Trashing the Planet, Our Communities, and Our Health-and a Vision for Change
Annie Leonard

We have a problem with Stuff. With just 5 percent of the world’s population, we’re consuming 30 percent of the world’s resources and creating 30 percent of the world’s waste. If everyone consumed at U.S. rates, we would need three to five planets!

This alarming fact drove Annie Leonard to create the Internet film sensation The Story of Stuff, which has been viewed over 10 million times by people around the world. In her sweeping, groundbreaking book of the same name, Leonard tracks the life of the Stuff we use every day—where our cotton T-shirts, laptop computers, and aluminum cans come from, how they are produced, distributed, and consumed, and where they go when we throw them out. Like Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring, The Story of Stuff is a landmark book that will change the way people think—and the way they live.

Leonard’s message is startlingly clear: we have too much Stuff, and too much of it is toxic. Outlining the five stages of our consumption-driven economy—from extraction through production, distribution, consumption, and disposal—she vividly illuminates its frightening repercussions. Visiting garbage dumps and factories around the world, Leonard reveals the true story behind our possessions—why it’s cheaper to replace a broken TV than to fix it; how the promotion of "perceived obsolescence" encourages us to toss out everything from shoes to cell phones while they’re still in perfect shape; and how factory workers in Haiti, mine workers in Congo, and everyone who lives and works within this system pay for our cheap goods with their health, safety, and quality of life. Meanwhile we, as consumers, are compromising our health and well-being, whether it’s through neurotoxins in our pillows or lead leaching into our kids’ food from their lunchboxes—and all this Stuff isn’t even making us happier! We work hard so we can buy Stuff that we quickly throw out, and then

we want new Stuff so we work harder and have no time to enjoy all our Stuff. . . . With staggering revelations about the economy, the environment, and cultures around the world, alongside stories from her own life and work, Leonard demonstrates that the drive for a "growth at all costs" economy fuels a cycle of production, consumption, and disposal that is killing us.

It is a system in crisis, but Annie Leonard shows us that this is not the way things have to be. It’s within our power to stop the environmental damage, social injustice, and health hazards caused by polluting production and excessive consumption, and Leonard shows us how. Expansive, galvanizing, and sobering yet optimistic, The Story of Stuff transforms how we think about our lives and our relationship to the planet.

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Understanding Institutional Diversity
Elinor Ostrom

The analysis of how institutions are formed, how they operate and change, and how they influence behavior in society has become a major subject of inquiry in politics, sociology, and economics. A leader in applying game theory to the understanding of institutional analysis, Elinor Ostrom provides in this book a coherent method for undertaking the analysis of diverse economic, political, and social institutions.

Understanding Institutional Diversity explains the Institutional ...

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Understanding Institutional Diversity
Elinor Ostrom

The analysis of how institutions are formed, how they operate and change, and how they influence behavior in society has become a major subject of inquiry in politics, sociology, and economics. A leader in applying game theory to the understanding of institutional analysis, Elinor Ostrom provides in this book a coherent method for undertaking the analysis of diverse economic, political, and social institutions.

Understanding Institutional Diversity explains the Institutional Analysis and Development (IAD) framework, which enables a scholar to choose the most relevant level of interaction for a particular question. This framework examines the arena within which interactions occur, the rules employed by participants to order relationships, the attributes of a biophysical world that structures and is structured by interactions, and the attributes of a community in which a particular arena is placed.

The book explains and illustrates how to use the IAD in the context of both field and experimental studies. Concentrating primarily on the rules aspect of the IAD framework, it provides empirical evidence about the diversity of rules, the calculation process used by participants in changing rules, and the design principles that characterize robust, self-organized resource governance institutions.

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Governing the Commons: The Evolution of Institutions for Collective Action (Political Economy of Institutions and Decisions)
Elinor Ostrom

The governance of natural resources used by many individuals in common is an issue of increasing concern to policy analysts. Both state control and privatization of resources have been advocated, but neither the state nor the market have been uniformly successful in solving common pool resource problems. After critiquing the foundations of policy analysis as applied to natural resources, Elinor Ostrom here provides a unique body of empirical data to explore conditions under which common pool ...

