In this week’s green book review, guest reviewer Rabbi Julian Sinclair unpicks the recent ‘Breakthrough’ by US writers Ted Nordhaus & Michael Shellenberger. Last month Al Gore gave a rousing speech on climate change, throwing down an audacious challenge to the American people. By 2020, Gore declared, let American by powered 100% by renewable sources […]
“Nature is a language – can’t you read? Nature is a language – can’t anybody read?” Morrissey & Marr: The Smiths, ‘Ask’ (1986) as played live in Tel Aviv last week. We here at Green Prophet don’t often blow our own green shofar, but it’s always good to get praise from others, particularly when it’s […]
I finished reading Food Not Lawns on my roof, just after I checked my new vermi-compost bin. The roof compost represents my adaptation to life in the modern world whereby I try and lead a more sustainable lifestyle within my means and ability. I was hoping to read Flores’ book and gain tips on how […]
“The trees are weeping in the Land of Israel… There is no compassion For the land’s raiment – Its seven species… And on these parcels of land Concessions will be granted To Burger king And Kentucky Fried Chicken.” From The Trees are Weeping by Aharon Shabtai We’ve seen how poetry and the environment can intersect, […]
“The crisis is at root one of perception; we no longer see the cosmos as alive, nor do we any longer recognise that we are inseperable from the whole of nature, and from our earth as a living being. But there is hope, for as the crisis deepens, the call of anima mundi intensifies.” Stephan […]
This is the first book I’ve read in a long time that I have felt so conflicted about. I bought it after having seen it prominently displayed in UK bookshops, and having read some of the author’s incisive political writings in The New Yorker. I anticipated that it would be illuminating and instructive, and expected […]
“The illumination is made possible thanks to the emergence of an exhilarating new discipline, one that integrates unprecedented knowledge of plants as living organisms with their fossil record and the role they play in driving global environmental change. “As we do so, we can see clearly that plants are not ‘silent witnesses to the passage […]
“We face the most almighty hangover, as the toxins unleashed by our century-long binge work their way through the earth’s system. We have to detoxify. We have to sober up. We have to come to grips….” from ‘Confessions of an Eco-Sinner’ by Fred Pearce. Pearce has written a book for the ecologically and socially minded. […]
Here is the first in the summer season of Green Prophet ‘eco-reads festival’: environment-focussed books , some sharp and caustic, some funny or fact-filled, all written to get us thinking and working for the earth. Over the next month or so, a new review will go live each week, written by a diverse group of […]
Could nature ever obliterate all our traces? How would it undo our monumental cities and public works, and reduce all our myriad plastics and toxic synthetics back to benign, basic elements? Alan Weisman: ‘The World Without Us’ 2007 Halfway through reading this enthralling book, I realized I was looking at the world in a new […]
Feeling gloomy and despondent about Climate Change? Do you feel, like my dear Welsh friend Tim in London whose default position on this (and everything) is that we are all “doomed”? Well, we here at Green Prophet are all about finding optimistic solutions, and giving attention to some of the projects that are trying in […]
“Embrace the fabulousness of green living” Green Chic – Saving The Earth in Style by Christie Matheson Don’t believe it is possible to remain stylish while going green and living a simpler, more planet-friendly lifestyle? Then this book is for you – writer Christie Matheson has aimed her new book precisely at this target […]
Here is a great book for all gardeners and garden lovers who want to go that wee bit further and work with the earth and plants in a truly green way. Joe Lamp’l has filled his new book, ‘The Green Gardener’s Guide’ with tips and actions that every gardener or green-conscious citizen can take immediately […]