Culture Sustainability Resources

Books

Ellis Jones, Ross Haenfler, Brett Johson and Brian Klocke. 2001. The Better World Handbook. New Society Publishers. — The book summarizes our society's most pressing problems that lead directly to seven foundations necessary for building a better world: economic fairness, comprehensive peace, ecological sustainability, deep democracy, social justice, a culture of simplicity, and revitalized community. To support the seven foundations for a better world the book explores alternative activities around topics such as food, money, transportation, work, and media.

Baird Callicott & Frodeman (Eds.). 2009. Encyclopedia of Environmental Ethics and Philosophy. Macmillan Reference USA/Gale Cengage Learning. — More than 300 peer-reviewed articles cover concepts, institutions, topics, events and people, including global warming, animal rights, environmental movements, alternative energy, green chemistry, industrial ecology, and eco-sabotage.

Schmidtz & Willott (Eds.). 2002. Environmental Ethics: What Really Matters, What Really Works. New York: Oxford University Press. — This collection of 71 articles examines morality from an environmental perspective. From classic articles to examples of cutting-edge original research, it addresses both theory and practice.

McKenzie, Hart, Bai, & Jickling. 2009. Fields of Green: Restorying Culture, Environment and Education. Hampon Press. — This book is about hopeful daydreams and their implications for action in the interwoven spheres of culture, environment, and education.

Thomas Homer Dixon. 2001. The Ingenuity Gap. Random House. — Tackles the "ingenuity gap" or situations when our ingenuity cannot keep up with the problems we are creating.

Ronald Wright. 2004. A Short History of Progress. House of Anansi Press. — Wright explores departed societies, including: the Easter Islanders, the Sumerians and the Mayans, to argue that our civilization must make the transition from short-term to long-term thinking, if we are to avoid the traps of social inequity and environmental destruction that collapsed these early civilizations.

Malcolm Gladwell. 2000. The Tipping Point. Little, Brown and Company. — The Tipping Point is that magic moment when an idea, trend or social behavior crosses a threshold, tips, and spreads like wildfire.

Craid Dilworth. 2009. Too Smart for Our Own Good: The Ecological Predicament of Humankind. Cambridge University Press. — This book reveals that our ecologically disruptive behavior is in fact rooted in our very nature as a species. Drawing on evolution theory, biology, anthropology, archaeology, economics, environmental science and history, this book explains the ecological predicament of humankind.

Fritjof Capra. 1997. The Web of Life: A New Scientific Understanding of Living Systems. Anchor. — Capra sets forth a new scientific language to describe interrelationships and interdependence of psychological, biological, physical, social, and cultural phenomena--the web of life.