Books published by publisher New Society Publishers

From commune to ecovillage ― an in-depth look at the past, present and future of the world’s best-known intentional community In the Summer of Love in San Francisco's Haight-Asbury, a charismatic young hippie by the name of Stephen Gaskin launched "Monday Night Class"―a weekly event which drew together an eclectic mix of truth-seekers and flower children. Soon the class became a caravan, and after touring the country this colorful crew decided to seek a plot of land and found a commune based on their shared values. Thus was born The Farm in Summertown, Tennessee. The Farm Then and Now presents the story of a group that has defied the odds, blending idealism with a practical approach to intentional community and creating a model for sustainable living. Just as the Monday Night Classes taught students to open their hearts and minds, The Farm continues as a School of Change, demonstrating ways to operate collectively in terms of: Land, water, and stewardship Health care, building, and infrastructure Cooperation, compassion, and spiritual values For humans to survive as a species, we must relearn the skills needed to work together; the lessons of The Farm can be applied in any community or organization. The Farm Then and Now addresses both the successes and shortcomings of this unique ongoing social experiment, showing how what was once the largest commune in the world has evolved into an exceptional example of living lightly on the earth. Douglas Stevenson has been a member of The Farm Community for forty years. His company Green Life Retreats hosts the Farm Experience Weekend and other instructional seminars about sustainable living.

Beekeeping outside the box – getting beyond the basics with top bar hives Bee populations are plummeting worldwide. Colony Collapse Disorder poses a serious threat to many plants which rely on bees for pollination, including a significant proportion of our food crops. Top bar hives are based on the concept of understanding and working with bees' natural systems, enabling top bar beekeepers to produce honey and natural wax while helping bees thrive now and in the years ahead. Advanced Top Bar Beekeeping picks up where The Thinking Beekeeper left off, providing a wealth of information for backyard beekeepers ready to take the next step with this economical, bee-friendly approach. Author Christy Hemenway shares: Guidance and techniques for the second season and beyond An in-depth analysis of the dangers climate change and conventional agriculture present to pollinators An inspiring vision of restoring bee populations through organic farming and natural, chemical-free beekeeping. While continuing to emphasize the intimate connection between our food system, bees, and the wellbeing of the planet, Advanced Top Bar Beekeeping breaks new ground in the quest to shift the dominant agricultural paradigm away from chemical-laden, industrial beekeeping monoculture and towards healthy, diverse local farming. See what all the buzz is about with this must-read guide for the new breed of thinking beekeeper. Christy Hemenway is the owner and founder of Gold Star Honeybees, a complete resource for all things related to beekeeping in top bar hives. A passionate bee-vangelist and advocate for natural, chemical-free beekeeping, Christy is the author of The Thinking Beekeeper: A Guide to Natural Beekeeping in Top Bar Hives .

If the US continues with its current policies, the next decades will be marked by war, economic collapse, and environmental catastrophe. Resource depletion and population pressures are about to catch up with us, and no one is prepared. The political elites, especially in the US, are incapable of dealing with the situation and have in mind a punishing game of “Last One Standing.”The alternative is “Powerdown,” a strategy that will require tremendous effort and economic sacrifice in order to reduce per-capita resource usage in wealthy countries, develop alternative energy sources, distribute resources more equitably, and reduce the human population humanely but systematically over time. While civil society organizations push for a mild version of this, the vast majority of the world’s people are in the dark, not understanding the challenges ahead, nor the options realistically available.Powerdown speaks frankly to these dilemmas. Avoiding cynicism and despair, it begins with an overview of the likely impacts of oil and natural gas depletion and then outlines four options for industrial societies during the next decades:Last One Standing: the path of competition for remaining resources;Powerdown: the path of cooperation, conservation and sharing;Waiting for a Magic Elixir: wishful thinking, false hopes, and denial;Building Lifeboats: the path of community solidarity and preservation.Finally, the book explores how three important groups within global society—the power elites, the opposition to the elites (the antiwar and antiglobalization movements, et al: the “Other Superpower”), and ordinary people—are likely to respond to these four options. Timely, accessible and eloquent, Powerdown is crucial reading for our times.Richard Heinberg is an award-winning author of five previous books, including The Party’s Over: Oil, War and the Fate of Industrial Societies. A member of the Core Faculty of New College of California, he lives in Santa Rosa, California.

