‘The Invisible Doctrine: The Secret History of Neoliberalism (& How It Came to Control Your Life)’ by George Monbiot and Peter Hutchison
Allen Lane, 2024 ISBN: 978-0241635902 Reviewed by Ian [...]
‘Choosing Earth: Humanity’s Great Transition to a Mature Planetary Civilization’ by Duane Elgin.
First Edition: March 2020, Second Edition: January 2022 ISBN: [...]
‘The Web of Meaning: Integrating Science and Traditional Wisdom to Find Our Place in the Universe’ by Jeremy Lent.
Profile Books, 2021-07-27 ISBN: 978-1788165648 Reviewed by Marian Van Eyk [...]
‘A New Republic of the Heart: An Ethos for Revolutionaries’ by Terry Patten
North Atlantic Books, 2018 ISBN: 9781623170479 Reviewed by Marian [...]
‘Being Salmon, Being Human: Encountering the Wild in Us and Us in the Wild’ by Martin Lee Mueller
Chelsea Green, 2017 ISBN: 97811603587464 Reviewed by Marian [...]
Sustainable World Sourcebook: Critical Issues, Viable Solutions, Resources for Action (4th Edition, 2014)
If you wanted a comprehensive yet succinct overview to present to someone with scant knowledge of social/environmental issues, to anyone interested in sustainability, or to a group looking for action ideas and/or discussion topics, this would be your perfect resource book. It is, in fact, a practical and inspirational one-stop shop for all things green. It covers social justice, energy, climate change, economics, communities and all aspects of the environmental issues that our world is currently facing. Inspirational and potentially attitude-changing.
‘Don’t Even Think About It: Why our brains are wired to ignore climate change’ by George Marshall
As the title suggests, this is not a book about climate science. It’s about humans and the weird but inescapable fact that we, as the species whose actions have contributed so heavily to climate change, seem utterly incapable not only of addressing the issue but even of admitting that it exists. Why? Why don’t we all join the dots and amend our lifestyles to lower carbon emissions? Marshall is convinced that the real answers to do not lie in the things that drive us apart so much as the things we all share: our common psychology, our perception of risk, and our deepest instincts to defend our family and tribe. This book, the result of years of research, provides a full and fascinating explanation of this phenomenon and what we might do about it.
‘Keeping the Wild: Against the Domestication of Earth’ by George Wuerthner (Author, Editor), Eileen Crist (Editor) and Tom Butler (Editor)
Anthropocentrism, instead of gradually going away as so many of us have hoped, is sneaking in again by the back door. The people letting it in are not the familiar enemy who rip the tops of mountains and drill the Arctic but a small bunch of people who are billing themselves as the ‘new environmentalists’ (also known as ‘Anthropocene-boosters’) and who are wolves in sheep’s clothing.
‘The Universe Story In Science and Myth’ by Greg Morter and Niamh Brennan
This book describes our planet's whole evolutionary journey from the Big Bang to the present day, as revealed to us by science. It then goes on to explain why the story is so relevant for our time and to discuss some of the many inspirations we can draw from it.
‘Feral: Searching for enchantment on the frontiers of rewilding’ by George Monbiot
Rather than seeing the bare hills of mid-Wales as beautiful in their remoteness George Monbiot sees them as ruined, ‘sheepwrecked’ landscapes and re-imagines them as they once were—and could be again—thickly forested and rich with wildlife. His biggest dream is the restoration to completeness of fractured ecosystems by the eventual re-introduction of the wolf, the lynx and other large mammals to our British landscapes in the same way as this is already being done in other parts of Europe and in certain areas of North America.
What is Green Spirituality? Edited by Marian Van Eyk McCain
“Green spirituality,” writes editor Marian Van Eyk McCain, is “a spirituality centred on this planet Earth, the only home we humans and our ancestors have ever known.” Rooted in the Earth and in all creation, greens’ spirituality focuses in a deeply connected way with living in and caring about and for the Earth and every living entity in and on it.
‘Planet as Self: An Earthen Spirituality’ by Sky McCain
‘Planet as Self’ argues for a radical rethink of our relationship with Mother Earth or Gaia and points out how beliefs – scientific or religious – can so easily be mistaken for truths. Nothing less than a paradigm shift in our basic beliefs is called for.
‘The Universe Story’ by Brian Swimme and Thomas Berry
Most cultures have creation stories. And for many centuries, those creation stories have served to bond people together in a shared sense of history and of destiny. Our modern, Western culture, with all its book learning and its technology and its scientific knowhow has long since outgrown tales of Adam and Eve and fig leaves and yet there has been nothing coherent to put in their place. For a long time now, we have been a people in need of a creation story.
‘The Spell of the Sensuous’ by David Abram
Part personal story, this book begins among the bright green terraced rice paddies of Bali as the author sets out on a study tour through Asia to document the relationship between magic and medicine. Rather than travelling as an academic, he goes simply as a magician, using his own well-developed magic skills to make a collegial connection with the various sorcerers and shamans he meets along the way. Soon, however, he begins to discover the deeper truths of the shamanic role in community, which is to be the knowing, sensing bridge between the community and the greater reality, both psychic and organic, in which all our human communities are embedded.
‘Becoming Animal: An Earthy Cosmology’ by David Abram
An essential first step in repairing the damage we have done to the planet and to ourselves may be to go back to basics and, literally, to come to our senses. Not only must we fully re-inhabit our animal bodies but we must also become aware of our vital interconnectedness with all other creatures. And for tutoring us and inspiring us in these twin tasks I have never met a better teacher than David Abram.
‘Spontaneous Evolution: Our Positive Future (and a way to get there from here)’ by Bruce Lipton and Steve Bhaerman
The thesis of Bruce and Steve’s brilliant new book, in a very small nutshell, is that there’s good news and bad news. The bad news is that science has moved on but we haven’t. And we need to—fast! The good news is that we can do it because all the tools we need are right here, under our noses (inside our noses too, as a matter of fact).
‘The Living Universe: Where Are We? Who Are We? Where Are We Going?’ by Duane Elgin
How many of us, staring up into the unfathomable reaches of the Milky Way on a clear, moonless night, have felt a shiver run through us? Who could not feel a shiver of awe – perhaps even of terror – in contemplating his or her puny insignificance against a background of stars? Compared to the immensity of even this visible fragment of the mysterious universe, we are mere specks of dust. And yet… perhaps we are less puny and less separate than we think.
‘Original Blessing’ by Matthew Fox
Original Blessing was part of a paradigm shift – seeing the world with new eyes. It provided a doorway into an inclusive, coherent spirituality relevant for our time.
‘The Great Work: Our Way into the Future’ by Thomas Berry
We must feel that we are supported by that same power that brought the Earth into being, that power that spun the galaxies into space, that lit the sun and brought the moon into its orbit.
‘Journey of the Universe’ by Brian Swimme and Mary Evelyn Tucker
Though a little book, it tells a big story--one that inspires hope for a way in which Earth and its human civilizations could flourish together.
‘Meditations with Thomas Berry: With additional material by Brian Swimme’ Selected by June Raymond
The greatest of human discoveries in the future will be the discovery of human intimacy with all those other modes of being that live with us on this planet, inspire our art and literature, reveal that numinous world whence all things come into being, and with which we exchange the very substance of life.
‘GreenSpirit: Path to a New Consciousness’ edited by Marian Van Eyk McCain
‘The definitive guide to green spirituality’……featuring contributions from twenty-nine inspirational writers, including Matthew Fox, Brian Swimme, Satish Kumar, Emma Restall Orr, David Korten and Neil Douglas-Klotz.