Book Rec: The Last Hours of Ancient Sunlight

[butterfly]

"In biological systems, when one part of a complex organism rises up and decides to take energy and resources from all others because its sole focus is growth, we call it cancer." (pg. 221)

I've been doing a lot of reading lately, quite a lot of it about the world and universe around us. One book that I'm finding particularly interesting is Thom Hartmann's The Last Hours of Ancient Sunlight. If you've read Ishmael, this book will have some familiar ideas in it regarding culture and the stories that our culture is telling us.

The book itself is a warning and a guidebook. It talks about the cultural changes that the human race has gone through and how we've affected the planet. Quite a lot of this information is, taken by itself, depressing and depressingly obvious. We all know that the forests are being destroyed and that the ecosystem is being thrown out of wack. But this book also goes into detail about the whys and if you know the whys, then you can effect change.

It's a book that is rich in history and detail, one that I definitely recommend.

Comments

[jic]

see, now.... Why? is something of interest, whereas just a lengthy status report wouldn't be.

[butterfly.livejournal.com]

*grins*

For future reference, 'why' always interests me more than 'who', 'what', and 'where', and generally more than 'how'.

[jic]

Something I'm learning in my Philosophy class (not that I think that's what the lesson is intended to be, but that's what I'm getting out of it) is that scientists and and non-scientists ask "why" differently. Scientists ask "Why" and mean "by what cause" or "under what forces" -- which is really "how." Non-scientists ask "why" and mean "for what reason" or "to what purpose." It's a really cool class.

[ceridwen_amyed]

Hmmm, sounds like an iteresting book. Thanks for the rec! :)

[butterfly.livejournal.com]

Definitely. Glad I could help!