Kevin Drum at the Washington Monthly's Political Animal has a judicious review of Ted Nordhaus and Michael Schellenberger's Breakthrough: ...Your mileage might vary, of course, but I guess I was hoping for a little less dorm room philosophy and a little more in the way of practical advice. As in: what should we do about global warming?
Which, it turns out, they never answer. I was fully ready for N&S to offer up a fairly weak policy brew, but I wasn't ready for them to literally offer up no policy suggestions at all. In fact, their entire prescription can be summarized in one sentence: we should spend $30 billion per year developing new, green energy technologies. They spend an entire chapter telling us that complex problems require complex systemic solutions, but when it comes to global warming, that's all they have. One sentence....
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You have literally missed the point. If "solution" based reading is what your after there are shelves full. I only know of one book that creates thought provoking "unrest" . It squarely places the solutions in our laps. And I point out by not treating the reader like an idiot. Or preaching the next unproven model. This book requires the reader to engage in the thought process to make change. Whether individual , collective, etc. The complex world we all inhabit( from personal regional global) is ours to navigate, and find solutions for our own complex problems. No blanket, no feel good , no doom and gloom. Let's transcend the polarity and embrace the complexity and move thru it . It's complex, hard frustrating and requires more than one book to address. Think for yourself and appreciate that they assume you can , or start bleating like the sheeple we are fast becoming. JLW
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