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Genetic Roulette
/ Jeffrey M. Smith
This has to be the best reference book on the dangers of GM foods that has so far been written. It includes nearly forty health risks of the food that Americans eat every day, and Smith shows why children are most at risk, how to avoid GM foods, how the biotechnology industry covers up negative research, and why GM crops are not needed to feed the world — a common justification by the industry. Genetic Roulette is so clear and comprehensive that it should be required reading in schools so that future generations can make steps to avoid the calamity that awaits us if we continue developing these dangerous foods. |
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Unnatural Harvest / Ingeborg Boyens
Boyens explores the issues of genetic engineering
in a book that is a good introduction to the world
of biotechnology and genetic engineering. In this book
she tells us how commercial concerns have produced
farming practices that are very different from those
that most of us would picture in our minds. |
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High and Mighty / Keith Bradsher
What a breath of fresh air to see a leading newspaper
journalist writing something against big business.
In High and Mighty, Keith Bradsher exposes the SUV
scam and how the big motor companies in the US have
conspired with the Bush government to prevent a tightening
on regulations regarding fuel efficiency and safety.
SUV's are classified as light trucks and so are allowed
to be a lot less ecologically friendly. This book is
particularly relevant now because other car manufacturers
around the world are foolishly ignoring the needs of
planet and moving into the SUV market. |
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The Little Earth Book / James Bruges
This may be a tiny book, readable in a single sitting,
but it is an absolutely fantastic introduction to environmental
issues and the problems in the world. Bruges covers
every aspect of why the world is in such a dire state,
devoting a couple of pages to each topic. His writing
is lucid, concise and backed up by loads of facts.
A must read and already into its forth edition. If
you read just one book on this page, let it be this
one. |
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The Lost Language of Plants / Stephen Harrod Buhner
A fascinating and frightening exposé of the effects of pharmaceutical medicines on the ecosystem. Today, we think of pollution as greenhouse gases, car exhausts and the black smoke coming out of industrial chimney stacks, without realizing that one of the most insidious types of pollution is the highly toxic pharmaceutical chemicals that anybody and everybody on medication is excreting into the environment. At the same time, we are reducing the complexity of ecosystems in favour of "convenient" monoculture, ignorant that Nature's complexity is absolutely essential for maintaining living systems. |
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Secret Teachings of Plants / Stephen Harrod Buhner
Sublime wisdom from one of the best writers around. Ancient and indigenous people have always insisted that their knowledge of plants and plant medicines are a result of direct communication with the plants themselves, rather than from a more logical process of trial and error. In fact, some herbal recipes are so complex in procedure that it would be difficult to imagine a process of trial and error could have produced them because get the recipe slightly wrong and the concoction is poisonous. Buhner's book shows us how to cultivate that direct connection with Nature by using our hearts rather than our heads. |
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Lords of the Harvest / David Charles
This is the story of the American chemical giant
Monsanto and their takeover of much of the world's
seed business and the massive European and American
backlash against the GMOs that they tried to sell to
the world. Charles presents a very balanced picture
of modern agribusiness, although he fails to take a
true stand against "frankenfoods". |
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Genetically Engineered Food / R. Cummins & B.
Lilliston
This is an important book to anybody who is interested
in biotechnology and food production. In it, the authors
weigh up the promises of new food technologies against
the risks that are being taken away from public awareness.
Included is information on what consumers can do to
protect themselves from becoming unwitting participants
in this heinous global experiment being undertaken
by the biotech multinationals. |
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Biotechnology Unzipped / Eric S. Grace
Written by a zoologist, this book is a fantastic
introduction to biotechnology. Grace writes as a scientist,
showing both the dangers and the promises that this
new technology can bring. His message is that there
are no simple genetic solutions to the problems that
we face, and he points out the huge danger of having
such a powerful technology being basically financially-led.
Outside of Ho's book, this is the best book on the
subject. |
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Gaia's Garden / Toby Hemenway
As a permaculture expert and an editor of The Permaculture
Activist, Hemenway shows how gardens can function as
ecosystems and describes how to put together an ecological
garden. His main focus is on "guilds", or groups
of plants function as a mini ecosystem that can provide
food for humans. If you are slightly afraid of scope
of Mollison's books on permaculture, this shows us
how to do it on a much smaller scale. |
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Genetic Engineering: Dream or Nightmare?
/ Mae-Wan Ho
Thank you Dr. Ho for writing a book that most biologists,
in the interest of maintaining their reputations and
lucrative research contracts, would not have the courage
the write. Genetic Engineering covers everything from
the bad science involved to a look at the values of
society that could allow such activity to take place.