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Governing the Commons: The Evolution of Institutions for Collective Action (Political Economy of Institutions and Decisions)
Elinor Ostrom

The governance of natural resources used by many individuals in common is an issue of increasing concern to policy analysts. Both state control and privatization of resources have been advocated, but neither the state nor the market have been uniformly successful in solving common pool resource problems. After critiquing the foundations of policy analysis as applied to natural resources, Elinor Ostrom here provides a unique body of empirical data to explore conditions under which common pool resource problems have been satisfactorily or unsatisfactorily solved. Dr. Ostrom first describes three models most frequently used as the foundation for recommending state or market solutions. She then outlines theoretical and empirical alternatives to these models in order to illustrate the diversity of possible solutions. In the following chapters she uses institutional analysis to examine different ways--both successful and unsuccessful--of governing the commons. In contrast to the proposition of the tragedy of the commons argument, common pool problems sometimes are solved by voluntary organizations rather than by a coercive state. Among the cases considered are communal tenure in meadows and forests, irrigation communities and other water rights, and fisheries.

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The New Organic Grower: A Master's Manual of Tools and Techniques for the Home and Market Gardener (A gardener's supply book)
Eliot Coleman

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The New Organic Grower: A Master's Manual of Tools and Techniques for the Home and Market Gardener (A gardener's supply book)
Eliot Coleman

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Solar Gardening: Growing Vegetables Year-Round the American Intensive Way (The Real Goods Independent Living Books)
Leandre Poisson

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Solar Gardening: Growing Vegetables Year-Round the American Intensive Way (The Real Goods Independent Living Books)
Leandre Poisson

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Plenty: Eating Locally on the 100-Mile Diet
Alisa Smith

The remarkable, amusing and inspiring adventures of a Canadian couple who make a year-long attempt to eat foods grown and produced within a 100-mile radius of their apartment.

When Alisa Smith and James MacKinnon learned that the average ingredient in a North American meal travels 1,500 miles from farm to plate, they decided to launch a simple experiment to reconnect with the people and places that produced what they ate. For one year, they would only consume food that came from within...

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Plenty: Eating Locally on the 100-Mile Diet
Alisa Smith

The remarkable, amusing and inspiring adventures of a Canadian couple who make a year-long attempt to eat foods grown and produced within a 100-mile radius of their apartment.

When Alisa Smith and James MacKinnon learned that the average ingredient in a North American meal travels 1,500 miles from farm to plate, they decided to launch a simple experiment to reconnect with the people and places that produced what they ate. For one year, they would only consume food that came from within a 100-mile radius of their Vancouver apartment. The 100-Mile Diet was born.

The couple’s discoveries sometimes shook their resolve. It would be a year without sugar, Cheerios, olive oil, rice, Pizza Pops, beer, and much, much more. Yet local eating has turned out to be a life lesson in pleasures that are always close at hand. They met the revolutionary farmers and modern-day hunter-gatherers who are changing the way we think about food. They got personal with issues ranging from global economics to biodiversity. They called on the wisdom of grandmothers, and immersed themselves in the seasons. They discovered a host of new flavours, from gooseberry wine to sunchokes to turnip sandwiches, foods that they never would have guessed were on their doorstep.

The 100-Mile Diet struck a deeper chord than anyone could have predicted, attracting media and grassroots interest that spanned the globe. The 100-Mile Diet: A Year of Local Eating tells the full story, from the insights to the kitchen disasters, as the authors transform from megamart shoppers to self-sufficient urban pioneers. The 100-Mile Diet is a pathway home for anybody, anywhere.

Call me naive, but I never knew that flour would be struck from our 100-Mile Diet. Wheat products are just so ubiquitous, “the staff of life,” that I had hazily imagined the stuff must be grown everywhere. But of course: I had never seen a field of wheat anywhere close to Vancouver, and my mental images of late-afternoon light falling on golden fields of grain were all from my childhood on the Canadian prairies. What I was able to find was Anita’s Organic Grain & Flour Mill, about 60 miles up the Fraser River valley. I called, and learned that Anita’s nearest grain suppliers were at least 800 miles away by road. She sounded sorry for me. Would it be a year until I tasted a pie?
—From The 100-Mile Diet


From the Hardcover edition.

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