Green book review: The Lexus and the Olive Tree by Thomas Friedman (audiobook)

We're back with our weekly green book review after a short summer vacation and we're happy to do so with a great book in by one of our favorite journalists and authors that has been reintroduced last month in one of our favorite formats - audiobook. Could it get any better?

Our (audio) book for today is:

The Lexus and the Olive Tree: Understanding Globalization (publisher: Simon & Schuster Audio) 

What this book is about?
As the Foreign Affairs columnist for The New York Times, Thomas L. Friedman has traveled to the four corners of the globe, interviewing people from all walks of contemporary life -- peasants in the Amazon rain forest, new entrepreneurs in Indonesia, Islamic students in Teheran, and the financial wizards on Wall Street and in Silicon Valley.

Now Friedman has drawn on his years on the road to produce an engrossing and original look at the new international system that, more than anything else, is shaping world affairs today: globalization. His argument can be summarized quite simply. Globalization is not just a phenomenon and not just a passing trend. It is the international system that replaced the Cold War system. Globalization is the integration of capital, technology and information across national borders, in a way that is creating a single global market and to some degree, a global village.

You cannot understand the morning news or know where to invest you money or think about where the world is going unless you understand this new system, which is influencing the domestic policies and international relations of virtually every country in the world today. And once you do understand the world as Friedman explains it, you'll never look at it quite the same way again. 

Using original terms and concepts -- from "The Electronic Herd" to "DOScapital 6.0" -- Friedman shows us how to see this new system. With vivid stories, he dramatizes the conflict of "The Lexus and the Olive Tree" -- the tension between the globalization system and ancient forms of culture, geography, tradition and community -- and spells out what we all need to do to keep this system in balance.

Finding the proper balance between the Lexus and the olive tree is the great drama of the globalization era, and the ultimate theme of Friedman's challenging, provocative book -- essential listening for all who care about how the world really works. 

About the author (source: New York Times):

Thomas L. Friedman won the 2002 Pulitzer Prize for commentary, his third Pulitzer for The New York Times. He became the paper’s foreign-affairs Op-Ed columnist in 1995. Previously, he served as chief economic correspondent in the Washington bureau and before that he was the chief White House correspondent. In 2005, Mr. Friedman was elected as a member of the Pulitzer Prize Board.

Mr. Friedman joined The Times in 1981 and was appointed Beirut bureau chief in 1982. In 1984 Mr. Friedman was transferred from Beirut to Jerusalem, where he served as Israel bureau chief until 1988. Mr. Friedman was awarded the 1983 Pulitzer Prize for international reporting (from Lebanon) and the 1988 Pulitzer Prize for international reporting (from Israel).

Mr. Friedman is the author of “From Beirut to Jerusalem,” which won both the National Book Award and the Overseas Press Club Award in 1989.  “The Lexus and the Olive Tree” was the winner of the 2000 Overseas Press Club Award for best non-fiction book on foreign policy. His 2002 book “Longitudes and Attitudes: Exploring the World After September 11” consists of columns he published about the attacks.  “The World is Flat: A Brief History of the Twenty-first Century,” issued in April 2005 and updated in 2006 and 2007, received the inaugural Goldman Sachs/Financial Times Business Book of the Year Award. 

“Hot, Flat, and Crowded” was published in 2008, and a paperback edition was issued a year later.  His sixth and most recent book, “That Used to Be Us: How American Fell Behind in the World We Invented and How We Can Come Back,” co-written with Michael Mandelbaum, was released in September 2011.

Born in Minneapolis on July 20, 1953, Mr. Friedman received a B.A. degree in Mediterranean studies from Brandeis University in 1975. In 1978 he received a Master of Philosophy degree in Modern Middle East studies from Oxford. Mr. Friedman is married and has two daughters.

Our review:

The Lexus and The Olive Tree I would say is an interesting book. We have all heard the term, globalization, but how many of us really understand what it means and what all it encompasses?  Even after reading this book, I am not sure I fully understand all that comes with such a simple term.  

