Whole Earth Library at Thoreau Center for Sustainability - San Francisco

Jewish-American Heritage Month

2013-05-08T14:16:00.000-07:00

It's Jewish-American Heritage Month and we are celebrating with some great books on display and available to check out at the Whole Earth Library at the Thoreau Center for Sustainability. Topping the list we have Susan Chevlowe's "The Jewish Identity Project: New American Photography. Susan Chevlowe is an Assistant Curator at The Jewish Museum in New York. Her project focuses visually on what it means to be Jewish in the United States in the early 21st Century. In addition, we have selected works by noted Jewish-American writers including Carl Sagan, Ann Druyan, Studs Terkel, Howard Zinn, Jonathan Rosen, Bruce Stutz and Victor Navasky. From science to politics to history to birding to environmentalism and journalism, these writers have added indelibly to quilt of the American landscape.

Carl Sagan, the noted astrophysicist from Cornell University now sadly departed to be one with the cosmos, wrote a number of books that be termed more philosophical than scientific. The selection we have chosen for this month is one such work. Entitled "Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors: A Search for Who We Are," this work, co-written with his wife Ann Druyan, explores what it means to be human and our place in the universe.

Our second selection speaks to the very important role that Jewish-American progressive thinkers have played in the development of American liberalism though the work we have highlighted is also more of a reflective philosophical nature. Louis "Studs" Terkel, who died in 2008, was a prolific writer and a life-long social activist. He won the 1985 Pulitzer Prize for for General Non-Fiction for "The Good War." His "Will The Circle Be Unbroken?" was published in 2001 and was the last book he wrote. It is more auto-biographical and grapples with question of death, faith and identity.

Howard Zinn requires no introduction. He is simply the People's Historian. The Whole Earth Library boasts most of his works and the one we have chosen is "Failure to Quit: Reflections of an Optimistic Historian, "an anthology and the seventh volume of his Radical Sixties series. The series of essays cover an array of topics that remain relevant to this today. For example, there is an essay How Free is Higher Education and another on Just and Unjust Wars.

Jonathan Rosen and Bruce Stutz are both Jewish-American naturalists and important contributors to the environmental movement. Rosen's book. "The Life of the Skies: Birding at the End of Nature," looks at the world from the perspective of a birder, one whose hobby is watching birds. The reality is that we are all birders. Birds are for the most part the only wildlife we see day in and day out. A mix of memoir, natural history and philosophy make this book a joy to read. "Chasing Spring: An American Journey Through a Changing Season" by Bruce Stutz is journal of an unfolding Spring. Stutz followed the blossoming of nature writing about its retreat from the cold icy death of winter to its annual rebirth. It's the perfect book for Springtime reading in the Sun. A caveat, the calendar say Spring, a step outside might disprove such a notion.

"A Matter of Opinion" by Victor Navasky is the last book celebrating the contributions of Jewish-Americans to our literary landscape. An editor, educator and journalist, Navasky won the National Book Prize in 1982 but is perhaps best known for his tenure at The New York Times Sunday Magazine and then at The Nation. In "A Matter of Opinion," Navasky offers a full-throated argument on the necessity of a vibrant and diverse press for a healthy democracy. It is the variety of opinion and tolerance for the views of others that embolden Americans to undertake an expansion of democratic life. As media consolidation has taken hold, we have lost that diversity of opinion undercutting an important part of civic discourse and threatening our democratic traditions.

San Francisco Ocean Film Festival

2012-03-08T14:33:00.000-08:00

The Ninth Annual San Francisco Ocean Film Festival starts tonight over at the Bay Theater in the Aquarium of the Bay on Pier 39. A Thoreau Center for Sustainability tenant, the San Francisco Ocean Film Festival has brings filmmakers from around the world to highlight both the bounty and beauty of our oceans as well as the increasing perils the oceans face. Each screening is followed by Q&A sessions with filmmakers, panel discussions with industry experts and a free student program. The San Francisco Ocean Film Festival runs through Sunday March 11th and tickets are still available.

The Whole Earth Library at Thoreau Center also has number of books on issues affecting our oceans for those wishing to follow up with additional reading.

The Future of US Ocean Policy: Choices for the New Century, Biliana Cicin-Sanin and Robert W. Knecht. (2000)

The Future of US Ocean Policy is the culmination of an over twenty year research study of US ocean policy. This volume provides a comprehensive overview of the key issues and concerns that are essential to formulating and implementing a sustainable ocean policy. The Future of US Ocean Policy also provides the history and the evolution of the debate over ocean and coastal use. The book also examines the policy choices faces by policymakers as they address the issues affecting our oceans from overfishing to toxic waste dumping and off-shore drilling.

A Stain Upon the Sea: West Coast Salmon Farming, Stephen Hume. (2004)

Bringing together six leading experts from both science and government, A Stain Upon the Sea looks at the fastest growing part of aquaculture, salmon farming. The book takes a hard look at industry practices in British Columbia examining both health risks posed to humans and long-term environmental damage done to the coastal ecosystems where salmon farms are located. Journalist Stephen Hume examines the industry through the eyes of the Nuxalk and Heiltsuk Nations and incorporates case studies from Ireland and Alaska. Historians Betty Keller and Rosella M. Leslie explain the development of the industry in British Columbia, from small family operations to large chain farms owned by a handful of multinational conglomerates. Biologist Alexandra Morton analyzes the biology of sea lice in the pink salmon runs in the Broughton Archipelago. Former Canadian federal employee Otto Langer gives an in-depth account of the bureaucratic nightmare that exempted the industry from environmental review. And scientist Don Staniford analyzes the chemical stew that farmed fish are raised in and the health risk this poses to humans.

The Whaling Season: An Inside Account of the Struggle to Stop Commercial Whaling, Kieran Mulvaney. (2003)

Kieran Mulvaney has lead four expedition to the cold waters off Antarctica to demonstrate that despite a decades-long international moratorium on commercial whaling, whales are still being hunted. The book not only offers a vivid, riveting and extraordinary account of the dangers and hazards in trying to track, intercept and stop commercial whalers but also covers the long history of whaling. Additionally, Mulvaney covers the groups and people who have led the largely though not completely successful movement to eradicate whaling.

Books to Explore the Great Outdoors

2012-02-29T11:13:00.000-08:00

With the weather so delightfully mild as we head into spring, here are a few books in the Whole Earth Library at Thoreau Center collection to help you explore the beauty and bounty of the Presidio, San Francisco, the Bay Area and beyond. The Whole Earth Library has maps of the Presidio available for those wishing to explore the wonder around us during their lunch break or after work.

Walking San Francisco by Tom Downs (2007)

San Francisco, with its distinct neighborhoods and ample green areas, is a city made for walking. Tom Downs' guide offers 30 different walking tours highlighting the diversity and wonder of this 49 square mile slice of heaven we call home. Tours are arranged by neighborhood and by interest so if architecture is your passion, there's a tour for that. Or take a walk down the Barbary Coast and discover the irrepressible character of the city during the Gold Rush era.

The Bay Area Ridge Trail by Jean Rusmore (1995)

Written in cooperation with the Bay Area Ridge Trail Council, this guide details 33 different hikes, ranging in 3 to 13 miles, along the over 300 mile long trail the spans the varied terrain of the Bay Area. From lush redwood forests damp with timeless mystery to grassy high meadows bursting with lavish displays of California wildflowers, this guide has detail information on what to expect and invaluable tips for how to enjoy each step of discovery of nature's richness that lies literally at our doorstep. There is even a 3 mile tour of the Presidio that can be done in an afternoon. And be sure to check the calendar run by the Bay Area Ridge Trail Council for more information on upcoming hikes and events.

