[SustainableTompkins] Worldchanging- sounds like a great resource

[Elan Shapiro]

This is a plug for a fascinating new book
==============
Dear Friends,

Our book, Worldchanging: A User's Guide for the 21st
Century, comes out on November 1. It offers 600 pages
of insight into successful ways to build
sustainability and create social change. It is
intended to be, quite literally, a manual for learning
to change the world.

We think it's one hell of a book, but you don't have
to take our word for it. Al Gore, in his foreword to
Worldchanging, calls it "vitally important," adding,

"Worldchanging: A User's Guide for the 21st Century is
a compendium of solutions, some little known but well
proven, some innovative and new, some bold but as yet
untried. This book not only shows what is already
possible, but also helps all of us imagine what might
be - in our own homes, in our communities, and for the
planet as a whole. Taken together, these solutions
present a picture of a future that is not dark or
catastrophic, but one that is full of hope and within
our grasp. To build that future, we need a generation
of everyday heroes, people who - whatever their walks
of life - have the courage to think in fresh ways and
to act to meet this planetary crisis head-on. This
book belongs in the library of every person who
aspires to be part of that generation."

Bill McKibben, in a forthcoming review in the New York
Review of Books, calls it "The Whole Earth Catalog
retooled for the iPod generation."

"It is precisely this question -- how we might
radically transform our daily lives -- that is
addressed by the cheerful proprietors of the
WorldChanging website in their new book of the same
name. This is one of the most professional and
interesting websites that you could possibly bookmark
on your browser; almost every day they describe a new
technology or technique for environmentalists....
[Their book} is a compendium of everything a younger
generation of environmental activists has to offer:
creativity, digital dexterity, networking ability, an
Internet-era optimism about the future, and a deep
concern about not only green issues but related
questions of human rights, poverty, and social
justice. The book's pragmatism is refreshing: 'We can
do this' is the constant message, and there are enough
examples to leave little doubt that sheer cleverness
is not what we're lacking as we approach our uncertain
future. 'We need, in the next twenty-five years or so,
to do something never before done. We need to
consciously redesign the entire material basis of our
civilization,' Alex Steffen writes in his editor's
introduction. 'If we face an unprecedented planetary
crisis, we also find ourselves in a moment of
innovation unlike any that has come before.... We live
in an era when the number of people working to make
the world better is exploding.' He's right."

Climate champion Laurie David says it's "the seminal
resource guide for anyone concerned about today and
the future." Earth Day founder Denis Hayes says,
"Worldchanging might well be the most complete,
compelling articulation of the possible look and feel
and actual operation of a sustainable society ever
written." New Yorker writer Elizabeth Kolbert says:
"Read it: it may change your life." The website
Treehugger.com says simply, "buy this book."

Worldchanging -- the tiny Seattle nonprofit where I
work, which runs the website Worldchanging.com -- may
seem like an unlikely source for such an important
project, but in just three years Worldchanging has
built a strong following (our website gets almost
900,000 visits a month) and vocal supporters
(Worldchanging won the Utne Independent Press Award
and was nominated for a Webby for best blog and
Bloggies for best group blog and writing on a blog).

But we have no marketing budget. We have never bought
an ad. Our entire funding, as one supporter said
recently, "would be a rounding error to most big
NGOs." We're relying heavily on word of mouth to
spread the news of the Worldchanging book. We need
your help to make sure that this book finds its
audience, and that the solutions it contains get the
hearing they deserve.

We often hear complaints about the shallowness of
mainstream publishing, the lack of ideas in our
political debate, the cynicism of commercial media.
Well, here is a chance to change that. Our book is
entirely about ideas, solutions, optimism and
progressive principles. If enough people read this
book, it will change the debate (if you're not sure
this is true, please take a look at the letter from
Bruce Sterling below).

But there is only one way for this to happen: for the
book to sell, and sell quickly.

