Cary Neeper's Blog: Reviewing World-changing Nonfiction, page 2

Talking to Animals by Jan Katz

Talking to Animals: How You Can Understand Animals and They Can Understand You by Jan Katz, Simon and Schuster, New York, 2017

This book could have been entitled“Listening to Animals’ Body Language.” The author shares his life experience, while dealing with both drugs and farm animals, to tell us“how you can “Understand Animals and They Can Understand You,” (the subtitle).

Katz’s introduction is riveting and central to his message.What would his new dog do now, on their evening walk through the wood? What should they both do, as three coyotes stood in their path?

When the dog began to step forward, Katz said “Stay” and let his instincts take over. He told himself to “think strength, feel strong.”

The dog reacted by standing her ground with him. She growled, then whined,but she did not move. Though terrified, Katz realized the coyotes were soon gone, probably off to get an easier meal.

The rest of the book describes how Katz “cultivated with many different animals a similar dialog” by being aware of their needs and mental state. Their reactions, their demeanor and their obvious physical messages are the way they communicate.

This book is a good read, a rich reminder of how we should be more open to our pets’ body languages.

TWO REVIEWS: “The Real Cost of Fracking” by Bamberger and Oswald and "Weird Life" by David Toomey

The Real Cost of Fracking: How America's Shale Gas Boom Is Threatening Our Families, Pets, and Food“The Real Cost of Fracking” by Michelle Bamberger and Robert Oswald, Boston, Beacon Press, 2014.
For an excellent summary of the reason for fracking, its usefulness, and its abuses, read and study this book’s Introduction.

For the technical details on how gas drilling is done, its geology, the drilling and fracking processes, the chemistry, and the effect on aquifers and communities, read the Appendix on page 181ff.

The individual chapters focus on personal histories, the destruction of property, the pay-offs for silence about procedures, and the creation of unsafe drinking water. All are told in agonizing detail by several families who have experienced the loss of their property and sane living.


Weird Life: The Search for Life That Is Very, Very Different from Our Own“Weird Life--The Search For Life That is Very, Very Different From Our Own,” by David Toomey, W.W.Norton, New York, 2014.

Do read the Preface for a brief history of the discovery of life’s diversity and complexity. The rest of the book explores weirdness in life that is “not descended” from ancestral life on Earth

After considering extremeophiles, the author discusses life’s origins, its definition, possible locations, and means of becoming. I found his descriptions of Mars, Europa and Titan interesting, as are his definitions of life, its evidence, and its chemical complexity

“Fair Shot--Rethinking Inequality and How We Earn,"

by Chris Hughes, Co-founder of Facebook.,St. Martin’s Press,NY, 2018.

Chris Hughes gives us a critical, thoughtful view of his remarkable luck in rooming with Mark Zuckenberg at Harvard. Riding the huge fortune they generated with Facebook took hold of their, and all, our lives. He calls it luck, not a path accessible to most of us, since the U.S. has been skewed to favor the wealthy in the last few decades.

Therefore,, the 1% of people who hold most of the U.S. wealth should provide a guaranteed income in order to combat poverty and stabilize the middle class. The Earned Income Tax Credit is already in place and could easily be re-structured to relieve what has become a vastly unfair loss of workable economic s for so many.

The financial Times (July 2019) has argued against a Universal basic Income (UBI), assuming that it would undermine incentives to work and social cohesion and increase inequality and poverty. Studies have not confirmed this. Money for the UBI need not come out of health and education funds.

Many studies, including one by the Roosevelt Institute, have shown that a small additional amount can lift the spirit and heal the stress of those unable to pay their living expenses. Those who appose the UBI have been shown wrong in claiming that much of that money goes to drugs and alcohol. Alaska’s universal sharing of oil resources is a case in point.

A rise in income tax for the wealthy to pay for a UBI is long overdue, since we all support the Facebooks of the world. Access to opportunity has been the key to broader studies that show the universal benefits of having enough to eat. Do read this book.

Why The Right Went Wrong--Conservation From Goldwater to Trump and Beyond,

by E.J. Dunne Jr., Simon and Schuster, N.Y., 2016.