Geology of the San Francisco Bay Region by Doris Sloan (2006)

Truly a remarkable guide that allows both the novice and the seasoned geologist to explore the terrain beneath our feet. With over 30 maps covering the Bay Area from the ocean to the delta and from Napa down to Santa Cruz, this guide gives clear, non-technical explanations of the fascinating yet often complex geological forces that have shaped our region. Explore the forces of plate tectonics as you ramble across any of the numerous, and surprisingly, accessible fault systems that lie right under our noses. Each major Bay Area region has a dedicated chapter in which "Special Places to Explore" are highlighted.

Field Guide to Butterflies of the San Francisco Bay and Sacramento Valley Regions by Arthur M. Shapiro and Timothy D. Manolis (2007)

For the lepidopterist in each one of us, this remarkable guide to the region's diverse collection of butterflies is a welcomed resource. This field guide boasts 31 color plates to help you find and identify both native and migrating species. The book also highlights where and when to find the serpentine endemics. Aside from being California's state rock, serpentine rocks has unusual chemistry that impacts the flora that grow in it and thus impacting the fauna. In the Bay Area, two species of butterflies are serpentine endemic and a further six are serpentine preferential. Seeing these angel-winged beauties in their native environment is a joy for child and adult alike.

California Coastal Access Guide by the California Coastal Commission (2003)

This comprehensive guide to the scenic and recreational facilities of our varied and scenic shoreline from Oregon down to the Mexican border can help you plan an afternoon walk, a weekend foray or a week's leisurely drive up or down the down the coast. With great tips on what to do, how to explore the wetlands and tidepools, where to camp or inexpensive lodging options, this guide is a must check out before planning any adventure along the 770 mile California coastline.

The Islands of San Francisco Bay by James A. Martin and Michael T. Lee (2006)

The most recent addition to the Whole Earth Library at the Thoreau Center thanks to a gift by its author, James Martin, who spoke here on February 16th. Covering all 48 islands in the Bay, this remarkable book covers the ecology, geology and history of these islands. Packed with nearly 400 color photographs, many available for purchase at The Islands of the Bay website, this volume is a visual delight as well as an informative resource to consult before venturing out to explore the varied dots of land that break above the surface of the San Francisco Bay.

2012-01-06T14:57:00.000-08:00

New Books in the New Year

Thanks to the Northern California Directory of Independent Booksellers, the Whole Earth Library at Thoreau Center for Sustainability has received more than a score of books in the areas of Nonprofit Sector Resources, Social Issues, Policy Economics and Philosophy plus a few works of fiction. Here is a sampling of the new books now in the collection.

Kwame Anthony Appiah. The Honor Code: How Moral Revolutions Happen. (2010)

The Honor Code: How Moral Revolutions Happen is the latest book from the New York Times best-selling author and Princeton University Professor of Philosophy Kwame Anthony Appiah. The book examines how moral progress happens and how societies come to repudiate long-standing social practices that murderous and dehumanizing. Appiah, born in Ghana and educated in Britain, examines the sudden end of the centuries-old practice of dueling in Britain, the demise of foot binding in China and the struggle to ban the trans-Atlantic slave trade and he writes convincingly that in each case the evolving concept of honor played a critical role in terminating these practices. But this book is not just about past moral revolutions. Appiah also looks at how honor might led to demise of honor killings in Pakistan.

Pavithra Mehta & Suchitra Shenoy. Infinite Vision: How Aravind Became the World's Greatest Business Case for Compassion. (2011)

Infinite Vision is the story of Dr. Govindappa Venkataswamy and the Aravind Eye Clinic. Founded in 1976 as a 11-bed facility in the old temple city of Madruai in Tamil Nadu, Aravind today boasts eight eye hospitals with over 4,000 beds treating over 1.7 million patients each year making it the largest and most productive eye care institution in the world. With a business model based on compassion, two-third of Aravind's patients receive free treatment and yet the eye clinics are self-sustaining teaching and research facilities. A core principle of the Aravind System is that the hospital must provide services to the rich and poor alike, while remaining financially self-supporting. This principle is achieved through high quality, large volume care and a well-organized system.This timely book is co-authored by Pavithra Metha, an award-winning Indian writer and filmmaker, and Suchitra Shenoy, a founding member of the Inclusive Markets team at The Monitor Group.

Linda Stout. Collective Visioning: How Groups Can Work Together for a Just and Sustainable Future. (2011)

Collective Visioning: How Groups Can Work Together for a Just and Sustainable Future is the latest work from the Massachusetts-based social activist and founder of Spirit in Action, a non-profit organization that catalyzes broad-based movement building to support deep and lasting social change. In this book aimed at the nonprofit community, Stout provides guidelines on how to bring diverse interests together to form a cohesive group built on trust that ensures that each and every voice is heard with a goal of creating a positive vision and developing an action plan that leverages each member's unique abilities to bring that vision to fruition. Stout focuses on the important need to get our own storytelling right. She writes that "our own stories ground us in the present while empowering us" and notes that "unless we connect with our stories and truly listen to those of others, we won't be able to vision collectively into the future."

Dianna Booher. Creating Personal Presence: Look, Talk, Think, and Act Like a Leader. (2011)

Dianna Booher is the founder of the Booher Consultants, a global communication training firm in Dallas, and the author of several books on communication and public speaking. In this book, Booher provides scores of practical tips on the physical qualities, communication techniques, thought processes, and attitudes that underlie powerful personal presence. Personal presence is one of those qualities that is difficult to define but easy to recognize.This comprehensive guide will enable readers to become compelling leaders with a commanding presence no matter what their current position.

Joan Steinau Lester. Black, White, Other: In Search of Nina Armstrong. (2011)

Joan Steinau Lester, Ed.D. is an award-winning commentator, columnist, and author of four critically praised books. Black, White, Other: In Search of Nina Armstrong is Lester's first novel and looks at the issues faced by a fast growing segment of the US populations, biracial kids, through the eyes of a 15 year old girl named Nina Armstrong as she faces the challenges of her parents' divorce. Nina lives with her mother Maggie, a leftie whose family roots are in union organizing; her little brother, Jimi, lives with their father Silas who is busy rediscovering his African-American roots, which include an enslaved great-grandmother Sarah, whose story Silas is writing. Nina is emotionally, socially, and historically conflicted: who is she, and whose is she? She’s got white friends and black friends who inhabit different peer worlds, and the family tension shapes everything.

2011-12-08T13:17:00.001-08:00

California Coastal Commission. California Coastal Access Guide. (2003)

The 1,100-mile California coast is an area of unsurpassed beauty and diversity. The first edition of the California Coastal Access Guide was published in 1981 with the dual purposes of identifying areas along the coast that are open to the public and explaining the public's rights and responsibilities regarding the use of the coastal resources. This guide tells you where to go on the coast, how to get there, and what facilities and type of environment you will find at each location. The Guide is a thorough and easy-to-use handbook that lists and describes all open public accessways, beaches, parks and recreational areas along the coast; it provides addresses, phone numbers type of environment for each site. It is divided into sections for each county and local area, with website and transit information and accompanying maps that clearly locate each accessway and major streets. Photos and illustrated feature articles on history, coastal resources and recreational activities are found throughout the book.

Kim Klein. Fundraising for Social Change, 5th edition. (2007)

From the publisher: Since it was first published in 1988, Fundraising for Social Change has become one of the most widely used books on fundraising in the United States. Fundraising practitioners and activists rely on it for hands-on, specific, and accessible fundraising techniques, and it has become a required text in dozens of college courses around the country. This fifth edition offers the information that has made the book a classic: proven know-how on asking for money, planning and conducting major gifts campaigns, using direct mail effectively, and much more. The book has been significantly changed to include new technology-e-mail, online giving, and blogs-and contains expanded chapters on capital and endowment campaigns, how to feel comfortable asking for money, how to recruit a team of people to help with fundraising, and how to build meaningful relationships with donors. In addition, this essential resource contains new information on such timely topics as ethics, working across cultural lines, and how to create opportunities for fundraising more systematically and strategically.

