Do Good Lives Have to Cost the Earth?: Amazon.co.uk: Andrew Simms, Joe Smith: Books

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"* 'An eloquent and persuasive account of modern corporate greed, and how and why we should resist it... should make all but the Gordon Geckos of this world determined to do something about it.' - Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall * 'Terrific... no one can read this book and ever think of supermarkets as benign and life enhancing again.' - Rosie Boycott * 'Simms shows the creeping, invading unsustainable world of the supershop, its tentacles strangling the life out of our communities. Read it.' --John Bird, founder of The Big Issue

The marvellous thing about reading this book is that, at the end, you feel as though you have read about fifty ... [its] different facets add up to one illuminating whole. --Resurgence

The Idler, 27th January, 2008

an inspiring anthology

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19 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars It makes you think what our real goals should be!, 22 Feb 2008

By	Mr X "A reader" (London) - See all my reviews

Not knowing much about environmental issues I thought this book was excellent. It discusses the environment, not in a narrow sense, but, instead in a way that brings together all sorts of different disciplines including psychology, economics, politics, employment and the work place as well as ecology/environmentalism.

The book is not written by one author but instead by a cross-section of about 12 people who have different backgrounds and specialisms. The main thing which comes out of the many articles is that in order to live a good life (ie one which is fulfilling but doesn't "cost the earth") Western society needs to have a good think about what it's goals are. It is a fact, proven by the latest research that materialism and consumerism and the struggle for greater wealth do not translate into greater happiness. However, materialism and consumerism do have deeply negative impacts on the environment and on people's wellbeing - but to what purpose if wealth doesn't even make you any happier?! I liked the quote, "if you want to be happy for a few hours then get drunk. If you want to be happy for a few years then get married, and if you want to be happy for your lifetime, get a garden"!

The book also provides interesting insights as to what the real solutions are - less work and greed and more time spent developing relationships and being involved in our local communities. Especially interesting is the chapter explaining why the international banking systems is so onerous to all but those who are already rich and are getting richer as a result of the system. Another very interesting point was that over the course of their lifetime, in fact Ferraris are more environmentally friendly than electric cars!

Everyone should read this book now!!

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11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars time for an environmental, social and economic renaissance, 4 Mar 2008

By	Jeremy Williams (Luton) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

The concept behind this book is simple, but very important - good lives do not need to cost the earth. Where many environmentalists have called for sacrifice, abstinence, and the wearing of hair-shirts, the contributing writers to this collection call for more parties, tighter communities, healthier work patterns, better architecture, and better food.

As you may have guessed, this is a very varied set of contributions. Philip Pullman warns environmentalists that they need to tell better stories. David Goldblatt discusses the future of sport and worries that golf's days may be numbered. Anne Pettifor explores how credit is created and demands free money, and Tom Hodgkinson of the Idler calls for us all to do less. There is plenty of food for thought here, all delivered with a lightness of touch. It brings together the environment, economics, psychology and politics to explore a holistic sustainability agenda, and the emphasis is on inspiring, not berating.
Perhaps Colin Tudge says it best in describing the movement as a renaissance - something that is grass roots, but not a revolution - just people seeing things differently and changing their lives.

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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars a plea for downshifting, in our and in the planet's interest, 30 Jul 2008

By	Philippe Vandenbroeck (HEVERLEE, BELGIUM) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This book argues that what doesn't work for human happiness and wellbeing doesn't work well for the planet. Good lives should not, indeed ought not to be allowed to cost the earth. The argument, delivered trough a fractured prism of more than 20 (British) voices, unfolds at two levels.

First there is the growing body of science that shows how increasing levels of affluence do not translate automatically into a greater sense of wellbeing. Above a certain, fairly modest level of material and financial security, intangibles such as family relationships, meaningful work and health become much more important predictors of happiness than income. However, our selfishly capitalist society works hard to keep us onto the "hedonic treadmill" and make us forget these essentials.

The environmental agenda puts the discussion on a moral plane. Climate change is forcefully telling us something that we've known for a couple of decades: we have been overconsuming our natural resource base and as a result we have burdened ourselves with a potentially disastrous ecological debt. This is a moral issue as the downside consequences of our gluttony not only affect us but also the billions in less developed countries and those unhappy generations inheriting the planet.

This book argues that this crisis can only be successfully tackled by taking the sting out of the consumerist virus. We have to jump of the threadmill, get thriftier and do more with less. That much is clear. But a set of questions emerges upon which authors in this book formulate different answers.

One question has to do with the level - personal or policy - from which this transformation needs to be driven. Quite a few authors think it is really up to us, individual citizen-consumers: by changing the way we live, we influence the larger world around us. We shouldn't wait for a post-Kyoto climate pact to come about (if it ever does), we just need to take the first step by honestly asking ourselves: "what is a good life for me and what does it have to cost?" Deep down we know the answer to that question. We know we don't need all the "stuff". We know we should be courageous enough to wrest control over our own lives from the advertisement industry, the car industry, big retail, financial services. These contributors try to convince us of the fact that this isn't as hard as it seems: first focus on slight changes, then gradually start to rediscover the sophistication in simplicity and the joy of intangibles.

This book sheds little light on the role of macro-level policies in this transformation. Yes, we need new indicators to measure our progress towards realistic, sustainable goals. The intellectual monoculture of GDP needs to be enriched with other, more nuanced parameters that reflect how we manage our environmental resources and how happy we are. But the discussion is very thin and patchy on the complex governance issues surrounding these macro-societal transformations: what novel institutions and risk and burden sharing mechanisms do we need? How do micro-scale processes link into changes involving more expansive socio-technical systems? The book doesn't deal with these issues. It is a missed opportunity as it seems to me that there is an emerging body of knowledge (labelled as transition management, transdisciplinarity and action learning) that could provide significant impetus to this discussion.

A second question that emerges from these pages has to do with the spirit with which this whole process of downshifting is going to be imbued. Designer Kevin McCloud (his contribution is one of the highlights of this book) tackles the issue head-on when he says: "For me the great danger is that we pursue the quick fix. If we're not careful we'll go down this terrible, utilitarian, shaker route where we all end up being dour ethically-shrunken miserabilists." Indeed, there is a grave risk is that this whole undertaking - necessary as it may be - turns into some nightmarish, eco-fascistoid fantasy. The stakes are indeed high. Irreversible climate change is upon us. According to some of the authors, we have only a decade to steer the juggernaut on a fundamentally different course. Although several authors stress the enabling, joyful nature of the necessary adjustment to new realities, there are sterner and more alarmist voices in this book. They unwittingly send shivers down our spine: what will happen if peer pressure, what if the slow and compromising policy machinery and feedback signals from nature are unable to generate enough momentum in downshifting the populations of industrial nations? That's another question that is not answered, only hinted at in this book.

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3.0 out of 5 stars Hmmmm???
This book had some good and worthwhile points but was also painfully middle-class in regards to the scope of its outlook and addressing the full scale of our environmental... Read more

Published 16 months ago by Mrs. Rose G. Butler

5.0 out of 5 stars Enlightens and entertains - what more could you want?!
Blimey. A book that enlightens entertains and most importantly, enthuses. For anyone who's ever felt weighed down by doom and gloom-mongering environmentalism, it's the perfect... Read more

Published 18 months ago by Miss B

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