[getsmart-l] Holiday reading

[Gloria Boxen]

Some suggested new titles, 

Getting to Maybe, How the world is changed.
by Frances Westley, Brenda Zimmerman, and Michael
Quinn Patton
http://www.jarche.com/?p=945

"This is a book about social innovation in complex
environments (our world). It covers the stories of
many social innovators and discusses the various parts
of a common path that many take. This is a path with
no map and no destination."

http://www.resalliance.org/2038.php

Leaving Microsoft to Change the World, An
Entrepreneur's Odyssey to Educate the World's
Children, by John Wood
http://www.leavingmicrosoftbook.com/

Heat: How to Stop the Planet Burning, by George
Monbiot
http://portal.campaigncc.org/node/1164

Monbiot argues "that we need a 90% cut in our
emissions by 2030 to prevent runaway climate change
from taking place. In his brand new book, 'HEAT',
George Monbiot explains how the cut could be achieved
without bringing the civilisation we know to an end.

Analysing the potential of energy efficiency,
renewable resources, carbon burial, nuclear power and
new transport and building systems, Monbiot finally
unveils what works, what doesn't, what costs the least
and what needs to be done to make change happen.
Addressing key questions that seem to be a constant
stumbling block - 'is individual abstinence futile
when others are lighting their houses with a million
light bulbs every Christmas' and 'how much can be done
when the climate change deniers are so vocal ?',
Monbiot argues that answers are available and hope is
not lost."

He does say that flying has to be drastically reduced
as it would take up all of the 10% CO2 emissions we
would have left and that the emissions released at
high altitudes add more greatly to the greenhouse
effect.

One technology now in development and not discussed is
nanosolar technology which was developed at U Of T
initially to detect, and can trap, infrared radiation.


http://ergosphere.blogspot.com/2004_07_01_ergosphere_archive.html
http://www.foresight.org/challenges/energy001.html
http://www.nanosolar.com/technology.htm

(sorry, couldn't find any current references to U of
T, will try later)

Happy reading and happy New Year,
Gloria Boxen