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The Ecotechnic Future
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Book Synopsis The Ecotechnic Future by : John Michael Greer
Download or read book The Ecotechnic Future written by John Michael Greer and published by New Society Publishers. This book was released on 2009-10-01 with total page 289 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In response to the coming impact of peak oil, John Michael Greer helps us envision the transition from an industrial society to a sustainable ecotechnic world - not returning to the past, but creating a society that supports relatively advanced technology on a sustainable resource base. Fusing human ecology and history, this book challenges assumptions held by mainstream and alternative thinkers about the evolution of human societies. Human societies, like ecosystems, evolve in complex and unpredictable ways, making it futile to try to impose rigid ideological forms on the patterns of evolutionary change. Instead, social change must explore many pathways over which we have no control. The troubling and exhilarating prospect of an open-ended future, he proposes, requires dissensus - a deliberate acceptance of radical diversity that widens the range of potential approaches to infinity. Written in three parts, the book places the present crisis of the industrial world in its historical and ecological context in part one; part two explores the toolkit for Ecotechnic Age, and part three opens a door to the complexity of future visions. For anyone concerned about peak oil and the future of the industrial society, this book provides a solid analysis of how we got to where we are, and a practical toolkit to prepare for the future.
Book Synopsis The Ecotechnic Future by : John Michael Greer
Download or read book The Ecotechnic Future written by John Michael Greer and published by Sphinx Books. This book was released on 2024-09-24 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: How to survive and thrive in the post-industrial age In response to the coming impact of peak oil, John Michael Greer helps us envision the transition from an industrial society to a sustainable ecotechnic world-not returning to the past, but creating a society that supports relatively advanced technology on a sustainable resource base. Fusing human ecology and history, this book challenges assumptions held by mainstream and alternative thinkers about the evolution of human societies. Human societies, like ecosystems, evolve in complex and unpredictable ways, making it futile to try to impose rigid ideological forms on the patterns of evolutionary change. Instead, social change must explore many pathways over which we have no control. The troubling and exhilarating prospect of an open-ended future, he proposes, requires dissensus-a deliberate acceptance of radical diversity that widens the range of potential approaches to infinity. Written in three parts, the book places the present crisis of the industrial world in its historical and ecological context in part one; part two explores the toolkit for Ecotechnic Age, and part three opens a door to the complexity of future visions. For anyone concerned about peak oil and the future of the industrial society, this book provides a solid analysis of how we got to where we are, and a practical toolkit to prepare for the future.
Book Synopsis Not the Future We Ordered by : John Michael Greer
Download or read book Not the Future We Ordered written by John Michael Greer and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2018-03-08 with total page 95 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: For well over half a century, since the first credible warnings of petroleum depletion were raised in the 1950s, contemporary industrial civilization has been caught in a remarkable paradox: a culture more focused on problem solving than any other has repeatedly failed to deal with, or even consider, the problem most likely to bring its own history to a full stop. The coming of peak oil-the peaking and irreversible decline of world petroleum production-poses an existential threat to societies in which every sector of the economy depends on petroleum-based transport, and no known energy source can scale up extensively or quickly enough to replace dwindling oil supplies. Not The Future We Ordered is the first study of the psychological dimensions of that decision and its consequences, as a case study in the social psychology of collective failure, and as an issue with which psychologists and therapists will be confronted repeatedly in the years ahead.
Book Synopsis Dark Age America by : John Michael Greer
Download or read book Dark Age America written by John Michael Greer and published by New Society Publisher. This book was released on 2016-08-15 with total page 272 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: After decades of missed opportunities, the door to a sustainable future has closed, and the future we face now is one in which today’s industrial civilization unravels in the face of uncontrolled climate change and resource depletion. The questions we need to ask now focus on what comes next. This book provides a hard but hopeful look at the answer
Book Synopsis Jean-Luc Nancy and the Future of Philosophy by : B.C. Hutchens
Download or read book Jean-Luc Nancy and the Future of Philosophy written by B.C. Hutchens and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2016-09-17 with total page 196 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The work of the contemporary French philosopher Jean-Luc Nancy has impacted across a range of disciplines. His writings on psychoanalysis, theology, art, culture and, of course, philosophy are now widely translated and much discussed. His L'Experience de la Liberte (1988) is considered to be one of the landmarks of contemporary continental philosophy. Jean-Luc Nancy and the Future of Philosophy is the first genuine introduction to Nancy's ideas and a clear and succinct appraisal of a burgeoning reputation. The book summarises topically the primary conceptual areas of Nancy's thought and explores its relevance for contemporary issues like nationalism, racism and media rights. Nancy's indebtedness to Nietzsche, Heidegger, and Bataille is examined as well as how his ideas compare to those of his contemporary continental thinkers. Three major areas of Nancy's work are emphasised: freedom and morality; community and politics; and arts and the media. The reader is guided through a chosen theme without being lost in a welter of allusive language, jargon is avoided where possible and when unavoidable it is clearly explained. The book concludes with a new interview with Nancy, which discusses the future of philosophy. The book will be an important addition to the readings lists for courses on contemporary continental thought and political philosophy.
