New Books - May

New Books - May 2010

You've watched the video, you've told all of your friends and family members to watch the video, now you can read the book - The Story of Stuff by Annie Leonard with Ariane Conrad. Leonard elaborates on her previous work to examine in greater depth the nature of our current patterns of production and consumption that are based on a belief in perpetual economic growth, and the critical challenges this system presents to the future of the global environment. Drawing on extensive research and on her personal experiences visiting the places around the world where "Stuff" is made and the dumps where it ends up, she illustrates the enormous and often hidden costs involved in the stages of today's material economy: extraction, production, distribution, consumption, and disposal. She also details more signs of hope and examples of solutions, showing the practical ways people are working to make a safe, fair, and sustainable material economies at the local, national, and international levels.

Also...

Elizabeth Grossman. Chasing Molecules: Poisonous Products, Human Health, and the Promise of Green Chemistry. (2009)

Journalist Elizabeth Grossman (author of High Tech Trash) reports on the weak regulation of synthetic chemical materials and explains how they spread through our bodies and our environment thousands of miles from their sources with still unknown long-term effects. Her work illustrates the alternative potential for new developments in green chemistry to revolutionize the materials we make in order to bring about a healthier world.

Adam Kahane. Power and Love: A Theory and Practice of Social Change. (2010)

Based on his two decades of experience working around the world with teams of civil society, business, and government leaders to address challenges including food security, economic development, peacemaking, and climate change, Adam Kahane relates an approach to facilitating social change based on a balance between seemingly contradictory methods based on power - the desire to achieve one's purpose - and love - the drive to reconnect and unite with others. As Martin Luther King put it, “Power without love is reckless and abusive, and love without power is sentimental and anemic.”

Michael Pollan. Food Rules: An Eater's Manual. (2009)

Michael Pollan returns with this concise guide for making eating less complicated. Critical of much of today's nutritional science, he starts with the bottom line "Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants" and elaborates a set of rules designed to help you move away from the typical Western diet to one based on eating real food in moderation.

Philip J. Dreyfus. Our Better Nature: Environment and the Making of San Francisco. (2008)

Cities and the people who live in them exist in complex relationships with the natural environment on which they depend. San Francisco State University professor Philip J. Dreyfus recounts the history of San Francisco, how the residents of the city remade the landscape around them, and how that history has reflected changes in humankind's understanding of our place in nature.

Jeff Chester. Digital Destiny: New Media and the Future of Democracy. (2007)

From the founder and executive director of the Center for Digital Democracy, this book details how large media corporations with the help of lobbyists and pro-business policy makers have used their influence to shape regulation and increase their dominance over the Internet and other digital communication channels. Rather than an open and democratic landscape offering a variety of independent news, knowledge, and culture, the online world is in danger of coming under the control of a few media giants interested only in its commercial potential.

Thoreau Center Brown Bag - Plantains and Politics: Coffee, Co-ops and Coups

Plantains + Politics: Coffee, Co-ops and Coups

Presenters: Roxanne Hanson & Diana Chavez

Thursday, May 27, 12:30p 1o 1:30p

Atlantic Room at Tides

Who wants to see a boring slide show of vacation photos? Not us! Instead, join a discussion about the current effects of the economic crisis, immigration reform, and Barak Obama’s administration in Central America. Tides’ own Roxanne Hanson and Diana Chavez will share their recent experiences living and traveling in Nicaragua and Honduras. You won’t want to miss the radical cheer about CAFTA!

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

Thoreau Center Brown Bag: Women's Rights in the Niger Delta

Brown Bag: Women's Rights in the Niger Delta

When: Friday, May 21 12:30p - 1:30 p
Where: Pacific Room at Tides, Thoreau Center

Thoreau Center and The International Forum on Globalization invite you to join Justice in Nigeria Now for a Brown Bag with women's rights advocate, Emem Okon, visiting from the Niger Delta.

Emem Okon is a women's rights activist and advocate from the Niger Delta’s oil impacted region of Nigeria. Ms. Okon is the founder and the Executive Director of Kebetkache Women Development & Resource Centre. She is a gender analyst, a trainer, a researcher, and a campaigner against all forms of violence including that directed at women and the environment. Ms. Okon was a leader of the powerful women’s protests against Chevron Corporation for its environmental and human rights abuses in Nigeria which garnered international media attention when a group of women took over an oil installation and threatened to take off their clothes if the company did not negotiate with them. She has coordinated several women’s networks and coalitions in the Niger Delta region, including Civil Society on HIV & AIDS, Gender and Constitution Reform Network, International Network on Women and Environment, and National Coalition on Affirmative Action, to mention a few.