Mario Morino. Leap of Reason: managing to outcomes in an era of scarcity. (2011)
From the publisher: Leap of Reason, a collaboration between Venture Philanthropy Partners and its longtime strategic partner McKinsey & Company, presents a compelling case that we must rise to meet the difficult challenges of our times with management approaches that complement heart with head, passion with information.
The book is anchored by a monograph written by philanthropist Mario Morino, who argues that the nation’s growing fiscal crisis will force all of us in the social sector to be clearer about our aspirations, more intentional in defining our approaches, more rigorous in gauging our progress, more willing to admit mistakes, more capable of quickly adapting and improving—all with an unrelenting focus on and passion for improving lives.
Morino calls on funders to empower nonprofits to manage smarter through greater use of information on performance and impact—rather than forcing them to meet myriad evaluation and reporting requirements that do little to help the organization learn and improve. He calls on nonprofits and funders to work together to “manage to outcomes” and to do so with the singular goal of helping nonprofits deliver greater benefits to those they serve.
Morino’s monograph is augmented by essays written by VPP president and CEO Carol Thompson Cole, the leaders of McKinsey’s Social Sector Office, and other experts and practitioners with hands-on experience leading the transition to managing to outcomes: Tynesia Boyea Robinson, Patricia Brantley, Isaac Castillo, David E. K. Hunter, Kristin Anderson Moore, David Murphey, Ethan D. Schafer, and Karen Walker. The book also includes a framework with questions to help organizations begin “managing to outcomes” and a compendium of relevant readings.
The book’s authors and publisher have produced this book with the goal of seeking the broadest possible dissemination of these ideas among social-sector leaders and those who support them. All of the authors contributed their essays and insights without compensation. And the publisher’s copyright notice encourages and grants permission for the distribution and reproduction of copies of this work for non-commercial purposes.

G. Castro and I. Locker, with V. Russell, L. Cornwell and E. Fajer. Mapping Conservation Investments: an assessment of biodiversity funding in Latin America and the Caribbean. (2000)

Full Report (PDF, 79 pages, 850 Kb)

From the publisher: Biological diversity plays a critical role in maintaining the ecological processes upon which people, ecosystems and economies depend. The Latin America and Caribbean (LAC) region is widely accepted as a repository of some of the world’s richest biodiversity, containing 40% of Earth’s plant and animal species and probably the highest floristic diversity in the world. Unfortunately, the region’s biodiversity continues to face significant and growing threats. The study, collaboration of the U.S. agency for International Development (USAID), the World Bank and the Biodiversity Support Program (BSP), was undertaken to determine the extent of biodiversity conservation funding in the region.
Esta es una publicacion bilingue que examina los patrones de financiamiento para la biodiversidad en la region de Latinoamerica y el Caribe (LAC) para discernir los vacios de financiamiento y animar una mayor comunicacion y conscientizacion de parte de los donantes. La evaluacion del financiamiento, resultado de un proyecto de tres anos de duracion implementado conjuntamente por el Banco Mundial y la USAID, se baso en los resultados recopilados con encuestas aplicadas a las principales organizaciones donantes: instituciones bilaterales y multilaterales, agencias gubernamentales, organizaciones no gubernamentales, fundaciones, principales instituciones de investigacion y fideicomisos para el medio ambiente. Se pretende que este analisis sea el primer paso hacia una mayor comunicacion entre los donantes y los implementadores con el fin de conducir a una inversion mas estrategica y mejor enfocada en la region de LAC.

Seven Billion

2011-11-15T11:31:00.001-08:00

Seven Billion

The surge in human population is one of the defining crucibles of our era. If in 1900 we numbered but 1.6 billion people on the planet, we would a hundred years later in the year 2000 surpass 6.1 billion, a nearly 300 percent increase. This past October 31st, United Nations demographers suggest that the world has likely passed another demographic milestone, the seven billion mark. In light of this, the Whole Earth Library at Thoreau Center for Sustainability would like to highlight some of the numerous titles on population issues that we have in the collection.

_____________________________________________________________________

Lester R. Brown, Gary Gardner, and Brian Halweil editors. Beyond Malthus: Nineteen Dimensions of the Population Challenge. (1999)

For those interested in an introductory overview of the challenges of population growth, this short, concise primer examines the impacts of population growth on 19 global resources and services, including food, fresh water, fisheries, jobs, education, income and health.With the planet in danger of outstripping its carrying capacity, Beyond Malthus examines methods such as the expansion of international family planning, investment in educating young people in the developing world and promotion of a shift towards smaller families which will represent the most humane response to the possible ravages of the population explosion.

_____________________________________________________________________

Bob van der Zwaan and Arthur Petersem, editors. Sharing the Planet: Population - Consumption - Species - Science and Ethics for a Sustainable and Equitable World. (2003)

This volume is the final report presented the World Summit on Sustainable Development held in Johannesburg in 2002 by the Dutch Chapter of the Pugwash Conferences on Science and World Affairs. The internationally renowned scholars contributing to this volume conclude that immense endeavors by the international community are required over the first few decades of the new millennium to effectively deal with the challenge ahead of establishing sustainable development. They also conclude that a renewed public awareness is needed of the inescapable limits of our planet's resources and focus on what scholars and activists can do to raise the necessary awareness.

_____________________________________________________________________

Wolfgang Lutz, Warren C. Sanderson and Sergei Scherbov editors. The End of World Population Growth in the 21st Century: New Challenges for Human Capital Formation and Sustainable Development. (2004)

This edition looks at the problem of demographic transitions. While most countries will continue to add population in the coming decades, a number of countries, primarily in Europe, are facing negative population growth which of course presents a different set of challenges. The volume addresses these challenges in a number of ways. It produces probabilistic population forecasts for the world and 13 major regions and introduces new ways of analyzing the uncertainty of these forecasts. It integrates human capital and sustainable development with population change and shows how combining the three provides a new way of unifying our understanding of demographic developments in the 21st century. The book contains chapters on probabilistic population forecasting; integrated forecasts of population and education changes in world regions; the use of literate life expectancy as an indicator of social development; the interactions between population, the environment, and agriculture in Ethiopia; the effects of education on trends in HIV prevalence in Botswana, a country that has had greater success in tackling AIDS than most; China’s future rural and urban population by education; population, greenhouse gases, and global climate change; and a new conceptual framework that combines considerations of population growth, age structure, human capital, and the environment and shows that the problems of rapid economic growth and rapid aging can be formulated and analyzed within a unified framework.

_____________________________________________________________________

Elizabeth Leahy with Robert Engelman, Carolyn Gibb Vogel, Sarah Haddock and Tod Preston. The Shape of Things to Come: Why Age Structure Matters to a Safer, More Equitable World. (2007)

Seven Billion
A wonky detailed analysis of the various projected demographic trends for various countries around the world. Based on more than two years of research and analysis, the authors conclude that population age structure can have a significant impact on countries' stability, governance, economic development and the well-being of its people. Most importantly, they find that age structures are dynamic and can be influenced—and shaped—through policies that affect the demographic forces (i.e. births, deaths and migration) that determine these age structures. The authors also find that in looking to the future and the shape of things to come, aid and assistance programs that promote the demographic transition—family planning, female education, maternal and child health, HIV/AIDS prevention, care and treatment--must be an integral part of development assistance.

World Blogging Action Day: Food, Sustainable Food

2011-10-16T10:39:00.000-07:00

Blog Action Day is an annual event held every October that unites bloggers world-wide in posting about the same issue on the same day to raise awareness and trigger a global discussion around an important issue that impacts us all. This year Blog Action Day is being held on October 16th to coincide with World Food Day which commemorates the founding of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) in 1945 and aims to foster a debate and increase awareness about issues related to global agriculture and food practices.

