Natural Capitalism

I first heard of the book in a review in the New Yorker bio of Amory Lovins, one of the authors. I was interested, but figured that since I already agreed with everything he had to say, I didn't need to read it. But here in the land of few English reading materials, with a lapsed subscription to the New Yorker, and needing to something to unwind with after a day of Japanese, I decided to read it. And now I think everyone I know should as well. It is completely fascinating, an environmental book you can safely recommend to your libertarian friends and everyone in between (which I highly recommend, once you've finished reading it yourself). It bears the unlikely classification of "Business/Environment." Although I already agreed with the general gist of what he had to say, the greatest parts of the book are in the details. As it turns out, and we know in a sort of absolute way, that the whole dichotomy between business and environment is a false one. No one is going to be in business when we run out of usable natural resources. Our society is so much more wasteful than I had ever imagined. But the question is how do we get from here to there, how do we reconcile things current price with their actual cost to the planet, humanity, etc. ? And he has lots and lots of rational suggestions. Sometimes it seems more directed to CEO's or politicians, but I think there is something in there for everyone. A lot of his ideas, like how taxes should be set up, were totally novel to me, but make so much sense. If you have ever wondered what we need to do to get out of the mess we are in, and how you can be a part of it, you will be totally fascinated by this book. So buy the book (you can get it used on Amazon), read it, pass it on, those of you with students can find some pretense for making them read it, and so on. For those of you that live close to Palmer HQ in Laie, I already bought a copy and had it sent there. Then let me know what you think.