As you may know, publishing has become much like the
film industry. The only chance a book has of surviving
long enough to get broad attention and find its
readers is for it to have a successful launch.

So we need every person we can get to buy the book on
(or before) its November 1 launch date.

Please take a look at the contents of Worldchanging,
and, if you think these kind of ideas are important,
buy the book. Heck, buy a bunch of copies and hand
them out (they make great holiday gifts). Then ask
your friends and co-workers to do the same.

And please consider blogging it; emailing about it;
talking it up in your professional and community
forums; asking your book group and local library to
order it; calling your local book store to see if
they've ordered it; and generally raising a ruckus on
our behalf. We need some ruckus right now. As much
ruckus as we can get.

You are influential people. You can make a difference
here. We hope you'll decide it's a project worth
supporting.

Thank you very much,

Alex

You can read more about the book here
http://www.worldchanging.com/book/

You can buy the book here
Amazon
http://www.amazon.com/gp/redirect.html?ie=UTF8&location=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.amazon.com%2Fo%2FASIN2F0810930951&tag=worldchangi0b-20&linkCode=ur2&camp=1789&creative=9325
Barnes and Noble
http://search.barnesandnoble.com/booksearch/isbnInquiry.asp?z=y&EAN=9780810930957&itm=1
Powell's
http://www.powells.com/partner/30596/biblio/0810930951




Bruce's letter:

(((You want this new book. The proper time for you to
buy it is now. Why? Because the modern publishing
system, such as it is, has become as deranged and
sclerotic as the movie business, so a big early
roll-out counts for a lot in their ridiculous biz
calculations. Buy one for yourself, buy two more as
propaganda, I mean "gifts," and give them to someone
older than yourself and younger than yourself, so as
to induce a nice demographic spread across the
reader-buyer user-base.)))

(((They're going to read this thing, and they're going
to have stretch-marks all over their heads, because in
their morose sorrow during years of domination by
fundie creeps, they've forgotten what new ideas look
like and this book is full of them. You won't have to
lift a finger to affect this change within them -- for
these are the heavy guns of the movement here,
assembled in battalion. I've been showing my copy to
scientists, engineering professors, government workers
-- serious, seasoned people, reality-based-community
people. They are awestruck. And justly so.)))

(((As it so happens, I wrote an introduction to this
book. Then Al Gore muscled in and wrote a second
introduction. That's how good this book is. It's
heavy-duty. It's so heavy that guys who should have
been President of the United States are all concerned.
If you are into cybergreen issues you can't call
yourself informed without WORLDCHANGING. Furthermore,
the people involved in this effort are the absolute
salt of the earth. They're bright, fluent, capable and
they genuinely get it. They don't merely "get it,"
they are inventing that which it is necessary to get.
These are people you need to know a lot more about.)))

(((After buying some books, for the system requires
financial stimulation, go talk about it. Talk it up,
talk about it incessantly. Word-of-mouth the living
daylights out of it. Normally this is annoying
behavior, in the case of this book we can make a moral
exception. This book demands discussion because it's
full of amazing and completely apt material which
can't be found anywhere else.)))

(((Further note that there is an associated book tour.
If your town is being graced with WORLDCHANGING
authors you should get up, leave the screen, go there,
press the flesh, vow some Bright Green fealty and buy
more of the book, so that the tour is extended. Yes, I
am completely in earnest about you doing this. That's
practical, it's doable and it can make a serious
difference. But, you know, not five months from now.
The iron is red-hot right now.)))

(((The release of this book is a crux event. If this
book is a hit, the world will actually change. And in
a direction of which we strongly approve. This is a
unique opportunity for you to take a direct and
personal action that briskly heaves that slider-bar
into the direction of light and reason. So do it.)))

[[this letter was slightly edited for space]]

======================================
Alex Steffen
Executive Editor
Worldchanging.com
Tools, models and ideas for building a better future.
http://www.WorldChanging.com
======================================

"
--