This is a short summary of the author’s take on conservation history in the United States. --his review of the politics of the Reagan, Goldwater, Nixon, and Reagan years: I was surprised to read that, “Urged by Democrat Moynihan, Nixon pushed for the Family Assistance Plan…minimum guaranteed income for poor families.” Though skilled at arguing for a “conservative position,” he called “essential…all aspects of Social Security. At the same time he made cuts that “hit programs for low-income Americans.” A master of contradictions, he “could live with a good deal of cognitive dissonance between his public statements and his practice.”

Sound familiar.?

Bush was noted for raising the income rate from 28% to31%, whereas Reagan “established tax-cutting as a central…tenet of…Conservative dogma. Then came Clinton, calling Republicans the party of the rich and special interests. The author notes that “Republicans moved right” while Democrats took more of the center. “The white South…became solidly Republican.” In 1990 50% of white southerners had voted for Democratic House candidates. In 1994 “50% of white Southerners had voted for Democratic House candidates ; in 1994, only 36 percents did.” In 2010 that number was “down to 27%.” In Congress rules were changed to require “a three-fifths majority to pass a tax increase.” At the same time tax and welfare cuts were made.

President Clinton noted that “the new congress…was well to the right of the American people,” and would propose cuts in education, health care, and the environment in order to pay for tax cuts and defenses increases. Voters preferred the opposite . The problem continued to be that politicians mistake “…their own opinions for the views of the vast majority…” In the late nineties radio and television grew rapidly and widened the gap between the right and rest of the country.

We are still paying an ever-growing price for that gap. Immigration and differences in marriage issues increased as talk radio got into the fray. Suburbanites, swing voters, were 41% Democratic in 2002 and 51% in 2006. Conservation took a “hard right turn” in the Bush years. Then George W. Bush gave the banks a 700 billion bank bailout in 2008, enraging “free-market purists” Was this a slippery slope to corporate socialism? Such Big-government spending was seen by the left as a barrier to health coverage, poverty and inequality. In the Obama years the Tea Party was still struggling with stagnant wages.

Americans are still divided, as money enters the divide. The wealthy fear the country is moving toward “socialist oppression.” However, “Opposition to big government did not extend to …medicare and social Security. Meanwhile, abortion, religion, Hilary Clinton, and immigration joined the fray. Thinking was more “winner take all” than patriotism. Thinking on all topics grew mindlessly absolute hard edges.

This book suggests that we are better than that. As we face the dire challenge of the Covid virus, we should ease back and find well-thought out solutions for the future. We don’t need to let our voices distort the debate. We can ask honest questions, like why are American conservatives the only ones in any of the wealthy democracies to oppose a universal guarantee for access to health insurance?

The Essential Bernie Sanders and His Vision for America

The Essential Bernie Sanders and His Vision for America by Jonathan Tasini, C,helsea Green Publishing, Vermont, 2015.

Bill McKibbon said it:”…Bernie…always means what he says, and he always stands for what he believes.” In this small book J. Tasini gives us the full text of Bernie’s Vermont talk announcing his run for President of the U.S.”

Like the book, the speech is divided into topics critical to correcting our laws so that health care is a right--as is a college education--where child care , health care, and veteran benefits are affordable and where all Americans realize the full promise of “…equality that is our birthright.”

To clarify each topic, Bernie’s words and political activities are presented by Chapter topics, each ending with a short summary of “Bernie Facts that summarize his detailed political and legal action and his stands in Congress . The twenty topics include a wide spectrum of government concerns: Economy, Health Care, Education , Environment, Taxes, Wall Street, Workers, Family Values, Society, Politics, Infrastructure, Veterans, Agriculture, Immigration, Civil Rights, Foreign Policy, Foreign Trade, Media, Government Oversight, and Personal Liberty.

Reviewing World on the Edge by Lester Brown by L

World on the Edge--How to Prevent Environmental and Economic Collapse by Lester R. Brown, WW Norton and Co. N.Y. 2011.

Early studies have concluded that human demands on Earth’s resources exceeded natural systems in 1980. In 2007 they exceeded Earth’s “sustainable yields by 20 percent.” In contrast, economic data in 2010 showed a “10-fold growth in world economy since 1950. The fourfold increase in world income was celebrated.

