Gus Speth will present his E.F. Shumacher lecture today at VLS.  The library is pleased to highlight some of Speth’s work available in the collection.  An author search in Julien reveals Speth’s works in print and e-book format.

Speth delivers a powerful message in his most recent book, The Bridge at the Edge of the World: Capitalism, The Environment, and Crossing from Crisis to Sustainability (2008). In three parts, System Failure, the Great Transformation, and the Seedbeds of Transformation, Speth chronicles how our political and economic system, specifically capitalism, must be changed to sustain any future at all. ENC COLL HC79.E5S66522008

Peter M. Hass and Speth co-authored Global Environmental Governance in 2006. The book reviews global environmental challenges and how such problems have been confronted by the global community. The two make recommendations for comprehensive “global environmental governance.” Beyond this, the book encourages personal engagement with global environmental issues by including discussion question intended to “provoke critical thinking about these issues”, the book also includes a list for further reading.ENV COLL HC79.E5S66532006

Speth’s fondest hope for the book Red Sky at Morning: America and the Crisis of the Global Environment, A Citizen’s Agenda for Action is that it is “widely read by young people.” The book is a toolkit for forging ahead on the creation of a new system to protect the global environment because the “current system simply isn’t working.” Though Speth rightly says, it is easy to despair about the environment’s current state, he says there are solutions, which the book is full of. The book also includes “Resources for Citizens” which includes tips for engagement on a daily basis.  ENVCOLLGE149.S642004

E.F. Schumacher is the author of Small is Beautiful: Economics as if People Mattered and who the lecture series, which Gus speaks in, is named after. Originally published in 1973, the book, containing four parts: The Modern World, Resources, the Third World, Organization and Ownership ; the message of an economy where nature and [wo]man are in harmony is still powerful today.        ENV COLL HB171.S3841975