If you’re in Seattle go see our pals Bruce and Alex as they kick off the new book Worldchanging – “How do we build a sustainable, prosperous, dynamic future? Two of the world’s leading green futurists, science fiction writer, futurist, and design guru Bruce Sterling and Worldchanging.com editor Alex Steffen will debate pathways to a bright green world, in a joint appearance celebrating the launch of their new book.
Worldchanging: A User’s Guide for the 21st Century is a book unlike any other. It’s 600 pages of solutions to the world’s most pressing problems. From stopping climate change to ending poverty, fighting HIV to building cities that work: the team at Worldchanging has assembled the best, most innovative solutions from around the world and brought them together under one cover, with powerful photography and inspiring stories.
More than sixty noted writers and thinkers came together to compile an array of innovative answers including green design, social entrepreneurship, clean energy, microcredit, preserving biodiversity, nonviolent protest, sustainable farming, leapfrogging technologies, climate-friendly transportation, socially responsible investment, women’s rights, public health, new media and emerging technologies.” – Link.Worldchanging
Tools, Models and Ideas for Building a Better Future
http://www.worldchanging.com/
This book has already gained wide acclaim, even before publication. Al Gore, in his foreword to the book, calls it “vitally important,” adding,
“Worldchanging: A User’s Guide for the 21st Century is a compendium of solutions, some little known but well proven, some innovative and new, some bold but as yet untried. This book not only shows what is already possible, but also helps all of us imagine what might be – in our own homes, in our communities, and for the planet as a whole. Taken together, these solutions present a picture of a future that is not dark or catastrophic, but one that is full of hope and within our grasp. To build that future, we need a generation of everyday heroes, people who – whatever their walks of life – have the courage to think in fresh ways and to act to meet this planetary crisis head-on. This book belongs in the library of every person who aspires to be part of that generation.”
Bill McKibben in the New York Review of Books calls it “The Whole Earth Catalog retooled for the iPod generation.”
“It is precisely this question — how we might radically transform our daily lives — that is addressed by the cheerful proprietors of the WorldChanging website in their new book of the same name. This is one of the most professional and interesting websites that you could possibly bookmark on your browser; almost every day they describe a new technology or technique for environmentalists…. [Their book} is a compendium of everything a younger generation of environmental activists has to offer: creativity, digital dexterity, networking ability, an Internet-era optimism about the future, and a deep concern about not only green issues but related questions of human rights, poverty, and social justice. The book’s pragmatism is refreshing: ‘We can do this’ is the constant message, and there are enough examples to leave little doubt that sheer cleverness is not what we’re lacking as we approach our uncertain future. ‘We need, in the next twenty-five years or so, to do something never before done. We need to consciously redesign the entire material basis of our civilization,’ Alex Steffen writes in his editor’s introduction. ‘If we face an unprecedented planetary crisis, we also find ourselves in a moment of innovation unlike any that has come before…. We live in an era when the number of people working to make the world better is exploding.’ He’s right.”
Climate champion Laurie David calls it “The seminal resource guide for anyone concerned about today and the future.” Earth Day founder Denis Hayes says, “Worldchanging might well be the most complete, compelling articulation of the possible look and feel and actual operation of a sustainable society ever written.” New Yorker writer Elizabeth Kolbert says simply: “Read it: it may change your life.”
Worldchanging — the tiny Seattle nonprofit which both edited the book and runs the website Worldchanging.com — may seem like an unlikely source for such an important project, but in just three years the group has built a strong following (their website gets almost a million visits a month) and vocal supporters (Worldchanging won the Utne Independent Press Award and was nominated for Webby for best blog, while Wired columnist Bruce Sterling says it is “the most important website on the planet.”).
Worldchanging has no marketing budget. It has never bought an ad. Its entire funding, as one supporter said recently, “would be a rounding error to most big NGOs.” It is relying heavily on word of mouth to spread the news of its existence, of the Worldchanging book, and of their upcoming 12 city tour.
They need your help to make sure that this book finds its audience, and that the solutions it contains get the hearing they deserve. Please buy the book, tell your friends, link to it off your blog, email your colleagues and help make this important book a success.
You can read more about the book here
http://www.worldchanging.com/book/
and find out more information about their tour here
http://www.worldchanging.com/tour/
two reviews:
http://gristmill.grist.org/story/2006/10/22/145810/84
http://viridiandesign.org/notes/451-500/00477_worldchanging_the_book.html
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