Wonderful book - 'The Myth of Progress'

17 years ago

The full title is "The Myth of Progress: Toward a Sustainable Future" by Tom Wessels. I read this book last night and felt like a got a short course in environmental science. If you would like to know a little more about the science behind going green, I highly recommend this book!

Here are a couple of reviews:

"Wessels writes that people with a richness of life created through their connections with community, place and themselves have no need to compulsively consume the "frivolous accoutrements that we tend to think of as making us happy, but which really don't." Wessels wisdom in The Myth of Progress provides much more than just a warning about the damage we are doing to our biosphere. It also helps us to see the damage we may be doing to our very souls." --People's Voice Magazine

"This is a short, often pithy book, and you can easily read it in a evening. In this way, it serves multiple purposes. It is a fine refresher or overview for people who are either new to this material or who haven't thought about it in a long time. It's perfect for folks who lack a science background and wish to better understand the relationship between ecological and economic systems. It is a valuable teaching tool that covers these basic principles in a simple, no-nonsense way. Most importantly, it retains all of Wessel's charm as a writer and educator. Indeed, the book's most riveting passages are his anecdotes and examples . . . This is an impassioned, critical, and bold book. Wessels is guided by his overwhelming sense that the laws of sustainability demand respect, understanding, and interpretation, and unless we educate ourselves about their full complexity and truth, we will do irreparable damage to the landscapes we love."--Northern Woodlands

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Comments (5)

squeeze
17 years ago
hopefully more folks will start to understand that the unbridled growth innate in consumerism is the equivilent of a cancer on the planet, and like any cancer, can only kill the host

Bill
gardenlen
17 years ago
yes great messages and for those of us who aren't afflicted with consumerism/yuppyism, we understand it all. "BUT" how does this message get through to those who live that heady lifestyle? they won't be seeking out these sort of tomes so they can be told the error of their ways, these people don't gather in these circles such as "going green" boards!

another good volume to check out is called "afluenza", there is one such book with an austrlaian author and another with an english author, they will no doubt give the same message, "BUT" again those who live the "lifestyle" will never get to hear of them let alone read them.

their motto is "no need for conserving as at the end of the day they are going to be able to eat their money and drink their money, so only us little folk will suffer", that's about the extent of the "lifestyle of the would be rich and famous", and the "rich and famous or infamous" simply don't give a damn.

len

Here is a link that might be useful: len's garden page
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steve_o
17 years ago
how does this message get through to those who live that heady lifestyle?

And, just as critical, what do we do to move countries away from economies built almost totally on increasing consumption? A massive contraction in the amount of new New NEW stuff people buy could leave many countries in a lurch.
macbirch
16 years ago
I started doing economics in Year 12. Lost interest pretty quickly. The teacher said a healthy economy relies on growth, including population growth. While everyone else listened to more on a healthy economy I found myself looking out the window thinking it doesn't make sense, it doesn't make sense. I can't say I really understood the implications for the planet, I simply knew endlessly continued growth didn't add up.

I'd like to get those books.
playsinthedirt20
16 years ago
No, it doesn't add up. And it seems an odd statement considering how many people in the world are starving. But starvation is really more of a politcal issue that a supply issue. We can and do grow and produce enough food to feed everyone on the planet. It's a matter of getting the food to the people whoe need it most. What's a great way to subdue a people? Keep them hungry. Keep them dependant on every scrap that is meted out by their government. And it's not just the so-called "third world." It's right here in the good ol' USA. Do we all realize that this administration has literally written off New Orleans? I have a friend who travels to what used to be New Orleans regularly on business. He says that what they show on the six o-clock news as being the tremendous growth and rebuilding of this gem of a city is simply smoke and mirrors. Half a block out of camera range is the real New Orleans - decimated, the population reduced by nearly half, out of work, starving, living on the streets. It's a national shame. And it lies squarely at the foot of our president. Because it never had to happen to begin with.

Yeah, there will be a "healthy" economy again in "New" New Orleans. And it will be based on population growth. A population that has the economic means to purchase the million-dollar homes that are going up in the areas that are written off to the people who used to live there; condemned as unliveable, irretrievable. The 21st Century carpet-baggers with their bags filled with money. And when you say to yourself "it doesn't make sense," think about what "Deep Throat" told Woodward and Bernstein - "Follow the money." Follow it all the way to Haliburton - and the Texas White House.

Wonderful book - 'The Myth of Progress'

Comments (5)

squeeze

gardenlen

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macbirch

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