Books About Community Help us to serve you better. Click Here to take a survey.

Thanks for supporting Independent Journalism

Click to buy a gift certificate

NEW! Future Scenarios: How Communities Can Adapt to Peak Oil and Climate Change
by David Holmgren
144pp, 2009, $12.00

In Future Scenarios, permaculture co-originator and leading sustainability innovator David Holmgren outlines four scenarios that bring to life the likely cultural, political, agricultural, and economic implications of peak oil and climate change, and the generations-long era of “energy descent” that faces us.

“Scenario planning,” Holmgren explains, “allows us to use stories about the future as a reference point for imagining how particular strategies and structures might thrive, fail, or be transformed.”

As Adam Grubb, founder of the influential Energy Bulletin Web site, says, “These aren’t two-dimensional nightmarish scenarios designed to scare people into environmental action. They are compellingly fleshed-out visions of quite plausible alternative futures, which delve into energy, politics, agriculture, social, and even spiritual trends. What they do help make clear are the best strategies for preparing for and adapting to these possible futures.” Future Scenarios provides brilliant and balanced consideration of the world’s options and will prove to be one of the most important books of the year.

NEW! The Transition Handbook:
From Oil Dependency to Local Resilience
by Rob Hopkins 240pp, 2008, $25

This book by the visionary permaculturist / architect of the Transition Town movement is a must-read labelled, immediate . Growing numbers with their microscopes trained on peak oil are convinced that we have very little time to engineer resilience into our communities before the last energy crisis descends. This issue should be of urgent concern to every person who cares about their children, and all who hope there is a viable future for human civilisation post-petroleum. --Jeremy Leggett, founder of Solarcentury and SolarAid.

NEW! Toolbox for Sustainable City Living:
A do-it-Ourselves Guide
by Scott Kellogg & Stacy Pettigrew, illustrated by Juan Martinez
242pp, 2008, $16.00

The tools you need to create self-sufficient, ecologically sustainable cities

Post Carbon Cities: Planning for Energy and Climate Uncertainty is a guidebook on peak oil and global warming for people who work with and for local governments in the United States and Canada. It provides a sober look at how these phenomena are quickly creating new uncertainties and vulnerabilities for cities of all sizes, and explains what local decision-makers can do to address these challenges.

Post Carbon Cities fills an important gap in the resources currently available to local government decision-makers on planning for the changing global energy and climate context of the 21st century.

"How will we cope with a future of energy scarcity? As a policy maker I look to other communities for inspiration and ideas, but there's been a lack of information on what local governments are doing to adapt to Peak Oil. Post Carbon Cities fills this gap: herein lies the roadmap plotted by the cities that are leading the way. Enthusiastically recommended!" Dave Rollo, City Council President, Blooomington, Indiana

"Post Carbon Cities is an exceptionally clear and comprehensive call-to-action to those who actually work in the trenches of city governance. We don't have any more time to waste getting ready for an energy-scarcer future, and for those who remain dazed and confused, this book is an excellent place to start." --James Howard Kunstler, author of The Long Emergency and The Geography of Nowhere

Most of the world's population now lives in cities. So if we are to address the problems of environmental deterioration and peak oil adequately, the city has to be a major focus of attention. "Ecocities" is about re-building cities and towns based on ecological principles for the long term sustainability, cultural vitality and health of the Earth's biosphere. Unique in the literature is the book's insight that the form of the city really matters -- and that it is within our ability to change it, and crucial that we do.

Explores the background & the history of the Ecovillage movement, & provides a comprehensive manual for planning, establishing, & maintaining a sustainable community in both urban & rural environments. Includes discussions on design, conflict management, food production, energy, economics, & more.

Creating a Life Together:
Practical Tools to Grow Ecovillages and Intentional Communities
by Diana Leafe Christian previously editor of Communities Magazine
foreword by Patch Adams.2003 New Society Publishers, 272 pp. $28.

Creating a Life Together is an overview of the process of forming new ecovillages and intentional communities, gleaned from founders of dozens of successful communities in North America formed since the early '90s. This is what they did, and what you can do, to create your community dream.

