Ocean Book of the Month

by Bill McKibben

From the book cover:

In this powerful and provocative manifesto, Bill McKibben offers the biggest challenge in a generation to the prevailing view of our economy. For the first time in human history, he observes, "more" is no longer synonymous with "better". McKibben puts forward a new way to think about the things we buy, the food we eat, the energy we use, and the money that pays for it all.

The animating idea of "Deep Economy" is that we need to move beyond "growth" as the paramount economic ideal and pursue prosperity in a more local direction, with cities, suburbs, and regions producing more of their own food, generating more of their own energy, and even creating more of their own culture and entertainment.

From the mind behind the Step It Up national demonstration on climate change and successful titles such as The End of Nature and The Age of Missing Information comes Deep Economy - described by the Boston Globe as "a hopeful manifesto" and the Los Angeles Times as "masterfully crafted, deeply thoughtful and mind-expanding... an incisive critique of the unintended consequences of our growth-oriented economy."

If you have ever worried about the future of global food production or the day when there are 9 billion on the face of the earth grappling for resources, when the average Chinese commutes to work in an SUV, and more countries around the world become termed as "throw away societies", then Deep Economy is a must read for a practical and hopeful approach to an alternative, secure and sustainable global society, written with warmth, sincerity, and bites of humor. In McKibben's mind, fixing the environment and securing our future boils down to fixing the economy. In "McKibbsian sustainable economics", gone are the days when 75% of the apples sold in New York come from the West Coast or overseas, even though New York produces ten times more apples than its residents consume, and other such ironies.

McKibben brings into question the American Dream and extreme consumer culture that has to a large extent become the global vision. Should economists, policymakers, and entrepreneurs be hammering away to create economies with infinite growth and drunken consumers, and more fundamentally can our Earth, defined by finite resources and confronted with a climate, energy, water, and other environmental crises, continue to bear the weight of such economies? Or, as McKibben's suggest, should we be striving towards a new American and global dream where simplified and lighter living is valued?

McKibben provides an engaging and realistic challenge to the view that we have to choose between chasing after limitless growth and living in the Dark Ages. He is not the first to suggest a radically different economic model, but according to USA Today what makes McKibben's book stand out is "the completeness of his arguments and his real-world approach to solutions." McKibben doesn't just leave you with worrying criticisms of the current "more equals better" economic dogma, but presents an inspiring and refreshing model of place-based economies. McKibben doesn't leave you drowning in a world of idealistic theory either - his 225 pages are infused with creative examples from around the world of ordinary people building localized, sustainable economies, and finding more satisfaction in its simplicity - better yet, he lets us in on how we can all become innovators of the new and necessary local economy. We recommend this read, for our communities and our ocean.

• Visit Bill McKibben's website.

• Find out how you can help do your part at the Seas the Day website.

• If you are interested in reading this book but also want to be a conscious consumer, please visit your local library and check it out.

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