Beekeeping outside the box – getting beyond the basics with top bar hives Bee populations are plummeting worldwide. Colony Collapse Disorder poses a serious threat to many plants which rely on bees for pollination, including a significant proportion of our food crops. Top bar hives are based on the concept of understanding and working with bees' natural systems, enabling top bar beekeepers to produce honey and natural wax while helping bees thrive now and in the years ahead. Advanced Top Bar Beekeeping picks up where The Thinking Beekeeper left off, providing a wealth of information for backyard beekeepers ready to take the next step with this economical, bee-friendly approach. Author Christy Hemenway shares: Guidance and techniques for the second season and beyond An in-depth analysis of the dangers climate change and conventional agriculture present to pollinators An inspiring vision of restoring bee populations through organic farming and natural, chemical-free beekeeping. While continuing to emphasize the intimate connection between our food system, bees, and the wellbeing of the planet, Advanced Top Bar Beekeeping breaks new ground in the quest to shift the dominant agricultural paradigm away from chemical-laden, industrial beekeeping monoculture and towards healthy, diverse local farming. See what all the buzz is about with this must-read guide for the new breed of thinking beekeeper. Christy Hemenway is the owner and founder of Gold Star Honeybees, a complete resource for all things related to beekeeping in top bar hives. A passionate bee-vangelist and advocate for natural, chemical-free beekeeping, Christy is the author of The Thinking Beekeeper: A Guide to Natural Beekeeping in Top Bar Hives .

With rising energy costs, homeowners are beginning to examine the energy efficiency of their own homes, asking questions about where energy comes from and how much it costs, how to choose new appliances and what options exist for renewable energy.The Home Energy Diet answers all these questions and more while helping readers take control of their personal energy use and costs so they can save money, live more comfortably and help the environment. Energy auditor Paul Scheckel first explores energy literacy, and then describes how your home uses—and loses—energy you pay for via:Electricity Hot water Heating and air conditioning Windows, walls and insulationThe Home Energy Diet involves readers in learning about their own homes by: measuring, metering, investigating and considering habits related to household energy use; learning how to quantify energy consumption and cost and making informed decisions about cost-effective improvements and upgrades. The book explores the misunderstood concept of efficiency versus cost by comparing fuel costs and equipment choices, including the possibility of using renewable energy for meeting home energy needs. This authoritative guide makes efficiency fun through personal anecdotes and humorous “tales-from-the-basement” energy misadventures.Since energy efficiency is an investment that offers returns greater than Wall Street, readers can earn several hundred dollars every year just by following the advice in this book. As a bonus, many of the energy-saving strategies described can make for improved indoor air quality and healthier, more comfortable homes.Paul Scheckel is an energy auditor who has visited thousands of homes, educating people about energy efficiency, cost-effective improvements and indoor air quality. With a passion for efficiency and renewables, he walks the talk by living in a solar-powered house and driving a car powered by vegetable oil in his home state of Vermont.

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. Further, that the ecocity within its bioregion is comprehensible and do-able, and can produce a healthy and potentially happy future. EcoCities describes the place of the city in evolution, nature and history. It pays special attention to the key question of accessibility and transportation, and outlines design principles for the ecocity. The reader is encouraged to plunge in to its economics and politics: the kinds of businesses, planning and leadership required. The book then outlines the tools by which a gradual transition to the ecocity could be accomplished. Throughout, this new edition is generously illustrated with the author's own inspired visions of what such rebuilt cities might actually look like.

Essential, visionary essays about our post-carbon future Climate change, along with the depletion of oil, coal, and gas dictate that we will inevitably move away from our profound societal reliance on fossil fuels; but just how big a transformation will this be? While many policy-makers assume that renewable energy sources will provide an easy "plug-and-play" solution, author Richard Heinberg suggests instead that we are in for a wild ride; a "civilization reboot" on a scale similar to the agricultural and industrial revolutions. Afterburn consists of 15 essays exploring various aspects of the 21st century migration away from fossil fuels including: Short-term political and economic factors that impede broad-scale, organized efforts to adapt The origin of longer-term trends (such as consumerism), that have created a way of life that seems "normal" to most Americans, but is actually unprecedented, highly fragile, and unsustainable Potential opportunities and sources of conflict that are likely to emerge. From the inevitability and desirability of more locally organized economies, to the urgent need to preserve our recent cultural achievements and the futility of pursuing economic growth above all, Afterburn offers cutting-edge perspectives and insights that challenge conventional thinking about our present, our future, and the choices in our hands.