In 2011 that was good news, Lester Brown tells us. But how is it now? Earth’s recent environmental declines suggest inevitable economic and social collapse following the shrinking of Earth’s forests, soils, aquifers, and fisheries. High temperatures don’t help.

Brown’s Plan B focused on cutting global carbon emissions, stabilizing the human population at 8 billion by 2040, eradicating poverty, and restoring forests, soil, aquifers, and fisheries. Costs, he said, were 1/8 of the 2011 world military spending.

He also predicted that by 2020 up to 60 million people would migrate from Sub-Saharan Africa to North Africa and Europe. CO2 emissions should be cut to 400 ppm by 2020, so we can reduce it to the 350 ppm recommended. In 2020 a worldwide carbon tax of $200 per ton could be offset by reduction in income taxes. An additional $200 billion could restore Earth’s national systems, stabilize population and eradicate poverty--paid for by “updating the concept of national security.” How different are questions for the world now? It’s already 2020.

Brown’s ideas could still help, if we would change our focus. CO2 emissions per passenger mile on high speed trains are about 1/3 those of cars and 1/4 of planes. Must we be slaves to saving time? We have been using more solar and building more efficient buildings, but we need to do more, with simple requirements like rooftop solar, water heaters, and energy efficient building.

The oceans are filling with plastic, People are desperate for food and safety on too many places, for too many wrong reasons. In 2011 government was spending $500 billion per year to subsidize the use of fossil fuels. Oystein Bahle of Exxon Norway noted that “Capitalism may collapse because it does not allow the market to tell the economical truth.”

So, what now? Brown’s ideas are simple once fully realized. They could reverse the overuse trends we have taken on since 2011. Think wind, solar and geothermal, a tax on carbon. Raise gasoline taxes and cut income taxes. We could still do it--build a new economy--carbon free. World on the Edge: How to Prevent Environmental and Economic Collapse

The Bipartisan Policy Guide by Luke Lorenz

The author is President of the Nonpartisan Policy Alliance and has worked as a policy analyst for a Washington DC think tank. He advises representatives and lobbies Congress on behalf of American workers.

A critical point he makes is that “It is imperative that we enact the Secure Elections Act as as soon as possible. It makes clear that every state retains authority over their election process. A note by Sarbanes was posted online in February that the SAFE bill passed the House. But  ”For months, Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and Senate Republicans have refused to allow a vote on any of these critical election security bills.”A Google search found that nothing else has been done.

Lorenz notes that there is the Problem Solver Caucus within the House of Representatives, founded in January of 2017 to “seek common ground between the parties.”The news this month indicates they have not been successful.

The author of this small book ends by listing “Actions You Can Take” He urges moderates in both parties to work to counter the active faction of extremists in both parties” He concludes: “…we must abandon our misguided allegiance to candidates and political parties. As Americans we pledge allegiance to our flag, not our leaders….they must always be questioned, criticized and held accountable. Our loyalty must be to our country and to the policies that will advance our economic, technological and financial security, not to any individual or party.”

Two Percent Solutions for the Planet

Courtney White by Courtney White, Chelsea Green Publishing, Vermont, 2015

This collection of “Low-Cost, Low-Tech, Nature-Based Solutions “for “Combating Hunger, Drought, and Climate Change”. has some handy advice for “implementing a wide variety of regenerative land management practices.”

Make compost by covering manure with wood chips, straw, and a little corn. It will keep your cows warm all winter. Then, in the spring, feed your pigs while they aerate it, turning the anaerobic into “fluffy aerobic soil.

“What can I do for the planet?”…Eat less feedlot meat.” Feed lots are “crowded, stinky, and grassless.” They’re also cheap, and too abusive. “They make no ecological sense for the stress the cows ;suffer. They make cattle lose 15% of their weight, while being more “susceptible to disease.” Eat grass fed meat.

Plant food crops in rows between “solar panels at a height of four meters.” That’s good for water efficiency and could reduce transpiration needs.

Waste vegetable oil from restaurants should be warmed or stored for a few weeks so food bits can settle, then given free to farmers for automotive or tractor fuel.