Book Synopsis Decline and Fall by : John Michael Greer
Download or read book Decline and Fall written by John Michael Greer and published by New Society Publishers. This book was released on 2014-04-15 with total page 307 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: All empires fall, and America is no exception. What comes next?
Download or read book Eco-Sonic Media written by Jacob Smith and published by Univ of California Press. This book was released on 2015-06-05 with total page 262 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The negative environmental effects of media culture are not often acknowledged: the fuel required to keep huge server farms in operation, landfills full of high tech junk, and the extraction of rare minerals for devices reliant on them are just some of the hidden costs of the contemporary mediascape. Eco-Sonic Media brings an ecological critique to the history of sound media technologies in order to amplify the environmental undertones in sound studies and turn up the audio in discussions of greening the media. By looking at early and neglected forms of sound technology, Jacob Smith seeks to create a revisionist, ecologically aware history of sound media. Delving into the history of pre-electronic media like hand-cranked gramophones, comparatively eco-friendly media artifacts such as the shellac discs that preceded the use of petroleum-based vinyl, early forms of portable technology like divining rods, and even the use of songbirds as domestic music machines, Smith builds a scaffolding of historical case studies to demonstrate how “green media archaeology” can make sound studies vibrate at an ecological frequency while opening the ears of eco-criticism. Throughout this eye-opening and timely book he makes readers more aware of the costs and consequences of their personal media consumption by prompting comparisons with non-digital, non-electronic technologies and by offering different ways in which sound media can become eco-sonic media. In the process, he forges interdisciplinary connections, opens new avenues of research, and poses fresh theoretical questions for scholars and students of media, sound studies, and contemporary environmental history.
Book Synopsis The Future of Food Tourism by : Ian Yeoman
Download or read book The Future of Food Tourism written by Ian Yeoman and published by Channel View Publications. This book was released on 2015 with total page 304 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book presents a systematic and pattern-based explanation of food tourism, focusing on how and why change could occur and what the implications could be. In the future will food tourism involve food grown in the laboratory or a more authentic experience associated with place and history? The book’s approach to the future has focused on explanation; the contributors look for the causes, trends and theoretical concepts that explain change, thus attempting to justify and explore the future. Scenarios are used to explore alternative futures and the book examines the implications for the future of food tourism and highlights future research avenues. This book is primarily aimed at postgraduate students and researchers in the field of tourism studies.
Book Synopsis Climate Change and Society by : John Urry
Download or read book Climate Change and Society written by John Urry and published by Polity. This book was released on 2011-06-20 with total page 223 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book explores the significance of human behaviour to understanding the causes and impacts of changing climates and to assessing varied ways of responding to such changes. So far the discipline that has represented and modelled such human behaviour is economics. By contrast Climate Change and Society tries to place the ‘social’ at the heart of both the analysis of climates and of the assessment of alternative futures. It demonstrates the importance of social practices organised into systems. In the fateful twentieth century various interlocking high carbon systems were established. This sedimented high carbon social practices, engendering huge population growth, increasing greenhouse gas emissions and the potentially declining availability of oil that made this world go round. Especially important in stabilising this pattern was the ‘carbon military-industrial complex’ around the world. The book goes on to examine how in this new century it is systems that have to change, to move from growing high carbon systems to those that are low carbon. Many suggestions are made as to how to innovate such low carbon systems. It is shown that such a transition has to happen fast so as to create positive feedbacks of each low carbon system upon each other. Various scenarios are elaborated of differing futures for the middle of this century, futures that all contain significant costs for the scale, extent and richness of social life. Climate Change and Society thus attempts to replace economics with sociology as the dominant discipline in climate change analysis. Sociology has spent much time examining the nature of modern societies, of modernity, but mostly failed to analyse the carbon resource base of such societies. This book seeks to remedy that failing. It should appeal to teachers and students in sociology, economics, environmental studies, geography, planning, politics and science studies, as well as to the public concerned with the long term future of carbon and society.