It attempts to distill their hard experience into solid advice on getting started as a group, creating vision documents, decision-making and governance, agreements and policies, buying and financing land, communication and process, and selecting people to join you. It's what works, what doesn't work, and how not to reinvent the wheel. This information is not only for people forming new communities - whether or not you already own your land. It can also be valuable for those of you thinking about joining community one day - since you, too, will need to know what works. And it's also for those of you already living in community, since you can only benefit from knowing what others have done in similar circumstances.

"Wow! The newest, most comprehensive bible for builders of intentional communities. Covers every aspect with vital information and hundreds of examples of how successful communities faced the challenges and created their shared lives out of their visions. The cautionary tales of sadder experiences and how communities fail, will help in avoiding the pitfalls. Not since I wrote the Foreword to Ingrid Komar's Living the Dream (1983), which documented the Twin Oaks community, have I seen a more useful and inspiring book." --Hazel Henderson, author, Creating Alternative Futures, and Politics of the Solar Age.

"A great deal of research and trial-and-error has been assembled here, and every potential ecovillager should read it. This book will be an essential guide and msanual for the many Permaculture graduates who live in communities or design for them." --Bill Mollison, co-originator of the Permaculture concept, author of The Permaculture Designers Manual, Ferment and Human Nutrition.

"A really valuable resource for anyone thinking about intentional community. I wish I had it years ago." -- Starhawk, author of Webs of Power, The Spiral Dance, and The Fifth Sacred Thing -- and committed communitarian.

NEW! Depletion and Abundance: Life on the New Home Front
by Sharon Astyk
2008, 288pp, $19

OK, quick check: everyone who is concerned about the economic crisis turning into a depression and causing food and fuel prices to rise and pockets to empty - whether for yourself, your parents, your children, your neighbors, your friends, or anyone - raise your hand. That covers just about everyone, doesn't it?

Almost every conversation I've had recently with different people lately has touched on the economy and people's fears about what this situation means. Astyk knows she's covering a lot of territory to bring many people up to speed on the various causes behind our current crisis. Her research and thoughtful insight in discussing peak oil, climate change, and the economy are on target too.We may be headed into difficult times - and heaven knows, if you read only Astyk's first chapter, you might find yourself too depressed to go on --but ultimately we still retain the ability to choose a certain aount of independence. We can invest our time and our work in the sustenance of our selves, our families, and our communities, and we can begin to build a more sustainable economy. Sharon Astyk's book gives us the hope and the inspiration needed to take that step.
Reviewed by Jennifer M, The Ethicurean

Climate change, peak oil, and economic instability aren’t just future social problems—they jeopardize our homes and families right now. Our once-abundant food supply is being threatened by toxic chemical agriculture, rising food prices, and crop shortages brought on by climate change. Funding for education and health care is strained to the limit, and safe and affordable housing is disappearing.

Depletion and Abundance explains how we are living beyond our means with or without a peak oil/climate change crisis, and that, either way, we must learn to place our families and local communities at the center of our thinking once again. The author presents strategies to create stronger homes, better health, and a richer family life and to:

* live comfortably with an uncertain energy supply
* prepare children for a hotter, lower energy, less secure world
* survive and thrive in an economy in crisis
* maintain a kitchen garden to supply basic food needs

Most importantly, readers will discover that depletion can lead to abundance, and the anxiety of these uncertain times can be turned into a gift of hope and action.

Sharon Astyk is a former academic who farms in upstate New York with her husband and four children. She also raises livestock, grows vegetables, and writes about food and peak oil. (Check out her blog—www.sharonastyk.com.)

