Deep Economy: The Wealth of Communities and the Durable Future

From Barnes & Noble

Most of us still think that we are living in a world where "more" and "better" are two sides of the same coin. In this Adam Smith realm, economic growth is the first imperative. Bill McKibben agrees that this "more is better" philosophy helped fuel unprecedented prosperity and ease, but he insists that the real world can no longer sustain such unlimited expansion: "Growth is no longer making more people wealthier; instead it is generating inequality and insecurity. And growth is bumping against physical limits, like climate change and peak oil, so profound that continuing to expand may be impossible or even dangerous." McKibben salvages this potential jeremiad with specific guidelines for moving beyond growth into what he calls a deep economy and a deeper humanity.

Lance Morrow

It would be unwise to dismiss McKibben's ideas as pipe dreams or Luddism. He makes his case on anecdotal, environmental, moral and, as it were, aesthetic grounds. An attentive, widely traveled writer and environmentalist, McKibben cites the success of local projects around the world, from a rabbit-raising academy in China to a Guatemalan cooperative that manufacturers farm machinery from old bicycles. He defends his "economics of neighborliness" against the charge that it is "sentimental, nostalgic, some Norman Rockwell old-town-green fantasy." In fact, he insists: "Given the trend lines for phenomena like global warming and oil supply, what's nostalgic and sentimental is to insist that we keep doing what we're doing now simply because it's familiar. The good life of the high-end American suburb is precisely what’s doing us in." His alternative, an intelligent, socially responsible, nonideological localism—essentially a readjustment downward of material expectations and therefore of our "hyperindividualistic" economic metabolisms—"might better provide goods like time and security that we're short of." People, he thinks, are "overliberated…We need to once again depend on those around us for something real."
—The New York Times

Publishers Weekly

Challenging the prevailing wisdom that the goal of economies should be unlimited growth, McKibben (The End of Nature) argues that the world doesn't have enough natural resources to sustain endless economic expansion. For example, if the Chinese owned cars in the same numbers as Americans, there would be 1.1 billion more vehicles on the road—untenable in a world that is rapidly running out of oil and clean air. Drawing the phrase "deep economy" from the expression "deep ecology," a term environmentalists use to signify new ways of thinking about the environment, he suggests we need to explore new economic ideas. Rather then promoting accelerated cycles of economic expansion—a mindset that has brought the world to the brink of environmental disaster—we should concentrate on creating localized economies: community-scale power systems instead of huge centralized power plants; cohousing communities instead of sprawling suburbs. He gives examples of promising ventures of this type, such as a community-supported farm in Vermont and a community biosphere reserve, or large national park–like area, in Himalayan India, but some of the ideas—local currencies as supplements to national money, for example—seem overly optimistic. Nevertheless, McKibben's proposals for new, less growth-centered ways of thinking about economics are intriguing, and offer hope that change is possible. (Mar. 20)

Library Journal

Kirkus Reviews

To move forward, increasing equality and happiness, we need to turn the clock back: thinking locally rather than globally, buying from and selling to our neighbors to create true communities. McKibben (Wandering Home, 2005, etc.), who has worried about the fate of our planet since at least The End of Nature (1989), weighs in here on the pursuit of happiness. For too long, he observes, we have believed that more equals better and assumed that greater economic growth brings prosperity to all. Instead, he ably argues, growth has increased inequality and decreased human happiness. Americans have been consuming at an unconscionable rate, destroying their families and communities by working longer hours and patronizing huge corporations. Reporting from around the world-he offers examples from China, Bangladesh, India, Central America and elsewhere-McKibben revisits some topics close to his heart: global warming, the rapid depletion of fossil fuels, the growth of agribusinesses, the impending water crisis. He tells stories about ordinary people doing extraordinary things to improve both the local economy and the overall quality of local life. Farmers' markets are growing around the country; merchants in a small Wyoming town are competing successfully with Wal-Mart (a corporation attacked throughout); a local Vermont radio station actually provides public services and serves the public interest. The author also tells his own stories, which are the gold in the alluvial gravel of all of his work. Here, he describes his recent determination to buy only from local farmers and to eat only foods that are in season. This is something we should all do, he avers; it not only improves the local economy butcreates greater community cohesion as well. McKibben tries to stay optimistic in his most quixotic work, but darkness presses at the edges of every page.