Download or read book Overshoot written by William R. Catton and published by University of Illinois Press. This book was released on 1980-10-01 with total page 321 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Our day-to-day experiences over the past decade have taught us that there must be limits to our tremendous appetite for energy, natural resources, and consumer goods. Even utility and oil companies now promote conservation in the face of demands for dwindling energy reserves. And for years some biologists have warned us of the direct correlation between scarcity and population growth. These scientists see an appalling future riding the tidal wave of a worldwide growth of population and technology. A calm but unflinching realist, Catton suggests that we cannot stop this wave - for we have already overshot the Earth's capacity to support so huge a load. He contradicts those scientists, engineers, and technocrats who continue to write optimistically about energy alternatives. Catton asserts that the technological panaceas proposed by those who would harvest from the seas, harness the winds, and farm the deserts are ignoring the fundamental premise that "the principals of ecology apply to all living things." These principles tell us that, within a finite system, economic expansion is not irreversible and population growth cannot continue indefinitely. If we disregard these facts, our sagging American Dream will soon shatter completely.
Book Synopsis Green Wizardry by : John Michael Greer
Download or read book Green Wizardry written by John Michael Greer and published by New Society Publishers. This book was released on 2013-09-01 with total page 258 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Tested skills for thriving in the age of limits Merlin, Gandalf, Voldemort-these well-known sorcerers from popular culture are famed for their amazing spells and spectacular magical powers. In ancient times however, a wizard was actually a freelance intellectual whose main stock in trade was good advice, supported by a thorough education in agriculture, navigation, political and military science, languages, commerce, mathematics, medicine, and the natural sciences-in essence, the true Renaissance man. Greer proposes a modern mage for uncertain times; one who possesses a startling array of practical skills gleaned from the appropriate tech and organic gardening movements forged in the energy crisis of the 1970s. From the basic concepts of ecology to a plethora of practical techniques such as composting, green manure, low-tech food preservation and storage, small-scale chicken and rabbit raising, solar water heating, alternative energy sources, and more; Green Wizardry is a comprehensive manual for today's wizard-in-training. Providing a solid practical introduction to the entire appropriate tech toolkit, this book is a must-read for anyone concerned about decreasing our dependence on an overloaded industrial system and, in a world of serious energy shortages and economic troubles, making life a great deal less traumatic and more livable.
Book Synopsis The Long Descent by : John Michael Greer
Download or read book The Long Descent written by John Michael Greer and published by New Society Publishers. This book was released on 2008-09-01 with total page 273 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Americans are expressing deep concern about US dependence on petroleum, rising energy prices and the threat of climate change. Unlike the energy crisis of the 1970s, however, there is a lurking fear that, now, the times are different and the crisis may not easily be resolved. The Long Descent examines the basis of such fear through three core themes: Industrial society is following the same well-worn path that has led other civilizations into decline, a path involving a much slower and more complex transformation than the sudden catastrophes imagined by so many social critics today. The roots of the crisis lie in the cultural stories that shape the way we understand the world. Since problems cannot be solved with the same thinking that created thyem, these ways of thinking need to be replaced with others better suited to the needs of our time. It is too late for massive programs for top-down change; the change must come from individuals. Hope exists in actions that range from taking up a handicraft or adopting an "obsolete" technology, through planting an organic vegetable garden, taking charge of your own health care or spirituality, and building community. Focusing eloquently on constructive adaptation to massive change, this book will have wide appeal.
Book Synopsis The End of Growth by : Richard Heinberg
Download or read book The End of Growth written by Richard Heinberg and published by Rudolf Steiner Press. This book was released on 2012-07-09 with total page 404 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Economists insist that recovery is at hand, yet unemployment remains high, real estate values continue to drop, and governments stagger under record deficits. The End of Growth proposes a startling diagnosis: humanity has reached a fundamental turning point in its economic history. The expansionary trajectory of industrial civilization is colliding with non-negotiable, natural limits. Richard Heinberg's latest landmark work goes to the heart of the ongoing financial crisis, explaining how and why it occurred, and what we must do to avert the worst potential outcomes. Written in an engaging, highly readable style, it shows why growth is being blocked by three factors: Resource depletion; Environmental impacts, and; Crushing levels of debt. These converging limits will force us to re-evaluate cherished economic theories, and to reinvent money and commerce. The End of Growth describes what policy makers, communities and families can do to build a new economy that operates within Earth's budget of energy and resources. We can thrive during the transition if we set goals that promote human and environmental well-being, rather than continuing to pursue the now-unattainable prize of ever-expanding Gross Domestic Product.