Sharon's introduction is pricelss in its succinct, dead-on analysis of collapse, and is reason enough to buy and send this book to everyone you know who is partially or completely clueless about where we're headed. "When I realized that everything was going to change, I was at first afraid. Because I thought, if my government or public policy or other choices weren't going to fix everything, what could I possibly do? What hope was there, if I had to take care of myself, if my community had to take care of itself?
But when I began looking for solutions that could be applied on the level of ordinary human lives, that involved changes in perspectives and pulling together, the reclamation of abandoned ideas and the restoration of strong communitites, I began to feel hopeful, even excited. Because I realized that when large institutions cease to be powerful, sometimes that means that people start being powerful again."
Depletion and Abundance is not a feel-good book, but it is intensely human, compassionate, supportive, pracitcal, alarming, enlivening, and astonishingly accurate.
Reviewed by Carolyn Baker, Carolynbaker.net

Ripples from the Zambezi:
Passion, Entrepreneurship and the Rebirth of Local Economies
by Ernesto Soleri. 1999, 151 pp. $15

In the same way that you can't lead a horse to water, you can't force economic development on people who don't want to be 'developed'. Leads the reader through the fascinating story of development failures and successes that led eventually to this technique that has been successful in over 250 communities in four countries. Inspiring, amusing, and easy to read, will appeal to a wide range of people interested in a new approach to revitalizing our communities.

Money: Understanding and Creating Alternatives to Legal Tender
by Thomas H. Greco, Jr., 2001, 295pp., $25

This is an eye-popping , fundamental look at money, both the "legal tender" and the innovative forms that have been developed to promote local economies in communities around the nation and the world. Money explains the mysteries mad realities of currency, interest, barter, and much more in clear and accessible prose, revealing the alarming fragility of our existing financial system. More than simply a radical critique, it is also a practical and inspirational how-to manual for creating a vibrant and effective community currency system.

Superbia!: 31 Ways to Create Sustainable Neighborhoods
by Dan Chiras and Dave Wann 2003, 240pp., $25

Superbia! is a book of practical ideas for creating more socially, economically, and environmentally sustainable neighborhoods. It is about remaking suburban and urban neighborhoods to serve people better and to reduce human impact on the environment.

* the creation of a neighborhood newsletter to foster a sense of neighborhood identity and cooperation
* regular community dinners, discussion groups, and babysitting co-ops
* the removal of backyard fences to create park-like spaces for community play areas, or gardens * retrofitting homes for energy efficiency, and installing community energy systems.

New! The Post-Petroleum Survival Guide and Cookbook: Recipes for Changing Times
by Albert Bates, 206, 236pp. $20

Over the coming years we will need to move from a global culture addicted to cheap, abundant petroleum to a culture of compelled conservation, whether through government directive or market forces. The Post-Petroleum Survival Guide and Cookbook provides useful practical advice for preparing your family and community to make the transition.

This book takes a positive, upbeat, and optimistic view of "the Great Change," promoting the idea that it can be an opportunity to redeem our essential interconnectedness with nature and with each other. The many rifts that have grown up since oil became the world's prime commodity can be mended: between cities and their food sources; the design of the suburban built environment and its car-oriented sprawl; runaway greenhouse warming, clearing of forests and toxification of rivers, oceans, and land. Topics covered include:

* Rebuilding civilization * Changing your needs * Water and waste disposal * Energy and transportation * Equipment and Tools * Food storage and First Aid

Also including light-hearted, playful recipes -- some using basic, wholesome foods, some illustrating food growing or preservation, and all emphasizing organic, flavorful and locally grown produce that readily substitute one for another -- this book is about having your catastrophe and eating it too.

Heat: How to Stop the Planet from Burning
by George Monbiot, 2003, 278pp., $22 Hardcover

Heat: How to Stop the Planet From Burning marks an important moment in our civilization's thinking about global warming. The question is no longer Is climate change actually happening? but What do we do about it? George Monbiot offers an ambitious and far-reaching program to cut our carbon dioxide emissions to the point where the environmental scales start tipping back-away from catastrophe.

Though writing with a "spirit of optimism," Monbiot does not pretend it will be easy. The only way to avoid further devastation, he argues, is a 90% cut in CO2 emissions in the rich nations of the world by 2030. In other words, our response will have to be immediate, and it will have to be decisive.