State of the World: Innovations for a Sustainable Economy

by The Worldwatch Institute

Book Overview

Growing evidence suggests that the global economy, rooted in ideas and assumptions that were progressive two hundred years ago, is now destroying its own ecological base and offering little to billions of impoverished people. In response, pioneers are creating the architecture of sustainable economies, one innovation at a time. State of the World 2008 describes these innovations--from microfinance to closed-loop manufacturing and the use of trusts...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0393330311
• ISBN13: 9780393330311
• Release Date: January 2008
• Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
• Length: 304 Pages
• Weight: 1.35 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 7.1" x 9.2"

Customer Reviews

Amazing yearly books

These books are amazing, I get them every year and read the important data. Well explained and thorough, especially for analytical minds like me, you'll enjoy watching the progress (or regress) of the state of our planet. Highly recommended to anyone who loves to know what happens to our planet and why it changes in such ways.

Excellent book. Current Issues

Excellent coverage of current economic and environmental that we are facing now and need to be acted upon!

Superb Primer for Any Level, Needs Two Missing Pieces

This a superb edited work that melds chapters (with notes at the end) from world-class authors on a broad range of topics. I kept this at five stars until the end and then I could not stand it anymore. There are at least five reasons to reduce it to four. Here are the first two. 1. As someone who grew up with Banks & Textor and have created four analytic models in my lifetime, I am growing increasing impatient with the continued fragmentation of research and writing. There is a model available: ten threats (from the UN High Level Threat Panel), twelve policies, eight challengers. We need to start fusing, analyzing, visualizing and discussing all ten threats in relation to all ten policies. I am no longer content to read about water in one chapter, meat in another, and so on. Stop putzing around and create the EarthGame with all information, all languages, all the time--geospatially grounded of course--and let's get on with the task of identifying with precision the global range of gifts table down to the household level, from $1 to $100 million. 2. I am increasingly irritated by the little cabals that strive to cite only themselves, and furthermore, have their own language to distinguish them. "Get the price right" instead of "true cost"? Get over it. Enough already. I am also increasingly of the view that the Notes must be indexed. The notes are good, but when the lead chapter talks about "Adjust Economic Scale" and fails to cite Small Is Beautiful, 25th Anniversary Edition: Economics As If People Mattered: 25 Years Later . . . With Commentaries or Human Scale I growl. Together with Plan 3.0 and Vital Signs, both linked by another reviewer, this book represents a fine stand-alone study set if you want to limit yourself to the WorldWatch oracles and dismiss all others. Here is what grabbed me about this book: + Opens with utterly sensational four pages of "timeline" for 2007 with little blocks that are priceless. I really like this. + Chapter 1 does a fine job of listing: - Four flawed economic assumptions: - 1. Independence of economic activity from "infinite" nature - 2. Growth should be the primary economic objective - 3. Markets are always superior to governments at allocating resources - 4. Humans are economic maximizers and place no value on community This may sound simple but I admire it. - The seven big ideas for economic reform: - 1. Adjust economic scale - 2. Shift from growth to development - 3. Make prices tell the ecological truth [note: for World Index of Social and Environmental Responsibility--WISER--to not be in index irritates me so much I almost take the fifth star again). - 4. Account for nature's contributions [I am infuriated by a second hand citation. I am not familiar with more than a couple of books, but to not mention Ecological Economics: Principles And Applications or The Future of Life moves this book, as very good as it is--toward Classic Comics book shallowness

A Sustainable Read

This 25th Anniversary Edition of State of the World focuses on problems and solutions for progress toward a sustainable society. It is a periodical and almanac worth owning. The writing promotes an easy read for sustained digestion of its resources. Fourteen Chapters by WorldWatch staffers, independent analysts, academics, and intellectual professionals arranged in 2-column newspaper format fill 281 pages, with dozens of boxes, tables, and figures plus endnotes. Each chapter contributes to other chapters and to the understanding of sustainable development as a path, not a panacea. Instead of competing with other writings, the State of the World series complements the contemplations of other writers on interdisciplinary economic, social, and environmental topics. Every chapter is true to its title. There are verbs of solution - seeding, rethinking, building, improving, engaging, mobilizing, investing, banking. There are nouns of challenge - sustainable economy, the commons, sustainable world, sustainable lifestyles, and sustainability. There are names of things to consider - water, carbon, meat, seafood, biodiversity, global diet, human energy, trade governance, new approaches, and new bottom line. Sustainability needs all the institutional ingenuity society can muster and harness to evolve into a broader, better focus for the good of humanity. "2008 State of the World, Innovations for a Sustainable Economy" will stay fresh well beyond next year's edition by the WorldWatch Institute.

A very useful book about our planet's environment future

Worldwatch Institute's annual State of the World books are always worth reading. I've read every single one since they first came out in 1984. This 2008 book gives insights into how our world economy needs to change in order to prepare for a viable future. People should be aware, however, that the founder of Worldwatch Institute, Lester Brown, quit the organization a few years ago and set up a new institute, the Earth Policy Institute. His new book Plan B 3.0: Mobilizing to Save Civilization, Third Edition has just come out. It is one of the most important books in recent years. Worldwatch also publishes Vital Signs 2007-2008: The Trends that Are Shaping Our Future (Vital Signs) Vital Signs is an annual set of statistics books in simple readable charts. I would recommend this too. Together, these three books could give a person some solid information about the environmental state of our planet and what needs to be done to create a viable future. On my profile I have a number of lists of some other very good books on the environment and future watch studies.