Book Synopsis Health in the Anthropocene by : Katharine Zywert
Download or read book Health in the Anthropocene written by Katharine Zywert and published by University of Toronto Press. This book was released on 2020 with total page 463 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: How will the ecological and economic crises of the 21st century transform health systems and human wellbeing?
Book Synopsis Redefining Prosperity by : Isabelle Cassiers
Download or read book Redefining Prosperity written by Isabelle Cassiers and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2014-08-27 with total page 194 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Society today faces a difficult contradiction: we know exactly how the physical limits of our planet are being reached and exactly why we cannot go on as we have before – and yet, collectively, we seem unable to reach crucial decisions for our future in a timely way. This book argues that our definition of prosperity, which we have long assimilated with the idea of material wealth, may be preventing us from imagining a future that meets essential human aspirations without straining our planet to the breaking point. In other words, redefining prosperity is a necessary and urgent task. This book is the fruit of a long debate among 15 scholars from diverse fields who worked together to bring the depth and nuance of their respective fields to questions that affect us all. The result is a rich, transdisciplinary work that illuminates the philosophical and historical origins of our current definition of prosperity; identifies the complex processes that gave rise to the problems we face today; elucidates the ways in which our contemporary environmental, social, nutritional, economic, political, and cultural crises are interconnected; and explores why a half-century of economic growth has neither increased life satisfaction in the West nor vanquished world poverty. Approaching these broad-ranging questions from the specific standpoints of their disciplines, each of the authors offers thoughts for the future, considering possible escape routes and proposing changes to the way we live, behave, and organise society and public action – changes that actually respond, in an equitable way, to our deepest aspirations. Ultimately, in laying the groundwork for a public debate on this subject, this book poses a question to its readers: what is your definition of prosperity, and what can be done to promote it?
Book Synopsis Environmental Criticism for the Twenty-First Century by : Stephanie LeMenager
Download or read book Environmental Criticism for the Twenty-First Century written by Stephanie LeMenager and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2011-05-09 with total page 301 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Environmental Criticism for the Twenty-First Century showcases the recent explosive expansion of environmental criticism, which is actively transforming three areas of broad interest in contemporary literary and cultural studies: history, scale, and science. With contributors engaging texts from the medieval period through the twenty-first century, the collection brings into focus recent ecocritical concern for the long durations through which environmental imaginations have been shaped. Contributors also address problems of scale, including environmental institutions and imaginations that complicate conventional rubrics such as the national, local, and global. Finally, this collection brings together a set of scholars who are interested in drawing on both the sciences and the humanities in order to find compelling stories for engaging ecological processes such as global climate change, peak oil production, nuclear proliferation, and food scarcity. Environmental Criticism for the Twenty-First Century offers powerful proof that cultural criticism is itself ecologically resilient, evolving to meet the imaginative challenges of twenty-first-century environmental crises.
Book Synopsis The Routledge Companion to Big History by : Craig Benjamin
Download or read book The Routledge Companion to Big History written by Craig Benjamin and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2019-08-01 with total page 507 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Routledge Companion to Big History guides readers though the variety of themes and concepts that structure contemporary scholarship in the field of big history. The volume is divided into five parts, each representing current and evolving areas of interest to the community, including big history’s relationship to science, social science, the humanities, and the future, as well as teaching big history and ‘little big histories’. Considering an ever-expanding range of theoretical, pedagogical and research topics, the book addresses such questions as what is the relationship between big history and scientific research, how are big historians working with philosophers and religious thinkers to help construct ‘meaning’, how are leading theoreticians making sense of big history and its relationship to other creation narratives and paradigms, what is ‘little big history’, and how does big history impact on thinking about the future? The book highlights the place of big history in historiographical traditions and the ways in which it can be used in education and public discourse across disciplines and at all levels. A timely collection with contributions from leading proponents in the field, it is the ideal guide for those wanting to engage with the theories and concepts behind big history.
