Deep Economy: The Wealth of Communities and the Durable Future [Hardcover]

Since the end of WWII, the English-speaking world has created a new outlook on the individual and social relations. Where once we were part of small town rural communities or even close-knit urban neighbourhoods, now we've moved a major part of our population into the suburbs. Single houses, fenced or hedged keep us insulated from each other and the world. McKibben calls it "hyperindividuality" with each of us following the myth of More and Better. We demand More and Better appliances in our kitchen, More and Better vehicles in the garage with More and Better roads to drive them on. An economy based on this philosophy has touted Growth as a beacon to set the direction of our thinking. The resulting high consumption lifestyle has masked the true costs of how we live.

In this comprehensive and long overdue study, McKibben describes the way our current mindset is driving our lives. As an expressive reformer, he also provides a set of almost painless cures to restore without abandoning what we've become accustomed to. We can rebuild "community" without serious disruption. The "almost painless" simply means a small change in outlook and a willingness to undertake the work to achieve sustainable lives and communities. Finding each other and building more more communicative relationships with each other is a major first step. From those initial contacts healthier and more responsible lifestyles can result. The thin edge of the wedge in achieving this is simply for each of us to ask ourselves "How much Growth do we need?"

Personal interaction is best enhanced, according to McKibben, by the shift to local food and other products. With vegetables travelling thousands of kilometres to reach your dining table, paying increased attention to what is available locally has many advantages. Among the greatest of these is knowledge that the products money stays in your vicinity and are likely right at hand in your area. In North America, the "family farm" has disappeared, replaced by huge tracts of land run by distant owners. Still, "Farmer's markets" have burgeoned in recent years and are increasing in number. The "organic" product has even entered the supermarket chains, a step McKibben feels should be further encouraged. Community-supported agriculture is a major aspect of this book. Along with local small farms, the "urban garden" utilisation of vacant lots has also grown . In both forms, the money you spend remains in your community. In some places, that has given rise to a local currency to facilitate support for local farmers and manufacturers.

The author stresses that our situation doesn't require rapid nor radical change in how we live. What he seeks is a "patient rebalancing of the scales". His native country, although its population still believes it stands above the rest of the nations, has slipped drastically in essential features. He has travelled many lands to witness various solutions that have been implemented. Many of these can be applied here, and it is here that the rebalancing is needed most. Our past values are not flawless, but he thinks we have sufficient common sense to find and use the best solutions where they can do the most good. Living in Vermont, he is favoured by his proximity not only to his neighbours, but to the politicians from the township to the federal level. That situation grants him and his fellow townsmen the opportunity to urge things like shifting subsidies from corporate farms to community ones.

None of his proposals embraces the "warm and fuzzy" feeling the word "community" often evokes. The romantic myth of small towns of closely-knit families is just that - a myth. For starters, there's no defined limit of what size a community must be to be workable. There are, McKibben argues, many "data points" to be considered. The difficulty is that our new mind-set has kept us from considering which ones are available to you and how to utilise them best. This volume, which is as much a guide-book for the future as it is a lamentation of why we need such a road-map, explains how to assess those data points by which you can help create a viable future. Read it and find out how and why. [stephen a. haines - Ottawa, Canada]

Having read many books on the subject of global overshoot, peak oil, peak coal, peak water, peak everything, targeted primarily at the American, but also the European and Asian, consumer, the author adds little that has not already been mentioned by Robert Heinberg, Lester Brown and James Howard Kunstler. However from his experience with the '350' campaign and community activism he does promote the importance and practical creation of 'lifeboats', the re-emergence of community, residents supporting residents and community investment in community facilities. A network of local businesses, baker, butcher, green grocer, clothes, books, CTN, diner, tool shop, energy supplier, bicycle shop, doctor, dentist, accountant, web designer, electrician, schools, teachers, etc. supporting local agriculture (food, fruit, green energy) all within a 20-minute walk, 30-minute cycle of the local population. Looking out from his Vermont home he surveys an American homeland which has practically been destroyed by the greed of a few in the name of public efficiency; the destruction of walk-able small town life by 'out-of-town' 'stack 'em high sell 'em cheap' brand name hypermarkets reachable only by private cars after a 10/20/30-mile drive; the sprawl of low density housing no longer within walking/hailing distance of neighbours, the absence of neighbourhood shopping or even public transport routes. The author strongly suggests that the health and financial benefits of local spending and employment in the community and horticulture farms outweighs by a big margin the cheapness and sameness of anonymous distant hypermarkets, 20 miles to buy a lettuce or dinner. It's a 'chicken and egg' question, but can community 'lifeboats' replace the anonymous hypermarket before the fuel crisis limits globalisation in the mid-21st century? Books like this are bringing an individual choice to the future.

Deep Economy helps to debunk the myth of continuous economic growth as neither sustainable, nor the route human happiness. It suggests a wiser path to a world in which we can all thrive on a delicate planet with limited resources.