My dad was quite the bookworm. When growing up, our house was lined with bookshelves filled with books on a wide range of topics. Dad and I would hang out at the library on Thursday nights until closing time, we’d be the last two out with piles of books for the week. If he was alive today, he’d no doubt smile at my extensive collection.
Sadly, I don’t have kids that love to read like I do. Hubby enjoys a good book, but he’s a bit of a slow reader. Perhaps that’s because he reads in bed at night, I often look over to find him reading with his eyes closed. That must be why it takes so long to get through a book.
The Post Carbon Reader
This year, I did find someone who would appreciate a book for Christmas. My daughter’s biology teacher. He impressed me at back to school night with his deep understanding of climate change and resource depletion. It turns out that he reads some of the same books and blogs that I do, namely James H. Kunstler’s Monday morning blog called, Clusterf*ck Nation ,about the tragic comedy of suburbia. Mr. Kunstler wrote The Long Emergency in 2005, an unsettling book about the predicaments we face as fossil fuels become more expensive and less available. His recent novels, A World Made by Hand and The Witch of Hebron take place in a post petroleum Hudson Valley.
I knew that without a doubt, this teacher would appreciate his own copy of The Post Carbon Reader. This book is a compilation of articles by some of the world’s most thinkers on the key problems that will shaping this years to come as the age of fossil fuels comes to an end. Everything from renewable energy and urban agriculture to water and the concept of resilience. These complex, interconnected issues must be dealt with rapidly and effectively if we are to achieve a resilient future.
Sadly most town Green committees and Sustainability committees are not facing these somewhat scary facts. They are focusing on recycling, retrofitting insulation and “green” light bulbs. In order to survive the future, we’ll need to be having some uncomfortable conversations that go beyond the “inconvenient truth”. Most of our politicians don’t dare talk about these points, no one would elect someone bold enough to tell the truth.
Hope I haven’t scared you too much! The Post Carbon Reader is a good book to check out.
In the meantime, this little boy opening a book for Christmas continues to make me laugh. Hope you like it!
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