Mr. Friedman's style of writing was mostly conversational and easy to understand. However, he tends to name drop, talk about his own friends, and his adventures a bit too much for me. It got a bit boring now and then. I found myself thinking again and again, “Just get to the point!” I admit not knowing some of the people he had lunch with or met in India or Tehran. When I don’t know something, I have to look it up. I spent more time with Google looking up people, places, and things, while reading this book, than I would like to admit. It took away from the book and the information within. Also, I should warn you that Mr. Friedman is a metaphor junkie. Pulitzer Prize winner or not, I found his use of metaphor overwhelming. Also, I should mention that portions of this book are getting outdated, and could use a revision. 

Don’t get me wrong I got a lot of good information and knowledge from this book, and I will take a lot away from my time within its pages. It’s a full and thorough book that includes anything and everything you could think of on globalization, from WWII all the way to the creation of email and the internet. Even though I was basically aware of the internet’s creation, I found this section very interesting.  

The audiobook version of The Lexus and the Olive Tree is available on Audiobooks.com as well as other retailers.

Yours,

Eco-Libris

Plant a tree for every book you read!

Last day to buy great green ebooks from Island Press for just $4.99!

I wanted to share an update from our friends at Island Press. Today (Friday, Aug 2) is the last day  about a special opportunity Island Press is offering this week to our supporters  – all of our backlist e-books will be available for just $4.99. This special incorporates more than 500 titles from our three decades of publishing including:

·        Gretchen Daily’s Nature’s Services, usually $45.00, now $4.99;

·        David Orr’s Hope is an Imperative, usually $30, now $4.99;

·        Callum Roberts’ The Unnatural History of the Sea, usually $24, now $4.99; and others.

These titles include the best ideas and information on the environment, including books on water, food systems, urban issues, ecosystems, and climate change. Island Press e-books are available at its website, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, and other online retailers. 

Yours,

Raz @ Eco-Libris
Plant a tree for every book you read!

Green book review: What Has Nature Ever Done For Us by Tony Juniper

There ain't no such thing as free lunch. This notion that Harvard economist Greg Mankiw described as "to get one thing that we like, we usually have to give up another thing that we like. Making decisions requires trading off one goal against another" is mostly true, but we tend to forget about it when it comes to natural capital.  

Yet, this is wrong, very wrong, as nature provides the 'natural services' that keep the economy going, explains Tony Juniper in his new book. Why? This important book written by one of the top 10 environmental figures of the last 30 years explains it, and it is our pleasure to have it on this week's green book review:

What Has Nature Ever Done For Us?: How Money Really Does Grow on Trees by Tony Juniper with a Foreword by HRH The Prince of Wales (publisher: Synergetic Press) 

What this book is about?
During recent years, and since 2005 in particular, the environmental debate worldwide has been dominated by climate change, carbon emissions and efforts to achieve low carbon economies. But a number of academic, technical, political, business and NGO initiatives indicate that there is a new wave of environmental attention focused on a wholly different set of subjects: namely that of 'natural capital,' 'ecosystem services' and 'biodiversity,' or in other words, what Nature does for us.

From Indian Vultures to Chinese bees and from recycling miracles in the soil to the abundant genetic codebook underpinning our food and pharmaceutical needs, Nature provides the 'ecosystem services' that underlie our economies. It is been estimated that these and other services are worth about twice the global GDP, and yet we take most of these services for granted, imagining them free and limitless- until they suddenly switch off.

This is a book full of immediate, impactful stories, containing warnings, such as the rabies epidemic that followed a disappearance of Indian vultures (hormones in cattle killed the birds and resulted surplus in carcasses, creating an explosion of wild dogs), as well as promising and enlightening tales of how birds protect fruit harvests, coral reefs shield coasts from storms and how the rainforests absorb billions of tons of carbon released from automobiles and power stations. Tony Juniper's book will change the whole way you think about life, the planet and the economy.

About the author:
Tony Juniper is a campaigner, writer, sustainability adviser and a well-known British environmentalist. For more than 25 years he has worked for change toward a more sustainable society at local, national and international levels. From providing ecology and conservation experiences for primary school children, to making the case for new recycling laws, to orchestrating international campaigns for action on rainforests and climate change, his work has sought change at many levels. Juniper presently works as a Special Adviser to the Prince of Wales Charities' International Sustainability Unit. For more info, visit http://www.tonyjuniper.com/ 

Our review:

This book, What Has Nature Ever Done For Us, by Tony Juniper was an interesting read. It has many stories that are very current today in our drive to retain our world and the creatures within it. We, humans, tend to see immediate consequences to our actions, but I think most of us tend to forget about the long term consequences. The stories within the pages of this book bring them front and center, and make them hard to ignore. As an added perk the book is written in an easy to read and understand format.

