



Sustainability "Must Read or Listen To" Resources

Knowledge for Distinguishing What's Inevitable, What's Possible, What's Urgent

Since April 2002, my wife, Connie Barlow , and I ( Michael Dowd ) have traveled North America and addressed more than two thousand secular and religious audiences. Since December 2012, my message has centered on our sacred responsibility to future generations and the need to honor Grace Limits and measure "success" in life-centered, rather than human-centered, ways. In addition to inviting feedback and suggestions from audiences, throughout our travels I have always made a point of asking scholars and scientists in many fields (ecologists, environmentalists, conservation biologists, anthropologists, biophysical and ecological economists, historians, futurists, etc) "What are the books and essays that you consider truly essential for understanding our times and the future  especially those you hold as vital for helping someone learn (a) what's wrong with our civilization and how we got in our current predicament, (b) what's now inevitable, (c) what's still possible and inspiring, and (d) what's futile  i.e., what's simply not possible given reality as it truly is, not as we might wish it to be?" [ Please remember to apply the "meat and bones" principle to everything you read on this webpage (i.e., eat the meat; don't choke on the bone). Just because I recommend (or even highly recommend) a particular author, book, or essay does not mean that I agree with or advocate every idea, attitude, or claim it contains.] NOTE: The two biggest obstacles to clear thinking on the subject (beyond the perennially misguided and mistaken myth of apocalypse) were consistently said to be: (1) a failure to understand the life-cycle of civilizations and why ALL complex societies and empires inevitably decline and fall, and (2) forms of "techno-optimism" and "eco-modernism" that are ignorant or dismissive of basic ecological principles and unbreakable laws of physics, energy, and complex systems. Thus, if you believe that technology or the economy will allow industrial civilization to continue (or easily become sustainable), and/or if you believe that we can avoid a Great Reckoning, it is highly recommended, in addition to the books and essays listed below, that you also read one or more of those linked here, here, and/or here. The following are resources discerned as essential by a wide range of sustainability professionals. The first list are mostly essays. The second list are the books most often cited as "necessary for understanding our times and the future". Without this knowledge it is very difficult to distinguish between what's inevitable, what's possible, and what's futile (given the reality of our inner and outer nature). The third list (blue box, below) are some of the most respected resources in the fast growing, empowering field of "Okay...now what?"  practical tools, potential solutions, positive visions, and inspiring examples of ecologically wise thinking and living.

ESSAYS for Getting Reality, Moving Through Grief, and Engaging in " Active Hope "

2. Peter Montague's summary/overview of William Catton's Overshoot (21 min) AND "Jensen/Catton interview #1" (30 min) / Read/Listen

3. Teddy Goldsmith: Summaries/overviews of THE WAY: An Ecological Worldview, and his essays and interview / Read/Listen

4. Rory Varrato: "We Are the Threat: Reflections on Near-Term Human Extinction" (text / 76 min audio), showcases William Catton's ecological wisdom.

5. Walter Youngquist essays, "Our Plundered Planet and a Future of Less" (42 min) AND "A Geomoment of Affluence Between Two Austere Eras" (30 min) AND "The Scale of Things and Demographic Fatigue" (24 min) / Read/Listen

6. Michael & Joyce Huesemann: "Techno-Fix: Why Technology Won't Save Us or the Environment" (Overview, Presentation, Interview) / Read/Listen

7. William Ophuls: Immoderate Greatness: Why Civilizations Fail (2 hr) AND Sane Polity: A Pattern Language (3 hr): Systemic piety! / Read/Listen 8. Thomas Berry: "The Ecozoic Era" (40 min) / Read/Listen 9. Richard Heinberg: "Climate Holism vs. Climate Reductionism" (16 min) AND "Sustainability Metrics, Growth Limits, and Philanthropy" (23 min) AND "Exploring the Gap Between Business-as-Usual and Utter Doom" (20 min) / Read/Listen 10. John Michael Greer: "Evolution, History, Complexity, and Energy" (83 min) / Read/Listen 11. Green History: Robert Riversong summary (1.5 hr) OR Desvaux summary (4-hr) of Clive Ponting AND Anand Veereraj essay (1.5 hr) / Read/Listen 12. Sir John Glubb: "The Fate of Empires and Search for Survival" (90 min) / Read/Listen) 13. Samuel Alexander: "A Critique of Techno-Optimism: Efficiency without Sufficiency is Lost" (1 hr) / Read/Listen 14. Theo Kitchener's video: "What the Economic Crisis Really Means and what we can do about it" (Watch: 12 min) 15. William Rees: "Is Humanity Fatally Successful?" (90 min) / Read/Listen

AFTER reading or listening to some the above essays (and perhaps one or more of the books in this second section) I suggest reading or listening to the first three items listed under the Dark Mountain Project banner below: (1) Paul Kingsnorth and Dougald Hine's "Uncivilization: A Dark Mountain Manifesto", (2) their hour-long presentation, "Five Years on a Mountain", and (3) John Michael Greer's essay, "The Falling Years: An Inhumanist Vision." (Here.)

"Sustainability Canon"  BOOKS Considered "Essential Reading"

1. William Catton: Overshoot: The Ecological Basis of Revolutionary Change (here)

2. Tom Wessels: The Myth of Progress: Toward a Sustainable Future (here)

3. Edward Goldsmith: The Stable Society and The Way: An Ecological Worldview (here)

4. Michael & Joyce Huesemann: Techno-Fix: Why Technology Won't Save Us or the Environment (here)

5. John Michael Greer: The Long Descent AND The Wealth of Nature AND Dark Age America AND Not the Future We Ordered (here)

6. William Ophuls: Plato's Revenge AND (see #4 above) Immoderate Greatness AND Sane Polity (here)

7. Richard Heinberg: Afterburn AND Our Renewable Future AND Chapters 1-2 in The Party's Over (here)

8. James Howard Kunstler: Too Much Magic AND The Long Emergency (here)

9. Charles A.S. Hall and Kent A. Klitgaard: Energy and the Wealth of Nations: Understanding the Biophysical Economy (here)

10. Tom Butler, ed.: Overdevelopment, Overpopulation, Overshoot (here)

11. Walter Younguist: GeoDestinies: The inevitable control of Earth's resources over nations and individuals (here)

12. Clive Ponting: A New Green History of the World: The Environment and the Collapse of Great Civilizations (here)

13. Jared Diamond: Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed (here)

14. Joseph Tainter: The Collapse of Complex Societies (here)

15. John Perlin: A Forest Journey: The Story of Wood and Civilization (here)

16. Will & Arial Durant: The Lessons of History (here)

17. Roy Scranton: Learning to Die in the Anthropocene (here)

18. Samuel Alexander: Entropia (here)

19. Joanna Macy: Active Hope (here)

20. Thomas Berry: The Great Work AND The Dream of the Earth (here)

21. John Michael Greer: Collapse Now and Avoid the Rush AND The Ecotechnic Future AND Decline and Fall AND After Progress (here)

22. Charles Hall: Energy Return on Investment (here)



