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Enlightening In thoughtful vignettes, Thackara examines numerous grassroots initiatives around the world [and] proposes an economy based on social energy, that uses a very small percentage of the resources presently used Recommended.Choice
Are there practical solutions to the many global challengesclimate change, poverty, insufficient healthcarethat threaten our way of life? Author John Thackara has spent a lifetime roving the globe in search of design that serves human needs. In this clear-eyed but ultimately optimistic book, he argues that, in our eagerness to find big technological solutions, we have all too often ignored the astonishing creativity generated when people work together and in harmony with the world around them.
Drawing on an inspiring range of examples, from a temple-led water management system in Bali that dates back hundreds of years to an innovative e-bike collective in Vienna, Thackara shows that below the radar of the mainstream media there are global communities creating a replacement economyone that nurtures the earth and its inhabitants rather than jeopardizing its futurefrom the ground up. Each chapter is devoted to a concern all humans shareland and water management, housing, what we eat, what we wear, our health, how and why we traveland demonstrates that it is possible to live a rich and fulfilling life based on stewardship rather than exploitation of the natural environment.