The author also keeps you interested and turning the pages as the stories and events are told in a manner that I found to be compelling and entertaining. Some of the events I was quite aware of all ready before reading the book, but the author found more information and more background to add to what I already knew. I liked that a lot. It wasn’t just a quick fact dump either. Instead it was a comprehensive telling of the events and the story behind them. I really enjoyed this read.

There were a few sections I found to be a bit wordy and long, but that is my only real complaint. Anyone interested in our environment and in the world we live, I think will find use of this book. The more versed in this area may not get as much out of it as the newer people, but I still recommend it all the same.

The book is available on Amazon.com in both hardcover and paperback formats.

Yours,

Eco-Libris

Plant a tree for every book you read!

New book, Moonpennies by Alanna Rosette is going green with Eco-Libris!

We're happy to announce on a new collaboration with author Alanna Rosette on her first book Moonpennies. 100 trees will be planted with Eco-Libris to green up this great summer read, which is right now available in an electronic format on Amazon.

So what's Moonpennies about? Here are more details on the book:
 

About the book:
Lina Daniels was eleven years old when her mother divulged that true love doesn't exist and heartbreak is inevitable. Now a late-twenties struggling writer, Lina is terrified of opening her heart to anyone. She fumbles through life, battling bouts of depression and avoiding real relationships at all costs...until one too many glasses of wine at a New Year's Eve party undermines her resolve. 

She ends up in the arms of an irresistible prospect and decides to give love a chance. 

The better judgment of her best friends tells her he's not the right guy. But finding the courage to fall in love is only the beginning of Lina's journey. Uncharted risks and bold mistakes open her eyes to a life-changing realization. She may learn her mother was right about the certainty of heartbreak. Yet she may also find that true love does exist, and it makes the heartbreak worthwhile.

About the author: 
Alanna Rosette is a writer across various mediums of fiction and non-fiction. Copywriter by day, but of course, fiction is her favorite.She enjoys writing prose but also have an affinity for visual storytelling, and thus love screenwriting, too. "It sounds cliche, but hey, it's true...I've been writing since I was a kid and don't plan on ever stopping. I do it because I love it," she writes. 

You can follow her on twitter and find her on Facebook as well.

You can purchase Moonpennies on Amazon.com (electronic format is available).

Yours,

Raz @ Eco-Libris
Plant a tree for every book you read!

7 reasons we need paper more than ever

This is a guest post written by Fritha Strickland, Head of Blogs at Eco Market

Every week of every month for the last decade, writers in publications scattered all over the world have confidently announced the death of paper. Amazon's Kindle is released - and books are labelled defunct. Mobile phone notetaking apps are killing moleskines. After 79 years in print, Newsweekmagazine goes digital-only, so it's only a matter of time before everything else does. What's wrong with this doom & gloom argument? Simple - paper is still everywhere. For example, despite Kindle's sky-rocketing popularity, Amazon is expanding its print publishing empire - and Moleskine just went IPO.

Paper is not dead - it's thriving. Here's why:

"Paper has turned out to be tenacious. This is because paper is awesome."

- Tim Maly, Wired.

Here are 7 reasons why we still need this awesome piece of technology in our lives.

1. We Remember Things Better

Ever put pen to paper and felt like you were capturing your thoughts a little differently? It may all be in your head, but it’s not just your imagination. Studies suggest that the physical act of writing by hand gives us a greater focus on the meaning behind our words, making handwriting a more effective tool for learning than typing. Remember the age-old school punishment of ‘writing lines’? If you want something etched deep into your memory…grab a sheet of paper and punish yourself.

2. We're Less Hasty

How often in modern life are we told to slow down while we’re working? Productivity is all about speed - and with speed comes carelessness, typos, glaring holes in our arguments and laugh-out-loud clunkers. All very well when you’re writing for yourself or friends, but at work (or study) that can be a professional disaster. Enter your own personal editor: paper. The act of first-drafting by hand is usually enough to iron out the most stubborn typos, partly because your subconscious has a better vocabulary than you do. (Test this out next time you don’t know how to spell a word: write as many variations as you can, and hunt for the one that “looks right.”) Handwritten first drafts also force us to immerse ourselves in what we’re writing about, for the reasons outlined in (1). It’ll take longer, but using paper will make your words (and the thinking behind them) much stronger.