Since it takes so much water for sanitation disposal, human waste should be collected, heated, checked with PhyloChip, and used as fertilizer in agriculture. See CCC’s Thermophile Project, Marin County, CA’.

For other manure disposal, bring on more dung beetles.

Check out grandin.com and the Wild Farm Alliance for strengthening the alliance between farmers, ranchers, and conservationists worrying about wildlife vulnerability-- “habitat destruction, or fragmentation…water pollution, pesticides, and other effects of industrial production.

We may be thoughtless or feel helpless, but we don’t need to trash the planet.

Life Without Oil--Why We Must Shift to a New energy Future

Life Without Oil--Why We Must Shift to a New energy Future by Steve Hallett with John Wright, Prometheus Books, Amherst, 2011.

Note the publication date! 2011!! This book should have been entitled “The Beginning of Our End.” It begins with a historical overview of humanity’s use of Earth’s resources and the failed example of Easter Island, in which the first resource to be exploited was the bird life, then the big trees. The authors make the point that “Creeping environmental degradation such as this is occurring around the world today.”

Why didn’t Easter Islanders see their problem? Why don’t we? They were divided into territories that competed-- as we are divided into nations.

The impressive Mayan example of disaster is summarized next. Its “…colossal pyramids and stairways were gradually destroyed by 800 CD.E., as they fought over resources.” Their real…enemy was their own exploitation of the environment.”

The Fertile Crescent is a similar, more current example. Questions about the fall of the Roman Empire have arisen. There is good evidence that it depleted its landbase by its “…overuse of wood and clearing trees for agriculture.” The Dark Ages came next.

The authors state that now there are signs that the world is full. Like the “demise of past societies,” we have “over-exploited our sources of energy, [done] environmental damage, [and strained] agricultural productions.

Are we too blind to the evidence from previous civilizations? The author argues in 2011 for a shift away from our addiction to oil. Coal, oil and natural gasses are finite resources. The special constitutional rights of corporations, their limited liability and their shareholder mandate for “wealth increase…to deliver…high levels of productivity” mean they may not be able to respond to the long-term historical dangers this book outlines. The next century will see the “decline, demise, and disappearance of oil.”

During this “petroleum interval… of glittering progress “we have tripled our population, destroyed forests , turned farmland into wasteland or urban sprawl, filled our oceans with plastic and vacuumed them for fish, emptied freshwater aquifers, shaved mountains, sent untold species into extinction (and culture too)….drained lakes and rivers, and stuffed the atmosphere with climate altering gases.”

We need to reduce, reuse, repair and recycle. Now! Maybe that should have been the title of this book. And I’m only referencing up to page 115. The details fill the rest of the book--the false assumptions we keep making: 1)that human well-being requires continued economic growth and all that implies, 2) that the marketplace and its competition will provide the energy, resources and competition to keep it growing, and 3)that resources are unlimited and our “life-supporting processes” cannot be damaged. These are all “false assumptions.”

The author concludes by saying that we can recover from “the coming depression” by replacing sustainability for growth and by sharing , conserving, and NOT competing

The Oath and The Office--A Guide to the Constitution for Future Presidents

The Oath and The Office--A Guide to the Constitution for Future Presidents by Covey Brettschneider, W.W.Norton &Co.,New York, 2018.

Writer and Professor of Political Science at Brown University and Fordham Law School, C. Brettschneider begins by reminding us that the President of the United States takes an oath to “uphold the Constitution--even the parts with which he or she disagrees.”

That means you need to know what it says. It also helps to understand how and why the founders argued over its language and why and how that language can be interpreted now.

The author first examines the President’s power, not only to execute the law, but to hire and fire (now) a large number of people, nominate Supreme Court Justices, and to act in dire times as Commander in Chief of the United State Armed Forces.

In section II of this important work, Brettschneider discusses the Bill of Rights, its creation, and the amendments that shape free speech and religious freedom, the use of torture , and Equal Protection for all of us.

The book then talks in detail about how the presidency is checked by Congress, the judicial system, and the states federalism. The author’s reference to history and our resulting constitutional powers are valuable lessons to be understood as we face the current challenges to our national integrity.