Green Reads
Green Reads are book reviews by Green House Think Tank which reflect on work relevant to green politics.
The Ministry of the Future
Prashant Vaze's review of Kim Stanley Robinson's novel about an organisation, established under the Paris Agreement, whose mission is to advocate for the world's future generations of citizens as if their rights are as valid as the present generation's
Toxic Legacy, How the weedkiller glyphosate is destroying our health and the environment
Glyphosate is a very widely used general weed killer. Much of the public discussion about its safety is around whether it causes cancer. But Stephanie Seneff's book highlights all the other ways that glyphosate can damage our health.
The Climate Majority: Apathy and Action in the Age of Nationalism
John Foster's review of Leo Barasi's book examining 'the swings'- people who accept climate change but are apathetic towards acting to mitigate it.
A Small Farm Future
Chris Smaje argues that the best future we can now hope for is a small farm future (as opposed to the increasingly big farm present), in which many more people than now are involved in food production, mostly on privately-owned small-holdings – realising the old demand for ‘three acres and a cow’.
Falter: Has the Human Game Begun to Play Itself Out?
John Foster's review of Bill McKibben's book examining the possibility of the ending of 'the human game' and the declining significance of humans in the face of rising AI.
Deep Adaptation: Navigating the Realities of Climate Chaos
'Deep Adaptation' (2021), highlights the dangers of trying to cover too many bases. Deep Adaptation serves to illustrate the deep truth of our times: that, desperate as our plight may appear, hopeful adaptation however characterised cannot be of the self to an inevitably collapsing world
Parents For A Future
Much of the book addresses a problem much discussed in environmental philosophy, which is why we should care about what happens in the future, particularly the distant future when we will be long dead. Read’s answer is simply that the future matters to us because we love our children
Post Growth: Life After Capitalism
Life After Capitalism answers the question: what should be society’s focus if we shake off our obsession with GDP growth? It draws on Jackson’s recent role as director of the inter-disciplinary Centre for the Understanding Sustainable Prosperity and plucks ideas from many disciplines
Food in a Changing Climate
Food in a Changing Climate is part of a series called SocietyNow. Books in this series are intended to be ‘short, informed books, explaining why our world is the way it is, now’ and that make ‘the best of academic expertise accessible to wider audience’
Preparing for the Improbable
An extended review by John Foster of Extinction Rebellion: Insights from the Inside, Rupert Read and Samuel Alexander (Simplicity Institute, 2020). Corona, Climate, Chronic Emergency: War Communism in the Twenty-First Century, Andreas Malm (Verso, 2020)
English Pastoral: An Inheritance
James Rebank's book is a personally written memoir, examining Nostalgia, focussed on how his grandfather farmed; Progress, the attempts Rebanks and his father made to try to ‘keep up’ with modernising farms; and Utopia, about how he is trying to farm now and pass on knowledge to his children
Less is More: How Degrowth Will Save the World
According to the degrowth movement, a global economy that uses less materials and energy, respects ecological boundaries and thrives, is possible. Jason Hickel, argues that we must share what we have fairly, organize our economy in balance with nature, and abolish our obsession with economic growth