LOCALDEV (alonovolabs)

Cause for optimism 2009-06-09

Reviewer: L. deCapiteau

This is an informative and fun read. It gives me hope that the traditionally less-powerful people on this planet are on the brink of achieving goals that are based on integrity and compassion, instead of--as delivered by the industrial revolution's power structure--stupidity and greed.

No Issues 2009-03-31

Reviewer: LRP

I'm very happy with my recent purchase of Blessed Unrest. The book was in perfect condition.

The premise is great but the writing is not 2009-03-14

Reviewer: L. Byrne

The underlying motivation, premise and theme of this book is fantasti. A book on the subtitle "how the largest social movement in history is restoring grace, justice and beauty to the world" is needed. Unfortunately, this book does not adequately fulfill this need. After completing it, I can't say that I learned much about the ecological organizations or anything new about how the movements can better succeed. This is due to two reasons. First the content of the book is not squarely focused on what the subtitle suggests. Hawking brings in a lot of philosophical and scientific references that crowds out discussion of the social movement and organizations. Second, teh writing is very disorganized and choppy. It was a hard to follow book and I found myself skimming major parts just because it was too unbearable to read it word by word. The philosophical and scientific references made were not well integrated into the narrative; overall the writing lacks good transition sentences among paragraphs and chapters. It was very frustrating because the theme has so much potential. I would NOT recommend this book. Instead, Fritjof Capra's The Hidden Connections contains a much clearer and productive discussion of the science and philosophy underlying ecological thinking and he applies that to a critique of globalization, consumerism and other issues.

Towards a movement of concerned citizens 2009-02-13

Reviewer: G. Denutte

All big transformations start with some crazy people having even crazier ideas. One of the most important examples the author gives is of a dozen people meeting in a small print shop in London to abolish slave trade. "They were reviled and dismissed by businessmen and politicians. It was argued that their crackpot ideas would bring down the English economy, eliminate growth and jobs, cost too much money, and lower the standard of living." Sounds pretty familiar, doesn't it ?

Paul Hawken goes on exploring the history of civil disobedience, and shows how NGOs have proliferated in our time. Here he expects possibilities producing transformations in societies, which could have more power when acting in a coordinated way. The author didn't stop just thinking this. He originated a new website, "wiserearth", which is a platform offered to all NGO's and concerned citizens, at a global scale, to debate and to coordinate their actions, following the principle : "Think globally and act locally". At this moment in history, this is very important, since never before humanity faced a global threat so huge like global warming. What makes things even worse is that in the world we're living in today we have very little left of democracy (read Bagdikian's "The New Media Monopoly" if you're in doubt). Governments are corporate owned, and will never push for the real changes we need. At best, they will make some minor readjustments without real impact, while we should fully head for sustainable production and consumption. Now, when a movement of committed NGO's and concerned citizens, people like you and me, who are aware of the consequences of our actions, act together, in coordination, then maybe, we could recuperate our governments, so that they will put the people and their future in the first place again, like it was supposed to be, instead of the profits of the big corporations. Therefore, we should change our individual consumption, so that the "market" - the only thing governments and corporations really believe in - will be obliged to adjust.

We can do a lot to reduce our individual dependence on fossil fuels in order to have some future left for our children. We can heat our house through intelligent design, following the principles of the passive solar house. We can boycott all gasoline-driven cars on the market today, including hybrid ones, and purchase only electric vehicles, which will be launched to the market next year (2010), with the best proposal so far Fiat's Phylla, which has solar panels incorporated in the car's roof. We should fly less, and we should eat less meat or no meat at all. We should buy organics. Those are all little things we can already do. At home. Don't wait till tomorrow. Do it now. It's the only way to guarantee a future for the next generations. And let's be serious : this will not "bring down American economy, eliminate growth and jobs, cost too much money, and lower the standard of living". What it will obtain is transforming the economy, supporting the most creative manufacturers, and supporting local organic farmers, which will generate new jobs. Transforming your home into a solar house represents a somewhat bigger initial investment than a "normal" house, but you will benefit in the long run from lower (or no) operational costs for heating your house. The same applies for electric vehicles, which don't need gasoline and are cheaper in maintenance. There will be no lowering of the standard of living, just a structural change towards an economy without oil. That's why the current big corporations - with Big Oil as their leader - will never accept those ideas, since they prefer making profits, even if this means we're all heading for collapse.

Speedy delivery for what will be a gift 2008-12-16

Reviewer: S. Lloyd

Thanks for the excellent service; I'm sure the book will be appreciated by the person who will receive it.