Here at the Whole Earth Library at Thoreau Center, we are participating in this important event by highlighting a few of the many titles that the collection boasts on food-related issues and sustainable agriculture practices.
_____________________________________________________________________

Dr. Gary Paul Nabhan. Where Our Food Comes From: Retracing Nikolay Vavilov's Quest to End Famine. (2009)

Noted sustainable agriculture activist and ethno-botanist at the Southwest Center of the University of Arizona Gary Paul Nabhan is the author or editor of 24 books on agricultural practices, bio-diversity and food culture. Published in 2009, Where Our Food Comes From retraces the journeys of famed Soviet botanist Nikolay Vavilov who as the director of the All-Union Institute of Agricultural Sciences in Leningrad beginning in 1924 amassed the world's largest collection of plant seeds. In this book, Gary Paul Nabhan, a winner of the prestigious MacArthur "genius" Award, weaves together Vavilov’s extraordinary story with his own expeditions to the planet's richest agricultural seed depositories imparting critical insight into the cultures that preserve and maintain humanity's rich agricultural heritage and food stocks. Nabhan shows how global climate change, free trade policies, genetic engineering, and the loss of traditional knowledge are threatening the global food supply. Through discussions with local farmers across five continents, visits to local outdoor markets, and a comparison of his own observations in eleven countries to those recorded in Vavilov’s journals and photos, Nabhan reveals just how much diversity has already been lost while offering a vision on how to better protect our global seed stocks and food supply.

___________________________________________________________________

Dr. Jane Goodall. Harvest for Hope: A Guide to Mindful Eating. (2005)

In Harvest for Hope, world-renown primatologist and conservationist Jane Goodall tackles the dietary habits of the world's most successful, if sometimes tragicomic, primate. Surveying human food production and consumption, Dr. Goodall traces the changes such as the development of large-scale food production that seeks to maximize profit for shareholders with scant regard for long-term human health and safety that have occurred in her lifetime. Grounded in the belief that every individual does make a difference, hers is a clarion call for action and individual responsibility to restore long-standing sustainability practices, now seemingly sacrificed at the altar of corporate profitability.

__________________________________________________________________

Dean Cycon. Javatrekker: Dispatches From the World of Fair Trade Coffee. (2007)

Coffee entrepreneur and fair trade advocate Dean Cycon examines globalization, immigration, women's and indigenous rights, environmental degradation and trade issues all by looking at our humble cup of coffee. As much a travel book to exotic coffee lands as it is a primer on the issue of fair trade, Cycon offers a hands-on account at the implications in the global production and trade of a commodity such as coffee, the world's second largest trade in terms of value and one that dates back hundreds of years. Cycon argues that "our understanding of justice, in trade and society in general, cannot be confined to a formula." Instead, fair trade must be more accurately seen as a process that improves the lives of the hundreds of thousand of small farmers who have been systematically marginalized by the forces of globalization.

___________________________________________________________________

Andrew Kimbrell. The Fatal Harvest Reader. (2002)

Written by world renowned scientists, activists and thinkers, The Fatal Harvest Reader is a collection of over 30 thought-provoking essays on the problems inherent in large-scale industrialized corporate agriculture. Edited by Andrew Kimbrell, one of the country's leading environmental attorneys and the author of several books on the environment and food issues, the essays cover a range of topics from the myths of industrial agriculture and the false promises of biotechnology to the hidden costs, including its deep ecological impact and adverse effects on human health as well as offering a vision for more sustainable agriculture practices in the 21st century. The volume includes an essay, Machine Logic: Industrializing Nature and Agriculture, by Jerry Mander of the International Forum on Globalization that urges agricultural practices that express "a reciprocal relationship with nature." In another essay, Helena Norberg-Hodge argues that localized food systems are a cultural imperative that offer an alternative to boom-bust globalization. Other contributors include Alice Waters, Gary Nabhan, Jim Hightower and David Ehrenfeld.

___________________________________________________________________

Darrin Nordahl. Public Produce, The New Urban Agriculture. (2009)

Author and urban design guru, Darrin Nordahl is at the forefront of the new urban agriculture movement. In Public Produce, Nordahl makes the case for local government involvement in shaping food policy. In what he calls “municipal agriculture,” Nordahl notes how elected officials, municipal planners, local policymakers, and public space designers are turning to the abundance of land under public control such parks, plazas, parking lots as well as the grounds around government offices and public buildings to grow food. He argues that innovative urban food concepts can vitality to city spaces as well as improve our health and environment. This timely book highlights some of the many public initiatives around the country that are helping to reshape the urban landscape while improving the American palate.

Book Donations for Occupy San Francisco

2011-10-14T12:04:00.000-07:00

Since we always have some extra books for which we try to find a good home (usually Better World Books, go check them out) we have decided to go downtown and give some to the people at Occupy San Francisco. Hopefully, they will find them useful. There are certainly some excellent works on economics, globalization, sustainability, history, and we threw in some fiction too since the Occupy Wall Street library certainly has plenty of that. You can see some of them in the pictures below, and maybe we'll get up a more complete list later.

)

Banned Books Week, Sept 24 to Oct 1

2011-09-27T12:06:00.000-07:00

It's that time of year again...Banned Books Week! Held during the last week of September, this event celebrates one of the most basic human rights of any democratic society: the right of intellectual freedom. It alerts people to the efforts that continue to occur on a regular basis in the United States to limit or to discourage access to books and other materials in schools, libraries, and bookstores. Sponsored by the American Library Association, the American Booksellers Association, the National Coalition Against Censorship, and several other organizations, Banned Books Week is a reminder to people not to take for granted their freedoms to read, to speak, and to think. In 2010 alone, the Office of Intellectual Freedom of the American Library Association received reports of 348 challenges nationwide, and it anticipates that there are many more that go unreported. Such challenges are typically efforts to circumvent the normal institutional procedures for reviewing the suitability of materials in order to limit the access of students and others to ideas and viewpoints with which the challengers disagree. They are attempts to close off discussion and to prevent individuals from being able to judge ideas for themselves.

The Whole Earth Library will once again join libraries throughout the country in Banned Books Week which runs from September 24 until October 1. Look for the return of our interactive, appropriate technology Banned Books display on the outside of the library wall where you are encouraged to write quotes from your favorite banned and challenged books or to just share thoughts about intellectual freedom in other creative ways. In addition, we are once again sponsoring an essay contest for our neighbors at The Bay School of San Francisco, a private coeducational college preparatory high school just down the street from us in the Presidio. Students have been asked to write on the subject of intellectual freedom and sustainability.

If you would like to learn more and discover what books have been banned or challenged in the United States, visit the Banned Books Website and be sure to check out American Library Association's lists of Frequently Challenged Books. And Tango Makes Three, has returned to the top of the list for 2010, and you might be surprised by some of the books that are also on it. Regardless, there are lots of fun reading ideas.

Thank you,
John Bertland, Librarian

Thoreau Center Brown Bag: Promoting Biodiversity in the Presidio

2011-09-20T11:58:00.000-07:00

Promoting Biodiversity in the Presidio
Presenter: Terri Thomas, Golden Gate National Recreation Area
September 22, 12:30 to 1:30
Pacific Room at Tides, Thoreau Center for Sustainability

Why are the Presidio of San Francisco’s natural habitats, forests, and designed landscapes important to local, national, and international biodiversity? Terri Thomas will discuss the history, the current big picture, and the details of the Presidio's biodiversity.

Terri’s career has been in the land management of national parks, and she has worked at Yosemite, Crater Lake, Everglades, and the Golden Gate National Recreation Area. She is now the Director of Conservation, Stewardship, and Research at the Presidio Trust. She has a BS in Forestry from UCB and a MS in Ecology from University of Washington.

Brown Bag events are free informal mid-day learning sessions hosted at Tides. Friends, neighbors and colleagues are welcome. Visitors, please sign in at the front desk.