3. We Feel It Differently

Ever smelled an old book? That cocktail of musty paper, the air of countless page-turnings, and the deep, rich tang of time itself? Ever seen people in the British Library lusting over old books? Ever pined for a really nice fountain pen? Ever wondered where all that emotion has gone in the age of the digital book? It' possible that with the advent of e-paper and touchscreens we’ve lost a little of our passion and reverence for the physical act of reading and write. Paper isn’t just a completely blank canvas - it’s a personal statement. Pull out some hemp stationery and you’re saying “I care about where this stuff comes from - also, feel that texture, it’s amaaaaazing.”

4. We're Quicker On The Draw

If you’re one of the super-fast-fingered iPhone elite, this may not apply to you…but for the rest of us, gadgets take time. They need waking up or turning on, they need a few second for their apps to load, and they need to wait while we stab ineffectually at the screen in some mistake-riddled parody of typing. Whatever the combination of delays, they are slower than using a pen and a piece of paper - and even today, there’s little quicker than speedwriting.

5. We Never Have To Stop

Your best thoughts run on a 24-hour schedule, but battery power is finite. If you forget to charge up, you could be left without the tools to jot down ideas, make notes, and the million other ways we use technology to jog our memories. Worse, our peace of mind is disrupted by our remaining battery power. Less than 50%? Nervously chew lip. Less than 20%? Dim the screen, shut down unnecessary apps, start panicking. Electrical devices enslave our mood in subtle ways - but paper? Paper is always ready for business. The only power source it needs is a human brain.

6. We Tidy Up The Planet

It’s nice to think of a world where we don’t need to keep churning out new paper - and in a way, we’re living in that world right now. Putting aside the future for a minute - the modern world is full of waste paper, and the more that can be used of it, the fewer trees will need to be cut down. It’s been estimated that half the world’s paper being recycled would produce the same amount of paper as 20 million acres of forestland. Leading recycling firms like The Green Stationery Company (creators of the Evolution recycled paper line) believe that recycled fibre should be the priority for any paper-consuming company wanting to help the environment. If more waste paper can be put back into production, it encourages investment in recycling technologies that will continually strive to close the sustainability loop.

7. We're Futureproofing Sustainable Industries

 There’s the other side to the recycling argument, and it’s all about the future. Done right, paper is a renewable resource, and that presents green entrepreneurs with an opportunity to make customers care about a mass-produced product that’s not hollowing out the environment. Virgin papermaking uses a lot of resources (water, energy, bleacing agents etc.) so the way we make paper should constantly be evolving. Right now hemp is a very attractive alternative to wood pulp (and here's why). The smarter we are at making paper, the better it's going to be for our environment - and the best time to start refining that process is now.

Images:  a.drian, theilr, jnyemb and USFS Region 5.

Green book review: The Zero Footprint Baby by Keya Chatterjee

Babies and sustainability should go hand in hand - after all, sustainability is all about "meeting the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs."

But how do you do it when your new baby has just been born and taking care of the new baby seems nothing but sustainable (take the waste diapers generate for example)? The book we review today has some answers for current and future parents who want to know how to do it right.

The book we review today is:

The Zero Footprint Baby: How to Save the Planet While Raising a Healthy Baby by Keya Chatterjee (publisher: Ig Publishing)

What this book is about?
In our culture, pregnancy, birth, and childrearing are deeply connected to consumption and resource use. From the baby shower to the minivan and the larger apartment or first house, the baby-raising years are the most hyper-consumptive of our lives, and can set a family on an unsustainable track for years to come. 

The Zero Footprint Baby: How to Save the Planet While Raising a Healthy Baby shows how to raise a child with little to no carbon footprint. This timely book covers every issue new parents face, including pregnancy (what kind of birth has the lowest impact?); what to feed your baby (breastfeed, formula, or both?); childcare (who should take care of the baby, and how?); and of course, diapering. Using a mix of personal anecdotes, summarized research, and clear guidance on how to pursue the most sustainable baby-rearing options, environmental expert and new mom Keya Chatterjee has authored the ultimate resource for all new parents with green inclinations.

