{"id":236687,"date":"2010-01-27T13:03:04","date_gmt":"2010-01-27T17:03:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/inspiredeconomist.com\/2010\/01\/27\/book-review-state-of-the-world-2010\/"},"modified":"2010-01-27T13:03:04","modified_gmt":"2010-01-27T17:03:04","slug":"book-review-state-of-the-world-2010","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/236687","title":{"rendered":"Book Review: State of the World 2010"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/inspiredeconomist.com\/files\/2010\/01\/stateworld2010-go.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-full wp-image-1743\" src=\"http:\/\/inspiredeconomist.com\/files\/2010\/01\/stateworld2010-go.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"194\" height=\"256\" \/><\/a><em>State of the World 2010<\/em> is on book stands, just in time for President Obama\u2019s State of the Union address, though I\u2019m not sure he\u2019s read it given his talk of economic growth to create more jobs in businesses that require more stimulus spending and more government oversight.<\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\">I\u2019ve regularly blogged on our state of the economy, an economy inexorably based on the same life support systems that sustain every creature on Earth.<span> <\/span>At its root, the economy should be about caring for our planet in much the same way that Pope Benedict has recently proclaimed that we must care for Creation. &#8220;The different phenomena of environmental degradation and natural catastrophes, which unfortunately occur all too often, remind us of the urgency of dutiful respect toward nature, recovering and valuing a correct relationship with the environment each day,&#8221; said Pope Benedict (as quoted by the Catholic News Agency).<\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\">Our economy should be about sustainability and restoration of our fragile planet, not greed and never-ending growth.<span> <\/span>Our sense of fulfillment or happiness is rarely found at America\u2019s Mecca (the mall).<span> <\/span>Nor will we be able to charge it on our credit card.<span> <\/span>When it comes down to it, we can buy what\u2019s no longer available: clean water and air, healthy soil, a vibrant local community, a safe place to raise a family.<\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\">Pope Benedict\u2019s message is along the same lines as the perspectives shared in <a href=\"http:\/\/www.worldwatch.org\/\">Worldwatch Institute<\/a>\u2019s latest, authoritative flagship book, <em>State of the World 2010: Transforming Cultures: From Consumerism to Sustainability<\/em> (W.W. Norton). Without an intentional cultural shift \u2013 one that values sustainability not consumerism &#8212; no pledges from government or advances in technology will be enough to prevent the preventable calamity of climate change and ecological collapse, destined to forever change how we live on this planet.<span> <\/span>We must rediscover a story of living and working, quite different from the present consumption and material wealth-driven one that often defines meaning, satisfaction and acceptance for so many of us, with dire consequences for ecological systems and the billions of people who have been called the \u201chave-nots\u201d in the so-called developing world.<\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\"> <a href=\"http:\/\/inspiredeconomist.com\/2010\/01\/27\/book-review-state-of-the-world-2010\/#more-1742\" class=\"more-link\">(more&#8230;)<\/a><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/feeds.feedburner.com\/~r\/inspiredeconomist\/com\/~4\/uqy3xYRAZTQ\" height=\"1\" width=\"1\"\/><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>State of the World 2010 is on book stands, just in time for President Obama\u2019s State of the Union address, though I\u2019m not sure he\u2019s read it given his talk of economic growth to create more jobs in businesses that require more stimulus spending and more government oversight. I\u2019ve regularly blogged on our state of [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":575,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-236687","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/236687","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/575"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=236687"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/236687\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=236687"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=236687"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=236687"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}