New in the Library: Voice of Witness Series

2011-08-29T14:25:00.000-07:00

In our media-saturated world of the twenty-first century, where so many things clamor for the public's fractured attention and for a place on the agenda, some voices are lost. Some of them lack the resources and abilities to compete in the information marketplace or are simply drowned out by the trivial noise of entertainment and vacant commercialism. Some voices are actively suppressed by more powerful interests. Who decides what stories we do get to hear? And then how do we decide what we listen to? What are the effects of such silencing and ignorance for our understanding of the practice of justice and power in the world?

Engaging with such questions, and others even more basic to our humanity, is Voice of Witness. Founded by author Dave Eggers and human rights scholar Lola Vollen, Voice of Witness is an ongoing nonprofit series of books that collects the firsthand accounts of men and women affected by contemporary human rights abuses and social injustice in the USA and around the world. The scope of the project involves numerous editors, translators, historians, activists, academics, novelists, and volunteers who have undertaken to render interviews with these individuals into story. They are books where the dispossessed are given space for their own words.

In doing so, the books provide a perspective on complex situations unique from what can be found in the immediate reports of journalism, the dry facts of statistics, or the brief testaments of social media. It is a perspective from within crisis and out of the voices of the people whose lives have been the most seriously disrupted, whose humanity has been the most severely violated. They are people in failed states beset by violence and brutal outrages of power, such as Sudan, Burma, and Zimbabwe. They are people subjected to the failures of states, namely the United States in the series so far, with books focusing on the wrongly incarcerated, the victims of Hurricane Katrina, the precarious existence of undocumented immigrants, and the governmental overreach of the War on Terror. A constant theme is that these are men and women who have been displaced – from their homes and communities, from the lives they thought they would and should have. The displacement comes from violence, from social barriers, from absurd systems of laws, from the petty self-interest of the powerful, and from the suspension of rationality. It leads to terror, victimization, exploitation, and even enslavement.

Their stories are not delivered simply as accounts of victimhood to be pitied, however. They do depict lives circumscribed by anxiety, where people are forced to make difficult choices and take precarious risks. They are accounts that necessarily focus on the habits and strategies of perception needed to survive in these worlds on the edges of the world we live in. But they are not limited to these things. The storytellers have stories of full individual lives, and the makers of these books want you to know them. For in so doing, they hope to present the greatest challenges possible. As author Brian Chikwava writes in the forward to Hope Deferred: Narratives of Zimbabwean Lives, “The disconnect between the stories told by a state and those told by its citizens at best obscures the moral choices that must be made, and some states may well prefer it that way.” The stories cannot hope to represent the full experience of a population who has suffered, but they do not need to in order to raise complicating questions.

Voice of Witness includes in its mission statement this goal of raising awareness, and much can be learned from the books. The editors do not pretend, though, that all will be well if we listen, these being stories about the world. Another recurring theme of the collections is how the act of storytelling is in itself an empowering and humanizing one for these storytellers who have been abused and ignored. Through that act, they can reclaim their individuality and their human dignity against those who would deny their voices. It is the chance to locate lives displaced. Through their stories, they tell themselves back into the world.

The following books from the series were kindly donated to the library by Voice of Witness, where they are available for check out. Learn more about Voice of Witness, the project, and the books at www.voiceofwitness.org.

Lola Vollen & Dave Eggers, eds. Surviving justice: America's wrongfully convicted and exonerated. (2008)

Lola Vollen & Chris Ying, eds. Voices from the storm: The people of New Orleans on Hurricane Katrina and its aftermath. (2008)

Peter Orner, ed. Underground America: Narratives of undocumented lives. (2008)

Peter Orner & Sandra Hernández, eds. En las sombras de Estados Unidos: Narraciones de inmigrantes indocumentados. (2009)

Craig Walzer, ed. Out of Exile: Narratives from the abducted and displaced people of Sudan. (2009)

Peter Orner & Annie Holms, eds. Hope deferred: Narratives of Zimbabwean lives. (2010)

Maggie Lemere & Zoë West. Nowhere to be home: Narratives from survivors of Burma's military regime. (2011)

Alia Malek, ed. Patriot acts: Narratives of post-9/11 injustice. (2010)

Thoreau Center Brown Bag: Foot Soldiers of Change—The Battle Against Maternal Mortality in the Sierra Madre

2011-08-26T11:24:00.000-07:00

Date: Wednesday, August 31, 2011

Time: 12:30-1:30pm

Location: Pacific Room at Tides, Thoreau Center for Sustainability
1014 Torney Ave
San Francisco, CA

Presenters: Arlen Samen, Founder, One Heart World-Wide and Carlos Tapadera Concheño, One Heart World-Wide Country Coordinator

One Heart World-Wide is dedicated to saving the lives of women and children. Founded in 1998 by Arlene Samen, the organization works with disadvantaged communities to raise awareness and teach good birth practices. In the 10 years that the One Heart program was active in Tibet, the number of women who died in childbirth annually dropped from thirty-three to zero. One Heart recently relocated its corporate offices to San Francisco and manages close to $1 million in donations to support maternal-child health programs Mexico and Nepal.

About the presenters:

Arlene Samen has been a Nurse Practitioner in Maternal Child Health for 31 years. In 2004, she left behind her clinical practice to dedicate her life to serving pregnant women living in the most vulnerable conditions in the developing world. In 1997, she met His Holiness the Dalia Lama who asked her to go to Tibet to help the women and children who were dying in childbirth. Arlene spent the next ten years in Tibet working side by side with the local government to bring a safe motherhood project to women who were poor, uneducated, and living in the most remote region on the roof of the world. She brought the "Network of Safety" model to women who face death in order to give life. In 2009, One Heart World-Wide took its life saving model to remote villages in Nepal and to the bottom of the Copper Canyon in Mexico. She has received many awards, including being an "Unsung Herero of Compassion," a CNN Hero and a Rainer Arnhold Fellow with the Mulago Foundation.

Carlos Tapadera Concheño is One Heart World-Wide's in Country Coordinator. He comes to the United States for the first time to share his experiences working with his community. He trains his fellow Tarahumara in the Copper Canyon to raise awareness, teach good practices, train local health care providers and distribute Clean-and-Safe Birth Kits.

Please RSVP to Bruce DeMartini if attending

Brown Bag events are free informal mid-day learning sessions hosted at Tides. Friends, neighbors and colleagues are welcome. Visitors, please sign in at the front desk.

Thoreau Gallery Opening - 30 Years Behind the Easel

2011-08-16T10:07:00.000-07:00

An Angel Passes, by Cynda Valle

A Celebration of Our New Exhibition - 30 Years Behind the Easel
Thoreau Gallery, Thoreau Center for Sustainability
Thursday, August 18, 5:00 to 7:00
Exhibition dates: August 18 through October 14, 2011

30 Years Behind the Easel is an exhibition by two local artists: Cynda Valle and Robert Brokl. The show documents the evolution of their craft over time and the persistence of their vision as they grapple with day jobs, the emotional needs of family, and the many ways life, in general, conspires to prevent most artists from making art all together. As economic hardships persist, nonprofits and agencies that might otherwise support artists instead strive to plug the rent “safety net,” and governmental programs like the New Deal's WPA are lacking. Artistic sustainability over time is a challenging business — and noteworthy when it succeeds. Cynda and Bob believe having fellow travellers helps.