About the author:
Keya Chatterjee is a Senior Director for Renewable Energy and Footprint Outreach at the World Wildlife Fund. Her commentary on climate change policy and sustainability issues has been quoted in dozens of media outlets, including USA Today, the New York Times, Fox News, the Associated Press, The Washington Post, and NBC Nightly News. She has also served as a Climate Change Specialist at the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), and worked at the NASA Earth Science Enterprise. She lives in Washington DC with her husband and son. For more info, visit: http://keyachatterjee.com

Our review:

I found this book interesting and even fun at times. Some of the ideas I thought were very useful and would be easy to put into practice, and then others bordered on absurd. Then there were the ideas that were fascinating to my mind, but not all that reasonable in the long run. One of my favorites though was the toilet sink. The water used in the sink, filters into the tank of the toilet, and then is used as the flushing water. This is ingenious, why had I not heard of it before?  Why do we need clean water to flush with? I can get behind this all the way. 

There are also some ideas that I found ridiculous. Maybe I don’t have the right mind-set. Maybe I am not doing enough to lower my carbon use. There are definitely some things that I can change and am willing to try and change. However, I am not one to put my children at risk in the process. Some of the things in this book I feel have the potential to do that.

As to the writing itself, I found the authors tone to be a bit condescending. Had a bit of the ‘this is why I am awesome’ kind of thing going on. It seemed even a bit insulting at times to me. For instance, one of the ways to cut down carbon use is to recycle (obviously), which includes clothing. The author spoke of all the people that graciously gave her their used maternity clothes, but then complained that these same people had the nerve, the very gall, to share their pregnancy and birthing stories with her. How dare they want to share with her? At first I took this as her shot at humor, but then it didn’t seem all that funny to me.  

All in all, the book is sound. I liked its contents and the information provided. I did. It’s a wonderful book to get parents, or expecting parenting, or planning to be expecting parents to think about their carbon footprint now, not after it’s too late. I suggest reading it, and then taking from it what you can.

The book is available on Amazon in both electronic and paperback formats.

Yours,

Eco-Libris: Plant a tree for every book you read!

Green book review - The Greenest Home: Superinsulated and Passive House Design by Julie Torres Moskovitz

Making buildings more sustainable is one of the more interesting developments that we're witnessing in the last couple of years. Our book today focuses on one of the latest developments in this area - passive houses.

The book we review today is:

The Greenest Home: Superinsulated and Passive House Design By Julie Torres Moskovitz (publisher: Princeton Architectural Press)

What this book is about?
Passive is the new green. Passive Houses, well–insulated, virtually airtight buildings, can decrease home heating consumption by an astounding ninety percent, making them not only an attractive choice for current and prospective homeowners, but also the right choice for a sustainable future. The Greenest Home showcases eighteen of the world's most attractive Passive Houses by forward-thinking architects such as Bernheimer Architecture, Olson Kundig Architects, and Onion Flats, among many others. Each case study consists of a detailed project description, plans, and photographs. Including a mix of new construction and retrofit projects built in a variety of site conditions, The Greenest Home is an inspiring sourcebook for architects and prospective homeowners, as well as a useful tool for students, and builders alike.

Our review:

This is one of those books that you sit down and read the first time. Then you see it sitting on the counter and you flip through it. Then you walk by it another day and page around in it again. The ideas are contempory and fun. The materials green and environmentally sound. The pictures and the plans are well organized. Paging through this book there are so many ideas that catch your eye and make you want to pop onto the wagon of green homes. The storage ideas and the organization, the lighting aspects, the vaulted ceilings and baboon materials, made me drool with desire. Then….you look into prices and that idea goes out the window.

First, there are no pricing lists in this book. If you are interested you have to hunt down the materials and put together a price list of your own. I found that a bit tedious. I think most people wouldn’t get that far. The only reason I did, was I was curious if it was affordable to go green in this fashion. Most all the homes in this book were huge. Maybe if they cut them down in size a bit, it would be more cost effective for the regular every day person.

Regardless of the pricing, the homes are beautiful both inside and out. The indexing is complete and easy to use as it is broken down by home. I have not yet regaled this book to the shelf. It still sits out in the living area for me to continually flip through and dream.

You can purchase the book here.

Yours,

Eco-Libris: Plant a tree for every book you read!