Books with category đź’¦ Sustainability
Displaying 9 books

On Extinction: Beginning Again At The End

2024

by Benjamin Ware

How to think about the end of the world and what we must do to rebuild beyond that final moment, for readers of The Mushroom at the End of the World by Anna Lowenhaupt Tsing and Extinction: A Radical History by Ashley Dawson. What are we to think as we face the sixth extinction moment? Kant's invitation to imagine an 'end of all things' no longer feels like just a thought experiment.

Philosopher Ben Ware argues that we must accept this without looking away. In fact, extinction is the very lens through which we see our current reality. He argues that in order to map the catastrophic present, we will first need to take a tiger's leap into the past in order to construct a new 'dialectics of extinctions'.

On Extinction takes us on a breath-taking philosophical journey. Bringing dialectical thought to bear on one of the most pressing issues of our times, Ware argues that radical politics today should not be concerned with merely averting the worst, but rather with beginning again at the end: bringing to completion a mode of political and economic life which tethers us all–the yet to be born–to a sick but undying present. To think about the future in this way is itself a form of liberation that might incubate the necessary radical solutions we need.

Leading Through Disruption

2023

by Andrew Liveris

Andrew Liveris offers a masterclass in collaborative, forward-looking leadership in Leading Through Disruption. This work provides a revolutionary leadership paradigm, essential for fostering resilience and agility in today's ever-evolving world.

Readers will learn how to:

  • Create impactful metrics that benefit all societal members.

  • Engage collaboratively with a broad spectrum of stakeholders to develop actionable policies.

  • Harmonize the pursuit of long-term sustainability with immediate profitability.

  • Invest in and advocate for the strengthening of local communities.

  • Select team members who are committed to advancing global betterment.

  • Adapt swiftly and decisively to navigate uncertainties.

With insights drawn from four decades of global leadership across business, government, academia, and civic society, Andrew Liveris' book stands as an invaluable resource for any aspiring leader.

How the World Really Works

2022

by Vaclav Smil

We have never had so much information at our fingertips and yet most of us don't know how the world really works. This book explains seven of the most fundamental realities governing our survival and prosperity. From energy and food production, through our material world and its globalization, to risks, our environment and its future, How the World Really Works offers a much-needed reality check - because before we can tackle problems effectively, we must understand the facts.

In this ambitious and thought-provoking book we see, for example, that globalization isn't inevitable and that our societies have been steadily increasing their dependence on fossil fuels, making their complete and rapid elimination unlikely. Vaclav Smil is neither a pessimist nor an optimist, he is a scientist; he is the world-leading expert on energy and an astonishing polymath. This is his magnum opus and is a continuation of his quest to make facts matter. Drawing on the latest science, including his own fascinating research, and tackling sources of misinformation head on - from Yuval Noah Harari to Noam Chomsky - ultimately Smil answers the most profound question of our age: are we irrevocably doomed or is a brighter utopia ahead?

The Next Age of Uncertainty

2022

by Stephen Poloz

NATIONAL BESTSELLER - From the former Governor of the Bank of Canada, Stephen Poloz presents a far-seeing guide to the powerful economic forces that will shape the decades ahead. The economic ground is shifting, with increased volatility and widespread concern about financial futures. In this urgent and accessible guide, Poloz examines the crises and opportunities that lie ahead.

He identifies tectonic forces such as an aging workforce, mounting debt, rising income inequality, and technological advances that are disrupting employment, alongside climate change driving a transition to a lower-carbon economy. These forces have profound implications across various aspects of life, including work, housing, investment, government and central bank policy, and corporate roles in society. The pandemic has intensified many of these issues.

Poloz draws parallels with past economic crises, from the Victorian Depression to the 2008 downturn, to forecast the potential challenges and opportunities in the future. He suggests that the upcoming upheaval, unlike natural disasters, could provide chances for renewal and growth. This book is filled with insights for employers, investors, policymakers, and families, making it an essential resource for navigating the uncertain times ahead.

How to Avoid a Climate Disaster

2021

by Bill Gates

In How to Avoid a Climate Disaster, Bill Gates sets out a wide-ranging, practical, and accessible plan for how the world can get to zero greenhouse gas emissions in time to avoid an irreversible climate catastrophe. Gates has spent a decade investigating the causes and effects of climate change. With the help of experts in various fields, he focuses on what must be done to stop the planet's slide toward environmental disaster.

Gates gathers all the information we need to understand the importance of working toward net-zero emissions of greenhouse gases and details what we need to do to achieve this profoundly important goal. He provides a clear-eyed description of the challenges we face and describes the areas where technology is already helping to reduce emissions, where current technology can be made more effective, and where breakthrough technologies are needed.