Garden II, by Robert Brokl

Thoreau Center Brown Bag: Top Ten Fundraising Tips

2011-08-16T10:02:00.000-07:00

Presenter: Darian Rodriguez Heyman, Editor of Nonprofit Management 101
Wednesday, August 17, 12:30 to 2:00
Pacific Room at Tides
RSVP to bruce@thoreau.org

You dream of a strong, vibrant community and have a sense of how to make it real. But how can you rally the funds you need to connect your vision to action? Join the former Craigslist Foundation E.D. and Editor of the newly released handbook, Nonprofit Management 101: A Complete and Practical Guide for Leaders and Professionals, as he shares practical, tactical solutions from his new book that can and will help you get dollars in the door. Darian will provide concrete tips and tools for individual giving, foundation grants, corporate sponsorship, earned income, and online and peer-to-peer campaigns, plus point you in the right direction for more information.
After five years of service, Darian recently stepped down as Executive Director of Craigslist Foundation. While there, he helped launch Nonprofit Boot Camp, the Environmental Nonprofit Network, and the Next Generation Leadership Forum. His new book, Nonprofit Management 101: A Complete and Practical Guide for Leaders and Professionals, includes practical tips and tools from 50 recognized experts across 35 topics, and he recently launched a nationwide Social Media for Nonprofits conference series and his Advancing Social Impact blog on Skoll Foundation’s Social Edge. Heyman previously served as a Commissioner for the Environment for the City and County of San Francisco and currently is a public speaker who provides strategy, messaging, and fundraising consulting for nonprofits and green economy organizations.

Some weekly links for July 22

2011-07-22T13:12:00.000-07:00

A few studies and reports of import that caught my eye this week:

The Institute for Higher Education Leadership and Policy at California State University, Sacramento issued a report this week entitled Consequences of Neglect: Performance Trends in California Higher Education which finds those trends to be in decline. Using national data, "[r]esearchers analyzed California’s postsecondary performance in the categories of preparation, participation, affordability, completion, benefits and finance, and found that the state’s performance is average, at best, and trending downward."

Among the findings:

California ranks last in total funding per student
Tuition and fee increases exceed the national average rate
Each successively younger working-age generation is less highly educated that the one before.
Black and Latino students continue to lag behind other racial/ethnic groups in levels of college preparation, participation, and completion

A new study from the Natural Resources Defense Council and Physicians for Social Responsibility entitled Toxic Power: How Power Plants Contaminate Our Air and States rates the states with the most toxic air pollution from coal- and oil-fired power plants based on publicly-available data from the Environmental Protection Agency's Toxics Release Inventory, a database of emmissions reported by industrial sources. Findings include that power plants are the single largest industrial source of toxic air pollution in 28 states and the District of Columbia. For the full methodology and to find out how your state ranks, see the analysis at: http://docs.nrdc.org/air/air_11072001.asp.

The Environmental Working Group released a study of the varying health, climate, and other environmental impacts of meat and dairy consumption: Meat Eater's Guide to Climate Change and Health. which finds that "that if every person in the US refrained from eating meat or cheese one day a week every week for a year the reduction in emissions would be equivalent of taking 7.6 million cars off the road." Their interactive website includes a handy chart for comparing the consumption of different foods with miles driven. On methodology:

To assess climate impacts, EWG partnered with CleanMetrics, an environmental analysis and consulting firm, to do lifecycle assessments of 20 popular types of meat (including fish), dairy and vegetable proteins. Unlike most studies that focus just on production emissions, our assessment calculates the full “cradle-to-grave” carbon footprint of each food item based on the greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions generated before and after the food leaves the farm – from the pesticides and fertilizer used to grow animal feed all the way through the grazing, animal raising, processing, transportation, cooking and, finally, disposal of unused food. The analysis also includes the emissions from producing food that never gets eaten, either because it’s left on the plate or because of spoilage or fat and moisture loss during cooking. About 20 percent of edible meat just gets thrown out.

And a new study published in the July 15 issued of the journal Science from a group of twenty-four researchers - Trophic Downgrading of Planet Earth - details how the decline of large apex predators, such as wolves, lions, and sharks, represents one of the most powerful impacts of humanity on the world's ecosystems, as their removal leads to a wider range of ecological disruptions through the processes known as trophic cascades. From the abstract:

Until recently, large apex consumers were ubiquitous across the globe and had been for millions of years. The loss of these animals may be humankind’s most pervasive influence on nature. Although such losses are widely viewed as an ethical and aesthetic problem, recent research reveals extensive cascading effects of their disappearance in marine, terrestrial, and freshwater ecosystems worldwide. This empirical work supports long-standing theory about the role of top-down forcing in ecosystems but also highlights the unanticipated impacts of trophic cascades on processes as diverse as the dynamics of disease, wildfire, carbon sequestration, invasive species, and biogeochemical cycles. These findings emphasize the urgent need for interdisciplinary research to forecast the effects of trophic downgrading on process, function, and resilience in global ecosystems.

Thoreau Center Brown Bag: The End of Growth & the Birth of ???

2011-07-19T11:09:00.000-07:00

Presenter: Author Richard Heinberg

Thursday, July 28, 12:30 to 1:30

Pacific Room at Tides, Thoreau Center for Sustainability.

Join us for a discussion with Richard Heinberg, author of The End of Growth: Adapting to Our New Economic Reality and Senior Fellow of Post Carbon Institute. We all take economic growth for granted...until it falters, as it did in 2008. But what if the recent meltdown was not just an interruption in the story of continuous economic expansion, but the first intimation of the end of growth as we know it? Will a convergence of financial disruption, resource depletion, and environmental impacts create "Business as Unusual?" We know that traditional economic growth models do not reconcile the best measures of human health and welfare. So how can social change advocates and philanthropists prepare for -- and thrive in -- a future that is not based on assumptions of cheap energy, reckless consumption, and financial speculation? How can we decouple qualitative progress — in education, arts, health, well-being, freedom, happiness -- from ever-expanding consumption and growth?

Thoreau Center Brown Bag: EQUAL Health Network

2011-07-15T11:36:00.000-07:00

Health Care Reform - Why Social Justice is the Best Medicine
Presenter: Joe Brenner, EQUAL Health Network of the Center for Policy Analysis
Wednesday, July 20 - 12:30PM to 1:30PM
Pacific Room at Tides, Thoreau Center For Sustainability

Joe Brenner of the EQUAL Health Network/Center for Policy Analysis will discuss the latest developments on health care reform and how they affect access to quality, affordable health care in our communities, from Vermont to California.

The EQUAL Health Network brings together partners from public health, women’s health and the public to advocate for Equitable, Quality, Universal, Affordable – EQUAL – health care.

Update: This event has been cancelled and will be rescheduled for a later date. Stay tuned.

Brown Bag events are free informal mid-day learning sessions hosted at Tides. Friends, neighbors and colleagues are welcome. Visitors, please sign in at the front desk.

Some weekly links for July 8

2011-07-08T14:36:00.001-07:00

This week's review is very United Nations heavy, with reports on women, energy, technology, and development:

From the newest UN agency - UN Women - The 2011 Progress of the World's Women: In Pursuit of Justice report is a survey of women's legal rights and access to justice worldwide. In examining legislation and its implementation, the agency finds that despite expansion of women's legal rights in recent years, real progress on equality and justice has been elusive. Details of the report include which countries have passed special legislation on women's political rights, economic opportunities, and reproductive health and rights. It looks at which countries have laws against domestic violence, sexual harassment, and marital rape. It also provides data on development indicators related to women, and looks country-by-country at women's participation in politics.

The UN Environment Programme, in conjunction with the Frankfurt School of Finance and Bloomberg New Enerby Finance, issued its latest annual report on renewable energy investment trends: Global Trends in Renewable Energy Investment 2011. It shows a 32% increase in green energy investments worldwide - a total of US$211 billion in renewables, or about one-third more than the US$160 billion invested in 2009, and a 540 percent rise since 2004. Developing economies overtook developed ones for the first time in new investment on utility scale projects, with China being the world leader at US$48.9 billion of new investment. Another significant development was the growth of government research and development 120 percent to over US$5 billion worldwide. Additional drops in costs for solar, wind and other renewable technologies are expected, the report says, presenting a growing threat to the dominance of fossil-fuel generation sources in the next few years.

While in the United States, according to the latest issue of the Monthly Energy Review by the U.S. Energy Information Administration, domestic production of renewable energy is now greater than that of nuclear power. During the first quarter of 2011, energy production from renewable energy sources in 2011 was 5.65 percent more than that from nuclear power, which has remained largely unchanged in recent years. Production of renewable energy has increased by 15.07 percent compared to the first quarter of 2010.

