I’ve read quite a few books recently that were eye opening and books I would recommend that everyone read!
Here’s my favourites:
Chris Turner’s The War on Science:
This is a very eye opening book. All Canadians need to read it. It’s at the library. Our government is currently mortgaging our future for very short term profit focused on resource extraction. Our government is ensuring our scientific community does not get the support it needs to do basic science research and ensuring scientists can’t speak out. This book made me sad and I can only hope that enough of us care about science and resource extraction alternatives to change our current policies. I think if most Canadians knew about what’s going on, they would not support the decisions.
Charles Einstein’s Sacred Economics:
http://sacred-economics.com/
The book is actually free! Although, I did end up buying a copy as I enjoyed it so much. Basically, how do you keep money around but ensure that it doesn’t end up with the unequal distribution we have today? And, how do we protect the commons from becoming private property? The last piece is ensuring that manufacturing includes costs that today are externalized. It a very upbeat book about how we already are changing our society to be more gift focused and the steps it takes to get there.
Elizabeth Kolbert’s The Sixth Extinction:
Well, if you want a more depressing book, this is it! The book describes (with lots of detail) how humans are currently causing the sixth great extinction on our planet. Period.
Peter Ladner’s The Urban Food Revolution:
This book has lots of Canadian and US examples of really positive food/growing ideas that are changing our perception of food. The book lays out lots of good and bad consequences of a urban food production model. In essence, amazing things are happening that are not really covered in the media. People do want to not only know where their food comes from but also participate in the process. Lots of room for enterprising people who can see niches in connecting people to food when we aren’t dealing with giant farms and giant trucks.
All these books are at the Calgary Public Library!