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

Speaker Event - Afghanistan: A Returnee's Perspective

Afghanistan: A Returnee's Perspective

When: Thursday, May 20 12:30pm - 1:30pm
Where: Pacific Room at Tides, Thoreau Center

Dawoud Nasraty, a recent Afghan-American returnee, recalls his experiences of day-to-day life in Kabul and offers perspective on the country's recent past, its current direction and future. Through film clips and discussion, Dawoud’s stories will open your eyes to the richness and complexity of the people that make up this war-torn country.

After a hiatus in Afghanistan of nearly three years, Dawoud has returned to Tides working as a financial analyst for the Tides Center.

Bike to Work Day 2010

Bike to Work Day: Eat, Win Prizes, Enjoy The Ride – May 13, 2010

The Bay Area's biggest bicycling celebration, Bike to Work Day, May 13^th.

Thoreau Center encourages you to ride your bicycle.

Have fun. Win prizes.

1. Enter to win the Grand Prize : $500 Gift Certificate at Sports Basement: Lincoln & Halleck Energizer Station – Presidio Main Post – 6-10AM. Free Presidio Bike Bell for everyone who signs in.
2. Free Breakfast & Lunch : Coffee & Bagels at Lincoln & Halleck between 6:30 AM & 10 AM. – Energizer Station - Food, Drink, a Bike to Work Day canvas bag and a limited edition Presidio Bike Bell for you for riding your bike to the Presidio Energizer Station at the corner of Lincoln & Halleck. Sip fair trade Coffee & nibble bagels while your bike gets tuned for free by Sports Basement professional Mechanics and more! REMEMBER to sign in at the station to enter the raffle and to get your ticket for a FREE BBQ lunch at Thoreau Center Courtyard near Acre Café between 12 PM and 3 PM. You must come by the BBQ to win the raffle prizes. BBQ Burgers, Hot Dogs, organic salad, munchables and veggie options too. If you are riding but can’t come by the station in the morning enter the regional raffle at btwd.bayareabikes.org/register.
3. Meet Presidio AmeriCorps Volunteers: Many thanks to the AmeriCorps volunteers who will be pitching in big time this year to run the Presidio Energizer Station. Stop by the station and say hello…over snacks and coffee.
4. Nominate a Bicyclist: Nominate the cyclist you admire as Bike Commuter of the Year. Do you know a dedicated cyclist worthy of Bike Commuter of the Year? Nominate them today!
5. Take Part in the Team Bike Challenge: http://www.youcanbikethere.com/tbc compete with other Bay Area commuters to win great prizes for bike commuting in May.
6. On the Way Home: SFBC's Annual Bike Away from Work Party and Fashion Show 6-10pm, The Rickshaw Stop, 155 Fell St. If you rode your bike, you're invited to the SF Bicycle Coalition's fun and fabulous Bike Away from Work Party and Fashion Show! Stop by Rickshaw Stop on your commute home and unwind (FREE valet bike parking provided). Learn the city's biking secrets from fellow bicyclists and bask in the glow of a successful Bike to Work Day!
7. If You Drive: Consider Carpooling http://www.presidio.gov/tenants/transit/carpool.htm

Author Event - Philip J. Dreyfus

Whole Earth Library presents
Sustainably Speaking, author series
Presenter: Author Philip J. Dreyfus on
Our Better Nature: Environment and the Making of San Francisco
Thursday, April 29, 12:30pm to 1:30pm
Pacific Room at Tides


Join us for a conversation with Professor Philip J. Dreyfus of San Francisco State University as he tells us stories of the making of San Francisco. How did San Francisco become a world-class metropolis? How did San Franciscans labor to remake their landscape to fit their needs? Dr. Dreyfus will focus on the ideas about nature during the early 20th century that destroyed our wetlands and forests, yet created the Golden Gate and Yosemite parks, the Sierra Club, and the modern environmental movement.

Philip J. Dreyfus is Associate Professor of History at San Francisco State University. He has received numerous awards for his classroom teaching, and his writings have appeared in various academic journals.