As she says in her book: "We must act now if we
are to stop the dreams turning into nightmares, before
the critical genetic meltdown is reached." |
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Introduction to Permaculture / Bill
Mollison
If you want to read an introduction to permaculture,
then you can do no better than reading this one by
the co-founder of permaculture. Topics included: energy
efficient site analysis; planning and design methods;
house placement; design for temperate, dry-land and
tropical regions; urban permaculture garden layout;
land access and community funding systems; orchards
and home wood lots; how to influence microclimate;
and a large section on selected plant species. |
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Permaculture / Bill Mollison
One of the very best and most detailed books on
all aspects of permaculture which should be essential
reading for this book is for all students, landowners,
public-policy makers, and others interested in revolutionizing
modern farming and land use Dr. Mollison was a co-founder
of the entire permaculture movement, and his wisdom
and experience shines through in every page of this
book |
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A Green History of the World / Clive
Ponting
Clive Ponting is an academic who has tackled a
very large subject: world history from the perspective
of the environment. The result is a provocative and
illuminating book that illustrates how influential
the changing environment has been in the development
and demise of human civilizations. His central message
is that human beings prosper by exploiting the earth's
resources until those resources can no longer sustain
the society's population, which leads to the decline
and eventual collapse of that society. |
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The End of Oil
/ Paul Roberts
Billions of us around the world enjoy an unprecedented
standard of living based on oil. And each year our
appetite for this fuel increases, despite the fact
that we have already burned more than half of all
the easily available oil. What is going to happen
as the oil starts to run out in the next few decades,
and what will it mean to our daily lives? These are
some questions that Roberts eloquently tackles in
a book that examines a complex issue with clarity
and objectivity. This book will change your whole
perspective on an economy based on oil, and it may
even encourage you to buy a smaller car. |
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Gardening For The Future of The Earth
/ Shapiro & Harrison
If you want to change the world, you need to start
in your own back garden. The authors give invaluable
advice on saving seeds, maintaining plant diversity,
building soil, reusing water, biointensive raised beds
and gaining maximum productivity from a plot. Included
in the book are many practical examples and the advice
from several other different experts. But ultimately,
this is a grass roots solution to the current environmental
devastation; as Shapiro says in his book, "Gardeners
know a lot more about soil than laboratory scientists!" |
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Seeds of Deception
/ Jeffrey M. Smith
This excellent book was recently described by The
Ecologist as "possibly the best book on GM foods
yet written" (May 05) and it really is. Seeds
of Deception takes a difficult and complex subject — the
pollitical collusion, the industrial manipulation and
the manufactured "science" — and explains
it in a way that will have you shunning GM foods by
the end of it. This is a powerful book that should
be required reading in schools. Smith even has an hour-long
speech on his website at www.seedsofdeception.com which
introduces much of the material. The book also has
a forword by UK politician Michael Meacher. |
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The Sacred Balance / David Suzuki
This book offers one of the best introductions
to ecology and the interdependence of living systems
on this planet. Suzuki manages to combine facts, quotations
and even spiritual wisdom in book that retains scientific
credibility and non-scientific readability. Indeed,
the book itself is a perfect balance of these elements.
He also offers practical solutions that help to reduce
our impact on the environment. A very good book. |
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Principles of Ecological Design /
Nancy & John Todd
Biologist John Todd and environmental activist
Nancy Todd have written a book on how to integrate
agriculture and water supply into a green urban setting,
and they introduce many different technologies that
are able to purify wastewaters without chemicals. |
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The Secret Life of Plants / Peter
Tompkins & Christopher Bird
When this book was published back in 89 it one
of the first to open up the world of subtle energies
and plant consciousness to the West. As with Secrets
of the Soil this book brings together a diversity of
subjects from ESP and mind-over-matter to hynopsis
and extra-terrestial plant seeds. A joy to read. |
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Secrets Of The Soil / Peter Tompkins & Christopher
Bird
The title sounds like something that would only
interest a hard-core permaculturalist or commune hippy,
but it is actually one of those books whose with a
remarkably broad scope, bringing together everything
from biodynamic agriculture to nature spirits. This
book brings the real hope of a bright future for our
current destructive farming practices. True ecology
has to be more than just another mechanism (albeit
a green one) and this book certainly puts ecology within
a much larger spiritual perspective. |
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The Future of Life / Edward O. Wilson
Edward Wilson is a Harvard naturalist and he has
written an intelligent and balanced book on the environmental
crisis that we are now facing. Wilson argues that diversity
is the key to maintaining the complex web of life and
he gives actual economic value to maintaining the remaining
ecological integrity. For example for just a quarter
of what the US spends on its military every year, Wilson
shows that we could save the world. (He also demonstrates
how each American is being subsidized $2000 per annum
by the environment.) A very open-minded and informed
book. |
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© EnergyGrid Magazine |
