World Changing – A User’s Guide for the 21st Century
Can you change the world in 600 pages? Journalist and eco-campaigner Alex Steffen believes you can. This hefty volume, revised and updated from the original 2006 version, is packed with information, resources, reviews and ideas that give provide a portal to a better future.
The book, and the concept behind it, are both brilliant and flawed.
Brilliant because it distils the knowledge and experience of a diverse group of ‘innovators’ into a series of short essays and case studies of people and initiatives that are working and most importantly are replicable. Brilliant because it isn’t afraid to tackle the big issues: consumerism, shelter, cities, community, business, politics and planet. From urban farming to recycling space junk to rethinking corporate structure and using flowers to detect land mines; from “Knowing What’s Green” to “Demanding Human Rights” – it’s all here.
But it’s flawed because its breadth means it’s nearly as difficult to negotiate as its predecessor. Flawed also because it is after all just a book (and formerly a website) and its intended audience still seems to be journalists looking for a good story.
It’s going to take more than a book to motivate most of us. Even so this collection of thought mandalas, practical suggestions and inspirational ideas can be used to lift our thinking up and out of its habitual focus on doomsday scenarios onto a track that is more positive and productive. Change is possible – it’s happening all around us even if we don’t see it and even if it is slow. That uplifting message makes WorldChanging a unique resource amongst green books.
WorldChanging – A Users Guide for the 21st Century
Alex Steffen (ed)
Abrams
£16.99
- This review appeared in the August 2011 edition of Geographical