Subject Guide: Sustainable Cities

For the first time in history, over half of humanity lives in cities, and they continue to grow globally at two percent a year. They only cover two percent of the Earth's surface, but their impact extends well beyond their borders as they consume 75 percent of the planet's energy and resources, and emit 80 percent of its greenhouse gases. Generally speaking, as cities function today on a global scale they are driving widespread ecological destruction that imperils the planet, while on a local scale many urban neighborhoods are plagued by social inequality, economic insecurity, violence, pollution, and crumbling infrastructure. Not all hope is lost, however, as over the last few decades there has been a growing literature arguing for possible solutions to these pathologies from a new perspective based on sustainability. The books from the library collection below offer a selection of mostly recent entries into the debate over what urban sustainability should like like and how it could be achieved. While no single city has yet to come to grips with all of the issues surrounding environmental degradation and threats to the quality of life, these works illustrate many imaginative and innovative programs and policies in place today working to regenerate cities into healthy communities integrated into sustainable ecosystems.

And a reminder that next week (April 11-17) is once again National Library Week, as all healthy communities of course depend on healthy libraries. You can download the official America Library Association PSA with a picture of author Neil Gaiman reading a book here.


Kent E. Portney. Taking Sustainable Cities Seriously: Economic Development, the Environment, and Quality of Life in American Cities. (2003)

Moving beyond descriptive accounts of community sustainability actions and attempts to derive lessons learned from them, this book is a comparative analysis of such efforts that examines the reasons why some cities pursue sustainability and the factors that shape the operation and effectiveness of their programs. It looks at initiatives in two dozen American cities that have pursued a diverse array of initiatives operating on the basis of sometimes very different conceptions of sustainability, asking among other things whether a program needs to incorporate livability and environmental justice concerns in order to be considered a serious effort.


Peter Newman & Isabella Jennings. Cities as Sustainable Ecosystems: Principles and Practices. (2008)

Newman and Jennings detail a model for viewing urban dynamics and redevelopment based on the patterns and processes of natural and sustainable ecosystems, including such qualities as health, zero waste, interconnectedness, self-regulation, resilience, and flexibility. With case studies from several different countries, they illustrate their ideas of how cities can better integrate themselves into their local bioregional environment as a path to sustainability.


Peter Newman, Timothy Beatley & Heather Boyer. Resilient Cities: Responding to Peak Oil and Climate Change. (2009)

Do the impending crises surrounding climate change and peak oil spell doom and collapse for cities around the world? Drawing on "resilience thinking" from the field of ecosystem management, the authors argue and illustrate with examples from around the world that there are ways for cities to scale down their ecological footprints, reduce their oil dependence, improve their quality of life, and better fit themselves within the capacities of local, regional, and global ecosystems.


Warren Karlenzig with Frank Marquadt, Paula White, Rachel Yaseen & Richard Young. How Green is Your City? The SustainLane US City Rankings. (2007)

From the SustainLane internet media company (which includes websites www.SustainLane.com and www.SustainLane.us) comes this first effort to benchmark the performance of the fifty largest U.S. cities with respect to sustainability. Find out why they think San Francisco ranks at number two and Oakland at number five. See where they place your favorite large American city online at their latest rankings from 2008.


Patrick M. Condon. Design Charrettes for Sustainable Communities. (2008)

Drawing on his extensive professional experience, professor Patrick M. Condon of the University of British Columbia's School of Architecture and Landscape Architecture has written a practical, step-by-step guide to the design charrette process. Increasingly popular in North America since the late 1980's, the design charrette is a time constrained process that brings together citizens, public officials, developers, architects, engineers, and other stakeholders to collaboratively plan and design new and redeveloped sustainable communities. It is a new paradigm for design decisions that minimizes confrontation while building pubic support.


Richard Register. Ecocity Berkeley: Building Cities for a Healthy Future. (1987)

This pioneering and influential book by Richard Register, founder and President of Ecocity Builders, proposes a set of sweeping changes to give Berkeley, California a sustainable future. Incorporating existing patterns of development and natural features of the landscape, it envisions residential centers becoming increasingly compact and the surrounding land reclaimed by open space, forests, agriculture, and wildlife habitat to the benefit of people, quality of life, and the environment. Extensively illustrated by the author, it shows how a sustainable built environment can be exciting, imaginative, and inspirational.


Harry Wiland, Dale Bell, and Joseph D'Agnese. Edens Lost & Found: How Ordinary Citizens are Restoring Our Great Cities. (2006)

This book profiles the trailblazing individuals and groups in Chicago, Philadelphia, Seattle, and Los Angeles who are working to encourage the development of green spaces in their cities and neighborhoods as an alternative to ecological and social breakdown. From roof gardens to urban farms, citizen activism and leadership are working with nature, restoring communities, and transforming American cities through the creation of sustainable urban ecosystems.