Also from the UN, the Department of Economic and Social Affiars of the United Nation published its World Economic and Social Survey 2011: The Great Green Transformation which "calls for a complete transformation of technology on which human economic activity is based" in order to combat poverty while protecting the environment:

The "great green technological transformation" that the Survey champions will have to be completed in the next 30 to 40 years, that is, twice as fast as it took to accomplish previous major technological transitions. Because of the limited time frame, Governments will need to play a much more active and stimulating role to accelerate the green energy transformation. The Survey details new policy directions and major investments in developing and scaling up clean energy technologies, sustainable farming and forestry techniques, climate proofing of infrastructure and reducing non-bio-degradable waste production.

Some weekly links for July 1

2011-07-01T14:05:00.000-07:00

From Costs of War website

Here is this week's highly selective selection of some significant reports, investigations, and studies I encountered this week in the news:

The National Climatic Data Center of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration released State of the Climate in 2010, this year's update on 41 worldwide climate indicators, significant climate events, and other climate information. Compiled by 368 scientists from 45 countries, it shows 2010 to be one of the two warmest years on record and an increase in carbon dioxide of 2.60 ppm, more than the average annual increase seen from 1980-2010. Among other findings, global average temperature in 2010 was warmer than the 20th century average for every month in the past quarter century, Arctic sea ice continued to decline, average global sea surface temperature was the third warmest on record, and sea levels continued to rise. The online supplement includes additional data.

San Francisco was named the greenest city in North America in a study by the Economist Intelligence Unit and commissioned by Siemens as part of its ongoing Green City Index project. The report rates 27 cities selected to represent a number of the most populous metropolitan areas in the United States and Canada, and it is based on 31 indicators in nine categories intended to measure "their commitment to reducing their future environmental impacts": CO2 emissions reduction, energy, land use, buildings, transport, water, waste, air, and environmental governance. San Francisco has the top overall score and is in the five top scorers in six categories: air, energy, buildings, transport, waste, and water.

The Center for Park Research of the National Parks Conservation Association released The State of America's National Parks, "the culmination of ten years of research on the condition of natural and cultural resources within America's national parks." The assessment reports on long-standing and more recent threats, including unchecked human development, invasive species, climate change, the failure to protect or catalog millions of artifacts, and a general insufficiency of funding to maintain and to interpret park resources. Also highlighting some success stories within the system, it suggests several recommendations for restoring health.

The National Resources Defense Council released Testing the Waters 2011, its annual survey of water quality and public notification at U.S. beaches. Its findings "confirm that our nation’s beaches continue to experience significant water pollution that puts swimmers and local economies at risk." NRDC recommendations focus on addressing the sources of beachwater pollution, particularly contamination carried by stormwater runoff. State-by-state results are available on the website.

And the Costs of War report of the Eisenhower Study Group at Brown University's Watson Institute for International Studies is a new effort to document and assess as comprehensively as possible the effects of ten years of the United States' wars in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Pakistan. The goal of the project has been to bring to light and to develop a broad understanding of the human, economic, social, and political costs of these conflicts in the U.S. and abroad.

Among the findings:

Putting together the conservative numbers of war dead, in uniform and out, brings the total to 225,000.
The current number of war refugees and displaced persons -- 7,800,000 -- is equivalent to all of the people of Connecticut and Kentucky fleeing their homes.
The wars have been accompanied by erosions in civil liberties at home and human rights violations abroad.
Conservatively estimated, the war bills already paid and obligated to be paid are $3.2 trillion in constant dollars. A more reasonable estimate puts the number at nearly $4 trillion.
Afghanistan and Iraq both continue to rank low in global rankings of political freedom, with warlords continuing to hold power in Afghanistan with US support, and Iraqi communities more segregated today than before by gender and ethnicity as a result of the war.
Serious and compelling alternatives to war were scarcely considered in the aftermath of 9/11 or in the discussion about war against Iraq. Some of those alternatives are still available to the U.S.

Follow-up to Desmond D'Sa visit

2011-06-30T14:17:00.000-07:00

Last Thursday's Thoreau Center Brown Bag speaker was Desmond D'Sa, the chairperson of the South Durban Community Environmental Alliance (SDCEA) in South Africa who was here to talk about the work of the alliance and its plans for the future. His visit to the San Francisco Bay Area was hosted by the International Development Exchange (IDEX), which promotes sustainable solutions to poverty by providing long-term grants and access to resources to locally run organizations in Africa, Asia, and Latin America. D'Sa helped found the SDCEA in 1995 as an alliance of community organizations addressing the environmental and human rights issues caused by the largely unrestricted expansion in Durban of industry and oil refineries. Through vigilant pollution monitoring, information sharing, education, community empowerment, and government lobbying, the SDCEA has had numerous success over the years, although major problems remain, namely climate change and the need for grassroots mobilization to strengthen the movement for climate justice. For a full rundown of his visit to the area, see this report prepared by IDEX.

What I read this week

2011-06-24T13:50:00.000-07:00

Here are some reports, investigations, and other long form pieces that I encountered this week, which I'm sharing here just in case you missed them:

The International Programme on the State of the Ocean (IPSO), in partnership with the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), released a preliminary report summarizing the conclusions and recommendations from an interdisciplinary workshop of leading marine scientists held earlier this year. Their assessment of the state of the oceans and marine life is a grave one with increasing chances of extinctions as a result of overexploitation, habitat loss, and climate change. Their proposed solutions emphasize urgent action to realize CO2 emission cuts, improved fishery management, and development of marine reserves. Look for the full report later this year. (http://www.stateoftheocean.org/index.cfm)

A yearlong investigation by the Associated Press (AP) on federal oversight and the nuclear power industry finds that the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission has repeatedly weakened or not enforced existing standards in order to keep aging reactors in operation - “Failed cables. Busted seals. Broken nozzles, clogged screens, cracked concrete, dented containers, corroded metals and rusty underground pipes — all of these and thousands of other problems linked to aging were uncovered in the AP's yearlong investigation. And all of them could escalate dangers in the event of an accident.” (http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20110620/ap_on_re_us/us_aging_nukes_part1)

Meanwhile, a report from Ernst & Young commissioned by the Solar Trade Association predicts that prices of solar panels by 2013 will fall to half of what they cost in 2009, suggesting that large-scale installations could by cost-competitive with fossil fuels earlier than had been assumed. (http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2011/jun/20/solar-panel-price-drop)

Not surprisingly, an internal investigation by Transocean finds that BP is largely responsible for the Deepwater Horizon disaster last year. (http://www.deepwater.com/fw/main/Public-Report-1076.html)

In food systems, a new report from Oxfam International, Living on a Spike, examines the impact of the rise in global food prices through 2010 and 2011 on the people most directly affected by them. Speaking to people in Indonesia, Bangladesh, Kenya, and Zambia, the research shows how these prices rises have worked to perpetuate inequality and how people respond not simply by consuming less but also through political activity. (http://www.oxfam.org/en/grow/policy/living-spike)

Another report on food systems, Appetite for Change, published by the think tank SustainAbility, is critical of the food industry for its lack of vision and failures to meet its own goals on the sustainability front. It calls for drastic changes in the way the industry, as well as consumers and governments, mange the world's food supply. (http://www.sustainability.com/library/appetite-for-change)

The United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) released the The State of World's Midwifery 2011: Delivering Health, Saving Lives. Based on data from 58 countries in all regions of the world, its analysis finds that the world lacks some 350,000 skilled midwives -- 112,000 in the neediest 38 countries surveyed -- to fully meet the needs of women around the world. The report explores a range of issues related to building up this key health workforce, and the website presents additional information including detailed country profiles. (http://www.unfpa.org/sowmy/report/home.html)

