Green Reads
Green Reads are book reviews by Green House Think Tank which reflect on work relevant to green politics.
Burning Up; A Global History of Fossil Fuel Consumption
Since 1950 we have consumed vastly more fossil fuels than in the whole of human history before that. Piriani's book is a detailed account of the history of fossil fuel consumption and how fossil fuel consumption is embedded into our economic social systems
Oryx and Crake, The Year of the Flood, MaddAddam
Anne Chapman reviews this trilogy of novels by Margaret Atwood which are set in the future after climate change has really hit us. It is not a far distant future: at one point we learn that it is the twenty-first century
There Is No Planet B: A Handbook for the Make or Break Years
This book is more than about climate change. Berners-Lee also mentions the biodiversity crisis, ocean acidification and plastics, to which I would add the global dispersal of man-made synthetic chemicals – the invisible counterpart of the plastics issue.
The Human Planet: How We Created the Anthropocene
This excellent book sets out how human history has entered a new period: the Anthropocene, in which humans are a key factor shaping the planet. This is not just a new period in human history, but a new period in the Earth’s history.
Why Women will Save the Planet
The book is a collection of submissions by 32 women (including Lyla Mehta, a member of Green House’s Advisory Group) and 1 man who presumably, have all been asked for their thoughts on why women will save the planet. However, in my view that's not always the question their submissions have answered
Rethinking the Economics of Land and Housing
This book examines the role of housing in the contemporary economy – one that it characterises as ‘residential capitalism’. How we got here is explained by historical accounts of land ownership, economic thought relating to land, UK housing supply and tenure, and mortgage finance.
Will Big Business Destroy Our Planet?
John Foster's review of 'Will Big Business Destroy Our Planet?' by Peter Dauvergne
Viking Economics – How the Scandinavians Got it Right and How We Can, Too
The book emphasizes how Nordic welfare systems, pensions and healthcare give people freedom: there are more start up businesses per capita in Norway and Denmark than in the US, for example as people have the freedom to take the risk of setting up their own business.
Escaping Growth Dependency
This report from Positive Money is a clear exposition of the factors which drive governments to pursue economic growth despite this being ecologically unsustainable. The focus is on how current system creates high levels of debt, which are only manageable if there is economic growth
Meat, a Benign Extravagance
Fairlie brings several decades of practical experience of farming, a critical quantitative approach and whole systems thinking. He does not defend our current industrialised systems of livestock farming and he is clear that, collectively, we need to eat less meat
The Production of Money Ann Pettifor
There is a limited supply of natural resources, human creativity and skills, but not of money. Pettifor takes economic ideas from Keynes and Polanyi.