Recommending an Important Read

Whole Earth Discipline: an Ecopragmatist Manifesto - 2009, composed by Stewart Brand of Whole Earth catalog fame.

This recently published book is important. It will make a difference because it will be read and acted upon by people able to influence social policy - in your community and around the world.
It is felicitously a good read. And easy to read. And chock-a-block full of neato factoids that hold attention for concentration challenged readers.



I learned a whole bunch from it. Surprisingly on topics that I fancied myself conversant with - though now I might say that I am more conversant in them.

The book is the creation of a wise mind (wisdom being, in the words of Alfred North Whitehead, a function of the breadth of one's experiences.) Brand is now 70 years of age. In his 70 solar orbits he has made a large number of earth orbits - often at the request of inquisitive hosts anxious to hear what he had to say.

Of course he has his own web site: worth a peak, especially the mind blowing bio.
click here


What's the book about?
Well mostly global issues, or problems, or opportunities.
And different approaches to dealing with them, and how some folks have counterproductive approaches, and far too many are closed minded in their approaches.

On a number of particulars, I hold different views than Brand. But overall, I think he has a great path and one which is easy to recommend.

from one reviewer these notes....
Brand, who has always approached environmental and technological challenges as a solvable design problems, offers radical yet viable ideas for managing Earth’s global-scale natural infrastructure in the least intrusive, most respectful but efficient manner possible.

The book tackles three of today’s most profound transformations — climate change, urbanization and biotechnology — in a way that’s part practical guide to damage control, part prescriptive inspiration for a more efficient society, part bold anthem of design-thinking. And if Brand’s track record is any sign at all, Whole Earth Discipline may well become one of the (counter)cultural classics of our generation.

So if public policy has any interest to you, or you have an interest in big ideas, or current thought from a global perspective, then my sense is you won't be disappointed.

BTW - a tip of the hat to dear Sara who, after a modest suggestion, made this book a Christmas gift for me. TX

More later time permitting....