An earnest, reasoned contribution to the national conversation on sustainability.
Environmental activist Leonard debuts with a critical examination of the effects of human consumption on the global environment.
Elaborating on the message of her widely viewed Internet video of the same title, the author argues that the consumer society’s pursuit of growth for growth’s sake is testing the limits of Earth’s carrying capacity. To create often needless manufactured goods (stuff), we extract, use and dispose of natural resources in ways that harm people, workers and communities. Drawing on research and her own observations during travels in Asia and Africa for Greenpeace and other environmental groups, Leonard describes the startling scale of our stuff and the often little-recognized impacts of the “take-make-waste” economic model on the quality of people’s lives. Mining the gold for an average gold wedding ring creates about 20 tons of hazardous waste, which is often dumped in rivers. U.S. book manufacturers use 300 million trees yearly. Some 400 million toxic electronic products are discarded each year in the United States; they often wind up in developing nations. Devoting a chapter to each stage of the life of stuff—extraction, production, distribution, consumption and disposal—Leonard blends facts, expert testimony and anecdotes from visits to factories, landfills and e-waste recycling facilities to create a vivid account of how waste is connected to disparate aspects of our lives. The author urges four major societal changes: redefining progress to value things that promote well-being; ending warfare, which drains money needed for change; adding the externalized costs (disease, environmental impacts, etc.) of stuff to the price of products; and reducing working hours to provide more time with friends and family and cut overconsumption. Leonard offers a utopian vision of an ecologically compatible U.S. economy by 2030, with no personal cars or polluting industries, less obesity and depression, and citizens having more influence than corporations.
An earnest, reasoned contribution to the national conversation on sustainability.Pub Date: March 9, 2010
ISBN: 978-1-4391-2566-3
Page Count: 272
Publisher: Free Press
Review Posted Online: Dec. 26, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2010
A heartfelt if somewhat unsurprising view of old age by the former president. Carter (Living Faith, 1996, etc.) succinctly evaluates the evolution and current status of federal policies concerning the elderly (including a balanced appraisal of the difficulties facing the Social Security system). He also meditates, while drawing heavily on autobiographical anecdotes, on the possibilities for exploration and intellectual and spiritual growth in old age. There are few lightning bolts to dazzle in his prescriptions (cultivate family ties; pursue the restorative pleasures of hobbies and socially minded activities). Yet the warmth and frankness of Carter’s remarks prove disarming. Given its brevity, the work is more of a call to senior citizens to reconsider how best to live life than it is a guide to any of the details involved.
Pub Date: Oct. 26, 1998
ISBN: 0-345-42592-8
Page Count: 96
Publisher: Ballantine
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 1998
Less a sequel than an addendum, the book offers a close-up view of the Oval Office in its darkest hour.
Four decades after Watergate shook America, journalist Woodward (The Price of Politics, 2012, etc.) returns to the scandal to profile Alexander Butterfield, the Richard Nixon aide who revealed the existence of the Oval Office tapes and effectively toppled the presidency.
Of all the candidates to work in the White House, Butterfield was a bizarre choice. He was an Air Force colonel and wanted to serve in Vietnam. By happenstance, his colleague H.R. Haldeman helped Butterfield land a job in the Nixon administration. For three years, Butterfield worked closely with the president, taking on high-level tasks and even supervising the installation of Nixon’s infamous recording system. The writing here is pure Woodward: a visual, dialogue-heavy, blow-by-blow account of Butterfield’s tenure. The author uses his long interviews with Butterfield to re-create detailed scenes, which reveal the petty power plays of America’s most powerful men. Yet the book is a surprisingly funny read. Butterfield is passive, sensitive, and dutiful, the very opposite of Nixon, who lets loose a constant stream of curses, insults, and nonsensical bluster. Years later, Butterfield seems conflicted about his role in such an eccentric presidency. “I’m not trying to be a Boy Scout and tell you I did it because it was the right thing to do,” Butterfield concedes. It is curious to see Woodward revisit an affair that now feels distantly historical, but the author does his best to make the story feel urgent and suspenseful. When Butterfield admitted to the Senate Select Committee that he knew about the listening devices, he felt its significance. “It seemed to Butterfield there was absolute silence and no one moved,” writes Woodward. “They were still and quiet as if they were witnessing a hinge of history slowly swinging open….It was as if a bare 10,000 volt cable was running through the room, and suddenly everyone touched it at once.”
Less a sequel than an addendum, the book offers a close-up view of the Oval Office in its darkest hour.Pub Date: Oct. 13, 2015
ISBN: 978-1-5011-1644-5
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: Oct. 20, 2015
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