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A Better Planet: Forty Big Ideas for a Sustainable Future
A practical, bipartisan call to action from the world’s leading thinkers on the environment and sustainability
Sustainability has emerged as a global priority in the past decade. The 2015 Paris Agreement on climate change and the adoption of the seventeen Sustainable Development Goals through the United Nations have highlighted the need to address critical challenges such as the buildup of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, water shortages, and air pollution. But in the United States, partisan divides, regional disputes, and deep disagreements over core principles have made it nearly impossible to chart a course toward a sustainable future.
This timely new book, edited by celebrated scholar Daniel C. Esty, offers fresh thinking and forward-looking solutions from environmental thought leaders across the political spectrum. The book’s forty essays cover such subjects as ecology, environmental justice, Big Data, public health, and climate change, all with an emphasis on sustainability. The book focuses on moving toward sustainability through actionable, bipartisan approaches based on rigorous analytical research.
Sustainability has emerged as a global priority in the past decade. The 2015 Paris Agreement on climate change and the adoption of the seventeen Sustainable Development Goals through the United Nations have highlighted the need to address critical challenges such as the buildup of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, water shortages, and air pollution. But in the United States, partisan divides, regional disputes, and deep disagreements over core principles have made it nearly impossible to chart a course toward a sustainable future.
This timely new book, edited by celebrated scholar Daniel C. Esty, offers fresh thinking and forward-looking solutions from environmental thought leaders across the political spectrum. The book’s forty essays cover such subjects as ecology, environmental justice, Big Data, public health, and climate change, all with an emphasis on sustainability. The book focuses on moving toward sustainability through actionable, bipartisan approaches based on rigorous analytical research.
416 pages, Hardcover
Published October 22, 2019
29 people are currently reading
410 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
February 19, 2020
Aren't we all hoping that various people in the tech world will use their skills in helping our planet resolve its environmental issues? Author, editor and scholar Daniel C Esty seems to think so and has written an optimistic, debatable and refreshing approach to the problem. Controversial ideas definitely but very interesting. Re-engineering forests through genomics? This idea will have many many detractors but still why not read all about it even if you are completely against it. This books has different authors and fascinating ideas that will float around in your head all day. Guaranteed to be a great conversation starter for a debate, some of the ideas involve drought-resistant crops and saving extinct animals. Nothing new there but still interesting to read about. I personally think we should not mess around with the dna of mother nature but I want to know how other people are thinking and this book will inform you. I gave it four stars because it got my wheels turning.
November 28, 2024
Did not finish this book. It’s the right fit for someone, just not me.
July 15, 2020
"Always ask "for whom?""
"Those looking to implement big ideas should reflect on whether their schemes may
1) fail to understand local context
2) misidentify the problem
3) privilege short-term tech approaches over longer-term democratic ones
4) over-emphasize metrics to the detriment of on-the-ground diversity and complexity
5) fail to build trust between those most affected by an intervention and that intervention's proponents."
Love the essays: ch4 (private lands, future of conservation), ch3 (restoration agenda for native forests), ch19 (helping kids stand up for their rights: the role of climate change litigation), ch20 (environmental justice for all must be a human right enforceable in US constitutions), ch33 (moral and spiritual contributions to a flourishing earth community) and the mentions of Olmsted/Chicago, seaweed, tree/forest economic management!
Good ideas, for sure. Many are self explanatory/not revolutionary (at least to me.) To be fair, the ideas still need work done to get anything accomplished, but feels like a good pointed list of what we should be honing efforts on to address climate change.
"Those looking to implement big ideas should reflect on whether their schemes may
1) fail to understand local context
2) misidentify the problem
3) privilege short-term tech approaches over longer-term democratic ones
4) over-emphasize metrics to the detriment of on-the-ground diversity and complexity
5) fail to build trust between those most affected by an intervention and that intervention's proponents."
Love the essays: ch4 (private lands, future of conservation), ch3 (restoration agenda for native forests), ch19 (helping kids stand up for their rights: the role of climate change litigation), ch20 (environmental justice for all must be a human right enforceable in US constitutions), ch33 (moral and spiritual contributions to a flourishing earth community) and the mentions of Olmsted/Chicago, seaweed, tree/forest economic management!
Good ideas, for sure. Many are self explanatory/not revolutionary (at least to me.) To be fair, the ideas still need work done to get anything accomplished, but feels like a good pointed list of what we should be honing efforts on to address climate change.
December 31, 2019
Some of the climate change books I've read this year have left me feeling pessimistic. But this book presents so many ideas from so many areas that is shines hopeful. It's refreshing to read about so many people approaching the problem and taking it seriously. Each essay is well cited for further reading if any topic tickles your fancy.
December 1, 2019
Read all 40 essays. Good. Some were terrific. Some were pretty bland. Loved the one about the six levels of climate change activists and the one about hip-hop sustainability.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews