Believing Cassandra: How to be an Optimist in a Pessimist's World
An apparently classic text on sustainability that's been recently updated. The premise is that environmentalists are Cassandras (as of Troy) who are cursed in that no one will believe their predictions and that they will only have the pleasure of telling everyone else "I told you so" when the World (i.e. human and other life forms) start to decline due to our appalling pillage of our natural resources. It starts off quite theoretical and then becomes quite scary adding to my understanding of what a bad state the World is in and how it's getting worse. It then becomes very upbeat and optimistic, the clue's in the subtitle, saying why he believes that the human race will pull back from the brink of destruction and re-define "growth" as useful and sustainable rather than purely measured on spend (oil slick cleanups add to GDP and therefore are good for growth in our bizarre world) and destruction of resources and unsustainable pollution. A great point is that we've managed to get ourselves into this terrible state within 200 years so why can't we get ourselves out of it. A very readable book with strongly personal accounts of his actions and involvement in the sustainability movement. And yes, sustainability is mentioned a lot. Not sure who to give to next - someone who is already a convert or a sceptic.
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