- Hardcover: 325 pages
- Publisher: Atlantic Books; First Edition edition (1 Jan 2010)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 1843548151
- ISBN-13: 978-1843548157
- Product Dimensions: 23.4 x 15.8 x 3.4 cm
- Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars See all reviews (11 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 345,059 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
Whole Earth Discipline
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Review
A rich, compelling guide to how old wisdom can combine with new technologies. --New Statesman
Thoroughly exhilarating... It's one of those books that you want to press on people and insist they read... Whole Earth Discipline doesn't present itself as the only road map, but I doubt you'll encounter a more entertaining or thought-provoking one. --Independent
Environmentalism has a worthy prophet, Stewart Brand, and a bible, Whole Earth Discipline... Entertaining and thought-provoking... I can see it being quoted thirty years from now. --Financial Times
A landmark book...Illuminating. --Scotsman
Brand offers his own vision of caring for ecosystems even as we transform them - adopting lessons from everyone from Native Americans to modern, scientifically informed restoration projects... [A] wise book. --Guardian
Thoroughly exhilarating... It's one of those books that you want to press on people and insist they read... Whole Earth Discipline doesn't present itself as the only road map, but I doubt you'll encounter a more entertaining or thought-provoking one. --Independent
Environmentalism has a worthy prophet, Stewart Brand, and a bible, Whole Earth Discipline... Entertaining and thought-provoking... I can see it being quoted thirty years from now. --Financial Times
A landmark book...Illuminating. --Scotsman
Brand offers his own vision of caring for ecosystems even as we transform them - adopting lessons from everyone from Native Americans to modern, scientifically informed restoration projects... [A] wise book. --Guardian
Product Description
'Being Green' is no longer enough. "Whole Earth Discipline" is Stewart Brand's wake up call for the environmental movement, and his message is hard-hitting: unless environmentalists keep up with new science, they will become part of the problem. It is an exhilarating piece of writing and bang-on zeitgeist. Three profound transformations are underway on Earth: climate change, urbanization and biotechnology. In response to these seismic changes - and challenges - Steward Brand argues that the environmental movement must reverse some long-held opinions, and embrace tools and disciplines that it has traditionally distrusted - such as science and engineering - in order to forestall the cataclysmic deterioration of the earth's resources. "Whole Earth Discipline" shatters a number of environmental myths, and presents radical, counterintuitive observations - cities are actually greener than the countryside, nuclear power is the future of energy, and genetic engineering is the key to crop and land management. With a combination of scientific rigor and blazing advocacy, Brand shows us exactly where the sources of our dilemmas lie and offers a bold and creative set of policies and solutions for producing a more sustainable society.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
17 of 18 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
yes, but...,
By
This review is from: Whole Earth Discipline (Hardcover)
I did broadly change my mind as a result of reading this book about the potential advantages of progressive urbanisation - inevitable in any case - GM/GE organisms and nuclear power; the `main news' part of the book. Brand successfully includes these as possible solutions to the ecological crisis, part of the package needed. In this way his approach is refreshingly solution-orientated, identifying what is required as an engineering, problem-solving approach, in contrast to the tragic and pessimistic `decay narrative' of the romantic wing of environmentalism. However there are serious lacks. Presumably because he is American, he does not imagine any alternative to corporate capitalism. He talks of `managing the commons' without recognising that one of the main thrusts of capitalism, for over four hundred years, is the privatisation of the commons for profit, more recently expropriating its intellectual property and patenting its DNA! He is clearly a technophile, but berates rather than understands the justified suspicion of science when it is in the service of this corporate capitalism. Western technological science co-arose with capitalism, is at best co-dependent with it, perhaps simply a product of it. He fails to provide, therefore, any political economic context for his thesis or, for that matter, much cultural perspective. The future he imagines of successfully combating climate change could be either a utopia or a dystopia, depending whether the technical solutions are accompanied by a shift in values - or not.... Nevertheless he convincingly argues that the environmental movement will also have to shift its ground. The book's `eco-pragmatism' is therefore radical in suggesting some of the sacred cows it will have to abandon, and worth reading, even though the egocentric style is sometimes irritating, for Brand's encyclopaedic knowledge. It succeeds as a practical guide to changing one's mind and looking at difficult challenges in a new way.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
The Bright Green Manifesto,
By Ashtar Command "Seeker" (Stockholm, Sweden) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Whole Earth Discipline: Why Dense Cities, Nuclear Power, Transgenic Crops, Restored Wildlands, Radical Science, and Geoengineering are Necessary (Paperback)
"Whole Earth Discipline" by Steward Brand is a Green book, but it's written from a distinctly heretical perspective. Brand argues in favour of urbanization, Third World development, nuclear power and Frankenfood. In his opinion, only modernization and high tech can save humanity from climate change and its consequences. The book also contains more traditionally Green chapters on land management, wildlife preservation, etc. The bottom line is the same, however: if we want better land management, perhaps we need GE crops. If we want to preserve large wilderness preserves, we need to urbanize and make sure to develop eco-friendly technology. If we want to control population numbers, we need higher standards of living. Brand's support for nuclear power and GE (or GM) crops will be particularly hard to swallow even for moderate Greens, since these two are often seen as close to the Devil himself. Two similar books are "Green Delusions" by Martin Lewis (which feels somewhat dated) and "Confessions of a Greenpeace dropout" by Patrick Moore. Arguably, Moore is even more extreme than Brand in his heresies, since he doesn't even believe in climate change. All three books, however, are recommended reading for those who want a Bright Green perspective on the ecological crisis.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Whole Earth Intelligence,
By
This review is from: Whole Earth Discipline: Why Dense Cities, Nuclear Power, Transgenic Crops, Restored Wildlands, Radical Science, and Geoengineering are Necessary (Paperback)
This extraordinary book should be read by all politicians and anyone concerned with our future. It is refreshing on many topics, and challenging to our preconceptions. It gives ground for hope, and tackles basic problems and concerns head on , without recourse to special arcane language. It questions so much, and proposes from a position of knowledge. One of the most refreshing books I have encountered. An unequivocal Five Star rating.
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