Cited Book: Earthfuture — Stories from a Sustainable World

As we enter the 21st century, the greatest challenges we face may not be environmental, but psychological — a failure of vision prompted by a world beset by so many problems that people have lost hope and fear that things can only get worse. Earthfuture restores optimism by providing us with positive and achievable, alternatives. Earthfuture presents over 40 provocative and inspiring glimpses into a world that people are managing to make sustainable. They are premised on the idea that, if we can visualize a paradise on Earth, then we can create it. Set in the early years of the new millennium, it is a world of ecovillages and self-organizing city neighborhoods, of near-zero garbage and climate-friendly cars, of work-sharing and social investment, of neighborhood democracy and the syntropy revolution, of a world-wide sustainable trade and environment treaty and the Earth Pledge. In short, it is a world where wealth is defined by peace, a healthy environment and the high quality of our relationships. At the same time, it is not, of course, a world without its nightmares — such as antibiotic-resistant bacteria and genetic pollution. Nor is it without its difficult choices — ecologically managed forests versus business-as-usual, or the free-flow of city traffic versus community gardens…

With its mix of utopian fiction and reportage of near-reality, Earthfuture sows the seeds of an alternative future with skill and obvious delight. Highly readable and accessible, it will appeal to a wide readership including social and environmental activists, progressive urban planners and local government officials and students in environmental, social and urban studies and community economic development — as well as the general reader tired of the doom and gloom. earthfuture.com