Finally, he offers a concrete plan for achieving zero emissions, suggesting policies for governments to adopt and actions individuals can take to hold governments, employers, and themselves accountable in this crucial enterprise. Achieving zero emissions will not be simple, but Gates is optimistic that by following the guidelines he sets out, it is a goal within our reach.

The Future Is Faster Than You Think

From the New York Times bestselling authors of Abundance and Bold comes a practical playbook for technological convergence in our modern era.

In their book Abundance, bestselling authors and futurists Peter Diamandis and Steven Kotler tackled grand global challenges, such as poverty, hunger, and energy. Then, in Bold, they chronicled the use of exponential technologies that allowed the emergence of powerful new entrepreneurs. Now the bestselling authors are back with The Future Is Faster Than You Think, a blueprint for how our world will change in response to the next ten years of rapid technological disruption.

Technology is accelerating far more quickly than anyone could have imagined. During the next decade, we will experience more upheaval and create more wealth than we have in the past hundred years. In this gripping and insightful roadmap to our near future, Diamandis and Kotler investigate how wave after wave of exponentially accelerating technologies will impact both our daily lives and society as a whole. What happens as AI, robotics, virtual reality, digital biology, and sensors crash into 3D printing, blockchain, and global gigabit networks? How will these convergences transform today's legacy industries? What will happen to the way we raise our kids, govern our nations, and care for our planet?

Diamandis, a space-entrepreneur-turned-innovation-pioneer, and Kotler, bestselling author and peak performance expert, probe the science of technological convergence and how it will reinvent every part of our lives—transportation, retail, advertising, education, health, entertainment, food, and finance—taking humanity into uncharted territories and reimagining the world as we know it.

As indispensable as it is gripping, The Future Is Faster Than You Think provides a prescient look at our impending future.

Walkable City

2016

by Jeff Speck

Jeff Speck has dedicated his career to determining what makes cities thrive. And he has boiled it down to one key factor: walkability.

The very idea of a modern metropolis evokes visions of bustling sidewalks, vital mass transit, and a vibrant, pedestrian-friendly urban core. But in the typical American city, the car is still king, and downtown is a place that's easy to drive to but often not worth arriving at.

Making walkability happen is relatively easy and cheap; seeing exactly what needs to be done is the trick. In this essential new book, Speck reveals the invisible workings of the city, how simple decisions have cascading effects, and how we can all make the right choices for our communities.

Bursting with sharp observations and real-world examples, giving key insight into what urban planners actually do and how places can and do change, Walkable City lays out a practical, necessary, and eminently achievable vision of how to make our normal American cities great again.

Three Horizons

2013

by Bill Sharpe

Three Horizons: The Patterning of Hope is a simple and intuitive framework for thinking about the future. It explains how people often manage to disagree so vehemently about their visions of the future and how to achieve them. The book offers a practical way to begin constructive conversations about the future at home, in organizations, and in society at large.

The three horizons framework is about much more than simply stretching our thinking to embrace the short, medium, and long term. They offer a coordinated way of managing innovation, creating transformational change with a chance of succeeding, dealing with uncertainty, and seeing the future in the present.

In this beautifully illustrated book, Bill Sharpe introduces the Three Horizons framework as a prompt for developing a 'future consciousness'—a rich and multi-faceted awareness of the future potential of the present moment—and explores how to put that awareness to work to create the futures we aspire to.

The Omnivore's Dilemma

2006

by Michael Pollan

The Omnivore's Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals is a groundbreaking book by Michael Pollan, one of America's most fascinating, original, and elegant writers. Pollan turns his omnivorous mind to the seemingly straightforward question of what we should have for dinner. This question has confronted humanity since the discovery of fire, but how we answer it today may determine our very survival as a species.

Pollan follows each of the food chains that sustain us—industrial food, organic or alternative food, and food we forage ourselves—from the source to a final meal. He develops a definitive account of the American way of eating, taking readers from Iowa cornfields to food-science laboratories, from feedlots and fast-food restaurants to organic farms and hunting grounds. He emphasizes our dynamic coevolutionary relationship with the plant and animal species we depend on.

Each time Pollan sits down to a meal, he deploys his unique blend of personal and investigative journalism to trace the origins of everything consumed, revealing what we unwittingly ingest. He explains how our taste for particular foods and flavors reflects our evolutionary inheritance. The surprising answers Pollan offers have profound political, economic, psychological, and moral implications for all of us. Ultimately, The Omnivore's Dilemma is a book as much about visionary solutions as it is about problems, contending that, when it comes to food, doing the right thing often turns out to be the tastiest thing an eater can do.

Beautifully written and thrillingly argued, The Omnivore's Dilemma promises to change the way we think about the politics and pleasure of eating. For anyone who reads it, dinner will never again look, or taste, quite the same.

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