Worldchanging – A User’s Guide for the 21st Century
Written by a collaborative of leading thinkers across a diverse range of industries, “Worldchanging” demonstrates that the means for building a better future lie all around us.
Filled with information, resources, reviews and ideas, “Worldchanging” gives readers access to the tools they need to make a difference.
This team of top-notch writers, brought together by Worldchanging.com founder Alex Steffen, includes Cameron Sinclair, founder of Architecture for Humanity; GeekCore founder Ethan Zuckerman and sustainable food expert Anna Lappe, among many others. Each chapter offers practical answers to important questions, such as:
- Why does buying locally produced food make sense?
- What steps can we take to influence our workplace toward sustainability? How do we volunteer and advocate more effectively?
- How can we travel, live, work and learn in worldchanging ways?
- And how, in short, can every human being help build a better future locally and globally?
Illustrated with colour photographs throughout and designed by Stefan Sagmeister, one of the most influential graphic designers working today, “Worldchanging” proves that a life that is sustainable, prosperous, thoughtful and democratic, dynamic and peaceful, is not just possible, it’s here.
This 600-page companion to the eco-friendly website of the same name (www.worldchanging.com) is chock-a-block with information about what is going on right now to create an environmentally and economically sustainable future-and what stands in opposition. Along the way, editor Steffen and his team make the stakes perfectly clear: “Oil company experts debate whether we will effectively run out of oil in twenty years or fifty, but the essential point remains: if you’re under thirty, you can expect to see a post-oil civilization in your lifetime.
” The organization of the hefty volume mimics that of the website, divided into sections on Stuff, Shelter, Cities, Community, Business, Politics and Planet. Typical readers will be introduced to new concepts such as harvesting rainwater, zero-energy houses, South-South science and the use of flowers to detect land mines in entries on everything from “Knowing What’s Green” to “Demanding Human Rights.” Each entry is brief but comprehensive; for example, the passage on “Better Food Everywhere” focuses on “Where it Matters Most,” “Better Restaurants,” “Community Gardens,” and “Urban Farming.”
All entries wrap up with reviews of pertinent resources-including books, websites and moves-where readers can get more detailed information. With color photos on nearly every page, and written by a small army of contributors living and working around the world (with biographies almost as fascinating as their contributions), it’s hard to imagine a more complete resource for those hoping to live in a future that is, as editor Steffen puts it, “bright, green, free and tough.”
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