By David Wann, St. Martin’s Griffin, $14.99, 274 Pages
David Wann author of Simple Prosperity and Affluenza brings together all the environmental, economical, and cultural pieces of the planet puzzle together in The New Normal creating guidelines to restore the health of Earth. The New Normal is refreshingly both optimistic and solution based. Wann is not here to point out everywhere the human race has erred. He instead, lays out the solutions; a thirty-four point agenda of social change to bring us back to responsible healthy living. From changing the very nature of business to giving the creation and preparing of food a higher priority; from valuing biodiversity to designing for value and durability, seemingly every aspect of responsible environmental living is encapsulated in this volume. Each of the agenda points is presented from the fresh perspective of environmental and cultural responsibility rather than purely growth and fiscal responsibility. A “heavy lifting” section details actions the reader can tackle as both individuals and as part of a community. This is followed up with examples of how things are already shifting to the new normal. Readers will be left with a sense of hopefulness and ideas of how they have the power to act on this new agenda for environmentally responsible living.
Reviewed by Catherine McMullen