GARDEN PLANET: The Present Phase Change of The Human Species [Paperback]

William H. Kotke (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 16, 2005

K¿tke's new book brilliantly integrates the best contemporary research into a compelling argument on the inevitable collapse of the consumer empire. The argument presented is not a fuzzy doomsday prophecy but rather a strong fact-based prediction that will leave the reader awestruck.Equally brilliant, however, is the "solution" that is offered. The solution offered is not wedded to "high tech" fantasies that will invite further mindless consumption of scarce resources.The author carefully outlines a new culture based on self-sufficient eco-villages, a concept that is gathering momentum and will allow a sustainable transition from the collapse of the consumer empire.This book delivers an important message for anyone ready to come to grips with the impending industrial collapse.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Author Wm. H. K¿tke is widely traveled and published. His most recent book, prior to Planet Garden, was the underground classic, The Final Empire: The Collapse of Civilization and the Seed of the Future.He has been a journalist, a radio script writer, a pamphleteer, a novelist, an essayist, and has had many articles published in periodicals.

Product Details

• Paperback: 160 pages
• Publisher: AuthorHouse (February 16, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1420823884
• ISBN-13: 978-1420823882
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 6.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,829,339 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

20 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Make Love Not War, July 10, 2005

By 

Scott Meredith "SeeOtter" - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: GARDEN PLANET: The Present Phase Change of The Human Species (Hardcover)

This short and deceptively simple book functions on a number of levels. I think readers will take from it largely what their prejudices confine them to, like the seven blind men feeling the elephant. But I'll unpack it just a little here according to my own blindness.

a. The book is a good overview of the scary terminal condition of Earth and humanity. Basic message: the earth is dying and we have the jury's verdict - the culture of Empire dun it.

b. A number of practical, specific methods are described for achieving self-sustaining communities that handle their own inputs and outputs comfortably within a bounded local watershed or bioregion. According to Kotke the solution will be intentional communities, sensitively cultivating a given watershed-bounded region according to principles of Permaculture and Jeavons biointensive gardening.

c. Beyond survival - Kotke whooshes us through a whirlwind tour of alternative practices in economics, medicine, child-raising, conflict mediation, language, etc. These are not described in huge detail, but enough info is given to pique curiosity and breadcrumb trails are offered for those who want to trace on to further education.

The overall tone of the book is a kind of bland "pessimism" about the prospects for industrial civilization, combined with an overall bubbly enthusiasm for the new world of localized non-material (but earth-grounded) pleasure and relative leisure that will emerge. One theme he stresses and restresses is that this vision is not some future thing, it is ALREADY HAPPENING, we have everything we need in place already.

Given the above, the average lefty, eco-hippy type (I don't mean that pejoratively!) would nod enthusiasticaly and say Yay Brother! Because it does seem to confirm and endorse a well-known alternative paradigm, philosophically somewhat akin to Daniel Quinn, but entirely lacking Quinn's irritating tone of superiority, bitterness, and smugness.

However, this IS tough love - Kotke is no fool. Unlike many alternative culture types who deny the reality of Dieoff, Kotke is very explicit that his alternative model not only cannot save industrial civilization (it is the antidote to that), but also that the present gigantically swollen world human POPULATIONS cannot be saved. Munch on the following quote for a moment:

"It is easy to fall into the trap of trying to "save the world". That is, people who are heavily conditioned by civilized culture try to find the silver bullet that will ave it. They try to find more energy, more efficient food production, population control and so forth so that conditions can be maintained just as they are. The information presented here, contrarily, indicates that there will be a massive die-off."

So don't let his "optimism" (justified on his own terms) lull you based on your own prejudices and assumptions. He doesn't give a hard number, but reading between the lines he probably would accept some of the estimates I've heard, that only maximum 1 billion or probably a lot fewer humans, maybe only a few scattered tens of millions, can achieve long-term sustainable continuity on earh, based on solar income alone.

So, combining the various elements of his thesis, we are looking at near extinction of the human race, followed by a long, slow and possibly very painful period of re-stabilization.

One aspect he doesn't cover at all, maybe because in his emerging world people are just going to be a lot nicer due to lack of birth trauma or whatever, is "security". Let's face it, human males are an irritable and violent bunch at the moment (whatever the origin of that nastiness). With all these huge nuke arsenals lying ready to hand, it's unclear to me how we can experience "massive die-off" without some of those alpha chimps beginning to throw stuff at one another. And when elephants fight, the grass is trampled.

Anyway Kotke's written a great book, tough-minded but ultimately hopeful. May it inspire you and your community to dig your own tunnel out of the military-industrial Matrix.

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Where do we go from here?, December 17, 2005

By 

Daniel L. Armstrong - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: GARDEN PLANET: The Present Phase Change of The Human Species (Paperback)

"The information presented here, contrarily, indicates that there will be a mass die-off. We are preparing the new culture that will flourish after that."
-William H. Kotke, GARDEN PLANET


There is a growing school of thought that projects a catastrophic socio-economic collapse in this century. The timeline varies from one commentator to the next, but the scenarios are much the same: the inhabitants of the earth will suffer through a difficult period of population recession when the real cost of poor resource management comes due on the planet. Once considered heresy, now trickling into the main stream, this projection follows closely with the 100-year extrapolation of the Club of Rome's no-change-in-the-way-we-live curve that some call "the die-off." It is also directly connected to peaking petroleum reserves, global warming, the collapse of the ocean fisheries, and worldwide pandemic potentials. As Mr. Kotke might say, it marks the end of empire. Garden Planet is a short, concise blueprint for restoring Earth's natural garden paradise after the crash.
For those who believe that business as usual on planet Earth is sustainable, Mr. Kotke opens Garden Planet with his argument for the likelihood of a severe economic roll-back in the not so distant future. He goes through the case piece by piece, pollution, over-population, loss of topsoil, aquifer depletion, and the fallacy of unlimited growth in a closed system. To put it as simply as possible, we can't continue to consume Earth's natural resources as if there were no tomorrow-or there won't be!
So what's the answer? We learn to garden the planet instead of steadily desecrating it. This is precisely what Kotke offers. He takes us on an anthropological review of several different cultures and how they have been able to carve out a sustainable way of life in less than optimal conditions. Highlighting the lessons these cultures demonstrate and blending them into a flexible whole, he gives us an outline for the twenty-first century intentional community planet Earth. He tells us how to repair the watershed, regenerate the soil, reforest our landscape, even place and built a shelter. Behind it all is the art and science of permaculture and an entirely different way to imagine horticulture-to climax with the land not impact it.
This is just what we need. A basic plan to make this place work. Right now we run a system built on the economics of war and petroleum. It is reflected in the way we live and who we are. It is the antithesis of husbanding the planet. The society of humans and its relationship with the web of life must evolve-thus the subtitle of this book, "the present phase change of the human species." Kotke is urging us to make full use of the gift of consciousness and to live intentionally. Hopeful, positive, and necessary, Kotke's vision is the Garden Planet.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars After The Deluge, April 18, 2005

By 

Victorio Duende "Vic" (Pahoa, Hawaii) - See all my reviews

This review is from: GARDEN PLANET: The Present Phase Change of The Human Species (Hardcover)

Kotke re-addresses issues that most people can't want to know. They are calmly and rationally discussed as if they were, and for the most part they are, common knowledge. Kothe, however, has an uncommon understanding of the minutia, as well as a visionary insight of the big picture: how the fibers compose the thread, the threads compose the tapestry, etc. He raises the conversation from the typical neurotic survey of the inevitable to a sane forecast of the path human evolution will follow. Kotke is not the merchant of hope, but rather the herald of true progress.