Closer to home, the Foundation Center released Key Facts on Bay Area Foundations, showing that grantmakers in the nine-county Bay Area awarded $3.1 billion in 2009, a 77% increase over 2000, with priority going to education and the environment. The assets of these foundations rose 34% during the same ten years, despite a steep decline in 2008. (http://foundationcenter.org/gainknowledge/research/pdf/keyfacts_bayarea_2011.pdf)

And here at the Thoreau Center:

The International Forum on Globalization published Nuclear Roulette: The Case Against a “Nuclear Revolution” - “a rigorously researched and compelling rebuttal to every single misleading claim the nuclear industry and government boosters have made about its viability, sustainability, and safety.” (http://www.ifg.org/news.htm#nuke)

The Social Venture Network announced the 2011 SVN Innovation Award finalists, recognizing the most promising social ventures and innovative entrepreneurs working to create a more sustainable world. Lots of interesting ideas there. (http://www.svn.org/index.cfm?pageId=1130)

And Tides launched their 35th Anniversary Poster Design Contest and reports on their first Tides Learning Community event, Harvest of Empire: Community Briefing on Immigration, held at Demos in New York City in May. Also available as a podcast. (http://blog.tides.org/2011/06/20/listen-harvest-of-empire/)

Thoreau Center Brown Bag - Rights-Based Approach to Environmental Justice

2011-06-20T13:17:00.000-07:00

Presenter: Desmond D’Sa
Wednesday, June 22, 12:30P to 1:30P
Pacific Room at Tides, Thoreau Center for Sustainability

The South Durban Community Environmental Alliance (SDCEA) is organizing across the historic racial divisions of its communities to speak out for environmental justice at local, national, and international levels. Begun in 1995, SDCEA is a democratic coalition of members of communities who have come together to bring higher environmental standards to the industries and communities that cohabit South Durban.

SDCEA takes a rights-based approach to environmental justice and works to empower community members, especially women and youth, to engage in environmental issues and fight against man-made climate threats.

Desmond is currently the SDCEA Coordinator, and a coordinator of the Right2KNOW Campaign, a national campaign against the draft secrecy laws such as the Protection of Information Bill and the Media Appeals Tribunal. Desmond is a tireless campaigner and also serves as the Coordinator for the Durban Social Forum and sits on a number of activist boards and church organizations. As a key organizer and leader of the South African climate justice movement, Desmond is uniquely positioned as a spokesperson for grassroots organizing currently taking place in Durban to protest the upcoming UN summit on climate justice, in November/December 2011.

Brown Bag Events are free informal mid-day learning sessions hosted at Tides. Friends, neighbors and colleagues are welcome. Visitors, please sign in at the front desk.

Contact Us | Transit Directions | Newsletter

New Exhibitions in Thoreau Center Galleries, June 16 through August 12

2011-06-16T08:10:00.000-07:00

Exhibition dates: June 16 through August 12, 2011
Opening reception: Thursday, June 16, 5:00PM to 7:00PM

The two new exhibits are:

Constructs

In the Seed Gallery of Photograph Art, photographer Tony Maridakis displays his nocturnal images drawn from iconic structures such as the Presidio Battery West and DeYoung Museum.

synthesia natura

Bay Area artists Cathy Richardson and Anneliesse Vobis will construct a science lab in the Thoreau Gallery. Their exhibition explores fascinating forms of calcification as a result of environmental degradation, expressed through books, assemblage, digital media, and video.

Library Closed June 10 to June 17

2011-06-09T12:49:00.000-07:00

The library will be closed June 10 through June 17, so that the librarian can go to the annual Special Librarian Association conference in Philadelphia to tell other librarians how important sustainability is and to learn how to leverage taxonomies for greater effectiveness. We apologize for any inconvenience. If you have items due during that week, just return them when the library reopens. If you have items due before that week, please think about returning them when the library reopens as well. If you do need to get into the library, contact Bruce DeMartini. Meanwhile, here are a few items we have added to the collection recently, some of which you might recognize because their authors spoke here at the center recently. If interested, you have until 3:00 pm this afternoon to check them out. Have a sustainable week!

Jay Walljasper and On the Commons. All That We Share: A Field Guide to the Commons. (2010)

Veteran journalist Jay Walljasper is a fellow at and online editor for On the Commons, a commons movement strategy center connecting organizations, community leaders, and individuals with new ideas, practical solutions, and each other to create change. Their collection is an introduction to the broad range of ideas and activities of individuals and groups highlighting the importance of understanding and strengthening protection of the commons - those lands, waters, and other resources that belong to everyone. With success stories from communities around the world, it demonstrates how new thinking about our shared values relates to the economic, political, and cultural problems facing the world today.

Mark Brilliant. The Color of America Has Changed: How Racial Diversity Shaped Civil Rights Reform in California, 1941-1978. (2010)

UC Berkeley Professor Mark Brilliant examines California's history to illustrate how the civil rights era was a truly multiracial phenomenon that was shaped and complicated by the presence of not only blacks and whites, but also Mexican Americans, Japanese Americans, and Chinese Americans, among others. Focusing on a wide range of legal and legislative initiatives pursued by a diverse group of reformers, Brilliant analyzes the cases that dismantled the state's multiracial system of legalized segregation in the 1940s and subsequent battles over fair employment practices, old-age pensions for long-term resident non-citizens, fair housing, agricultural labor, school desegregation, and bilingual education. While civil rights historians have long focused on the Southern experience and recently have turned their attention to the North, this work advances a new understanding of civil rights history that more fully reflects the racial diversity of America.

Rebecca Solnit. Infinite City: A San Francisco Atlas. (2010)

Learn to see the city in a new way in this atlas "of principal landmarks and treasures of the region, including butterfly species, queer sites, murders, coffee, water, power, contingent identities, social types, libraries, early-morning bars, the lost labor landscape of 1960, and the monumental Monterey cypresses of San Francisco; of indigenous place names, women environmentalists, toxins, food sites, right-wing organizations, World War II shipyards, Zen Buddhist centers, salmon migration, and musical histories of the Bay area; with details of cultural geographies of the Mission District, the Fillmore's culture wars and metamorphoses, the racial discourses of United Nations Plaza, the South of Market world that redevelopment devoured, and other significant phenomena, vanished and extant."

Lawrence Ferlinghetti. A Coney Island of the Mind. (1958)

From the co-founder of City Lights Booksellers and Publishers, this collection originally published in 1958 continues to be one of the most popular books of poetry in the United States, with more than a million copies in print. Unconventionality, satiric bite, and lyric beauty illuminate themes that resonate today.

Thoreau Center Lunchtime Speaker: Mark Brilliant, UC Berkeley

2011-05-17T10:26:00.000-07:00

The Color-Line Problem

Presenter: Mark Brilliant, Professor of History, U.C. Berkeley

Thursday, May 19, 12:30P to 1:30P

Pacific Room at Tides, Thoreau Center for Sustainability, Presidio Building 1014

Join us for an engaging discussion about the history of race and civil rights reform in California. This talk presents an overview of Mark Brilliant's book, The Color of America Has Changed: How Racial Diversity Shaped Civil Rights Reform in California, 1941-1978.

The book taps California’s civil rights history to reveal how the Civil Rights Era was truly a nationwide and multiracial phenomenon. Brilliant examines how California’s multiple “race problems” shaped and complicated the multifaceted efforts of civil rights reformers. While civil rights historians have long set their sights on the South and, more recently, turned their attention to the North, advancing a “long civil rights movement” interpretation, The Color of America Has Changed calls for a new understanding of civil rights history that more fully reflects the racial diversity and accompanying civil rights complexity of America - a civil rights history that is as "wide" as it is "long." Mark Brilliant is Assistant Professor of History at UC Berkeley.

Events are free informal mid-day learning sessions hosted at Tides. Friends, neighbors and colleagues are welcome. Visitors, please sign in at the front desk.

Contact Us | Transit Directions | Newsletter