If the US continues with its current policies, the next decades will be marked by war, economic collapse, and environmental catastrophe. Resource depletion and population pressures are about to catch up with us, and no one is prepared. The political elites, especially in the US, are incapable of dealing with the situation and have in mind a punishing game of “Last One Standing.”The alternative is “Powerdown,” a strategy that will require tremendous effort and economic sacrifice in order to reduce per-capita resource usage in wealthy countries, develop alternative energy sources, distribute resources more equitably, and reduce the human population humanely but systematically over time. While civil society organizations push for a mild version of this, the vast majority of the world’s people are in the dark, not understanding the challenges ahead, nor the options realistically available.Powerdown speaks frankly to these dilemmas. Avoiding cynicism and despair, it begins with an overview of the likely impacts of oil and natural gas depletion and then outlines four options for industrial societies during the next decades:Last One Standing: the path of competition for remaining resources;Powerdown: the path of cooperation, conservation and sharing;Waiting for a Magic Elixir: wishful thinking, false hopes, and denial;Building Lifeboats: the path of community solidarity and preservation.Finally, the book explores how three important groups within global society—the power elites, the opposition to the elites (the antiwar and antiglobalization movements, et al: the “Other Superpower”), and ordinary people—are likely to respond to these four options. Timely, accessible and eloquent, Powerdown is crucial reading for our times.Richard Heinberg is an award-winning author of five previous books, including The Party’s Over: Oil, War and the Fate of Industrial Societies. A member of the Core Faculty of New College of California, he lives in Santa Rosa, California.

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. Further, that the ecocity within its bioregion is comprehensible and do-able, and can produce a healthy and potentially happy future. EcoCities describes the place of the city in evolution, nature and history. It pays special attention to the key question of accessibility and transportation, and outlines design principles for the ecocity. The reader is encouraged to plunge in to its economics and politics: the kinds of businesses, planning and leadership required. The book then outlines the tools by which a gradual transition to the ecocity could be accomplished. Throughout, this new edition is generously illustrated with the author's own inspired visions of what such rebuilt cities might actually look like.

Sustainability may seem like one more buzzword and cities and towns like the last places to change, but The Natural Step for Communities provides inspiring examples of communities that have made dramatic changes toward sustainability and explains how others can emulate their success.Chronicled in the book are towns like Övertorneå, whose government operations recently became 100 percent fossil fuel-free, demonstrating that unsustainable municipal practices really can be overhauled. Arguing that the process of introducing change—whether converting to renewable energy or designing compact development—is critical to success, the authors outline why well-intentioned proposals often fail to win community approval and why an integrated approach—not "single-issue" initiatives—can surmount challenges of conflicting priorities, scarce resources and turf battles.The book first clarifies the concept of sustainability, offering guiding principles—the Natural Step framework—that help identify sustainable action in any area. It then introduces the 60+ eco-municipalities of Sweden that have adopted changes to sustainable practices throughout municipal policies and operations. The third section explains how they did it and outlines how other communities in North America and elsewhere can do the same. Key to success is a democratic, "bottom-up" change process and clear guiding sustainability principles, such as the Natural Step framework.The book will appeal to both general readers wishing to understand better what sustainability means and practitioners interested in introducing or expanding sustainable development in their communities.Sarah James is the principal of a community planning consulting firm. She co-authored the American Planning Association’s Planning for Sustainability Policy Guide and has published articles throughout the U.S. on this subject.Torbjörn Lahti was the planner for Sweden’s first eco-municipality and is directing a five-year sustainable community demonstration project. He was instrumental in forming the Swedish National Association of Eco-municipalities.

With rising energy costs, homeowners are beginning to examine the energy efficiency of their own homes, asking questions about where energy comes from and how much it costs, how to choose new appliances and what options exist for renewable energy. The Home Energy Diet answers all these questions and more while helping readers take control of their personal energy use and costs so they can save money, live more comfortably and help the environment. Energy auditor Paul Scheckel first explores energy literacy, and then describes how your home uses—and loses—energy you pay for via: ElectricityHot waterHeating and air conditioningWindows, walls and insulation The Home Energy Diet involves readers in learning about their own homes by: measuring, metering, investigating and considering habits related to household energy use; learning how to quantify energy consumption and cost and making informed decisions about cost-effective improvements and upgrades. The book explores the misunderstood concept of efficiency versus cost by comparing fuel costs and equipment choices, including the possibility of using renewable energy for meeting home energy needs. This authoritative guide makes efficiency fun through personal anecdotes and humorous “tales-from-the-basement” energy misadventures. Since energy efficiency is an investment that offers returns greater than Wall Street, readers can earn several hundred dollars every year just by following the advice in this book. As a bonus, many of the energy-saving strategies described can make for improved indoor air quality and healthier, more comfortable homes.

The second edition of this much-loved storytelling sourcebook features 29 wondrous children's stories from around the world. From the mythic and the fantastic, to the silly and the serious, these timeless tales encourage conflict resolution, compassion, and sensitivity to the Earth and all living things. An incredible sourcebook for storytellers, teachers, parents and healers, each story is followed by suggested activities and exercises, storytelling tips, and resources, all designed to deepen the storytelling experience. Includes an Age Suitability Index, a Thematic Index, and a Directory of Contributors. A new introduction focuses on storytelling in education.The editors are all dedicated storytellers and members of the Stories for World Change Network, founded by Ed Brody. They all live in Massachusetts.