The Great Disruption

"It's time to stop just worrying about climate change, says Paul Gilding. Instead we need to brace for impact, because global crisis is no longer avoidable. The Great Disruption started in 2008, with spiking food and oil prices and dramatic ecological change like the melting polar icecap. It is not simply about fossil fuels and carbon footprints. We have come to the end of Economic Growth, Version  1.0, a world economy based on consumption and waste, where we lived beyond the means of our plant's ecosystems and resources." 

- from The Great Disruption: How the climate will transform the global economy by Paul Gilding

I've read this book twice recently, with Mr B and Granny B in quick succession. It is quite simply a fantastic book that is eye opening, scary, and strangely enough uplifting all at the same time. So much more positive than Requiem for a Species by Clive Hamilton.

I'd seen Paul Gilding quoted in some G Magazines and in a few articles by Thomas Friendman, so was eager to borrow this book from the library. Paul Gilding wrote this book to tell us how to fight, and win what he calls 'the One Degree War'. And I have to say all 3 of us found it very inspiring but also drawing comfort in the sustainable simple lifestyle path that we have chosen to follow and believe in.

And after reading it, you suddenly start to see even more of what he is talking about in the world around us. I read the newspapers online or open a magazine at the library and their are articles prominent in mainstream media about The Great Disruption (like the latest Time article on food shortages). This isnt some idea about some far off future, it's about now.

And like Nick at MakeBelieve, you cant help when reading but think about what this kind of scenario means to me and my family. Not only in the obvious personal sense (re being prepared) but also in an activism sense (being part of the change we need to see in the world). Not only will Mr B and I see this in our lifetime (hey we are seeing it now) but it will have a huge impact on Little B and just enforces our belief that the life education we are giving him is of massive importance (think how to grow food, fix things, be resilient in all sense of the word).

One of the best quotes out of this book is "we are their children's children", a term which has been in use since the 1960's & 1970's. 

I heartily recommend that you read this book!! 6 thumbs up :-)