Believing Cassandra: An Optimist Looks at a Pessimist's World (Paperback)

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From Kirkus Reviews
A prescription to ease our environmental blunderings, delivered to a relentlessly upbeat tune, from sustainability maven AtKisson (Beyond the Limitis, not reviewed, etc.). Those doomsayers who have predicted the end of the planet as we know it, and have been proven wrong, have served to relegate all environmentally concerned comments to the fate of Cassandras mutterings: They are ignored. And so they should be, asserts AtKisson, for the earth is not a lost cause, even if the problems are vast: too many people, overuse of resources, and gross pollution. The answer is to stop the growth of population, waste, and resource use, and accelerate the kinds of development that lead to improvements in human technology and advances in the human condition. AtKisson hasnt the unbridled faith in technology of a Julian Simon, but he does believe it can be harnessed to do good by the earth. Witness, for example, the advances in defusing the nuclear-waste problem, or the industry-government covenants in the Netherlands. Human ingenuity is the key, and sustainability the goal; we cant consume faster than the resource is replenished, we cant dump faster than the earth can absorb. AtKissons sustainability isnt the hair-shirt variety: A sustainable world . . . is a wildly diverse and fascinating world, one that nurtures creative expression and poking into the unknown: It is the process of trying to approach Utopia from a thousand different directions. Implementation is where AtKisson loses his feel-good tone, by fluttering with the fickle winds of fashion to attract interest in sustainabilitythe Mainstreamers watch the Transformers for cues on what new ideas to adopt and are almost sure to followtreating the populace like cattle rather than thinking individuals who must draw their own moral compact with the natural world. AtKissons points are commonsensical, and doubtless sincereuntil his condescending finalebut also well traveled. Why should people start listening now? -- Copyright ©1999, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

Review
"Alan AtKisson is the freshest and wisest voice to emerge from the sustainability movement in many years. BELIEVING CASSANDRA manages to be incisive, but also humorous and hopeful, while examining unblinkingly the environmental holocaust enveloping the earth. This book renews our sense of the possible and expands the dimensions of our collective intelligence, transforming our sense of the future from a curse to a blessing." -- Paul Hawken, author of NATURAL CAPITALISM

"This book is clarifying and inspiring. Read it and you'll not only know how to think sustainability and do sustainability--you'll know how to dance, sing, and laugh it as well." -- Vicki Robin, co-author of YOUR MONEY OR YOUR LIFE

Apocalypse Got You Down?

Charge Into the Future with Cassandra

By George Thabault
At the vulnerable age of nineteen, I read a small paperback book called The Limits to Growth. No other book would influence my life so greatly, though I could barely understand its message at the time . . .
So begins the tale of Alan AtKisson, one of Chelsea Green’s newest and most refreshing voices on the American environmental scene. Here at Chelsea Green, we think of Alan as one of those extraordinarily lively characters you might chance upon in a café in a far-away city, who regales you with fascinating stories, enchanting, witty songs, and a hard-earned and definitely inspiring outlook on life. If you’ve had such a café experience, you know it can change your life. At the very least it will stay forever in your mind.
What’s the Problem?

In a way, what Alan has done with his first book, Believing Cassandra: An Optimist Looks at a Pessimist’s World, is to bring the entire American environmental movement into his café, and there, between stories of terrifying bus rides in Malaysia and mystic moments at Big Sur, he outlines our predicament.
FACT #1: The most important ecological systems around the globe are deteriorating rapidly, perhaps too rapidly to prevent their collapse.
FACT #2: Many thoughtful researchers and scientists have been toiling for years to observe and report on this disintegration of the intricate web of natural systems that have supported us for so long. (Even optimists tremble and grieve at the news.)
FACT #3: Paralyzed by the scope of the issues and a growing weight of hopelessness, frustration, and despair, many people have shut down. They reject the distress signals that Nature is sending us through our scientists. They don’t want to hear any more bad news about the environment. “Please change the channel,” they say.
That, in a nutshell, is what Alan deftly calls “Cassandra’s Dilemma.” Greek legend has it that beautiful Cassandra, youngest daughter of the last king of Troy, was endowed by the gods with the gift of seeing the future. And then, because she spurned the gods, her gift was cruelly twisted—no one would ever believe her prophecies.
Today’s alarming feedback from Nature about greenhouse gases, toxic waste, species destruction, or ocean pollution often prompts this ancient reaction of denial and disbelief. The dilemma is clear—we can see an immense global catastrophe coming, but we are powerless to do much of anything about it. We can’t even get people who might do something about it to really hear us.
“Our brains are very good at filtering out unpleasant and inconvenient information,” notes Alan. “We humans are wired to respond to immediate, obvious threats—like bears at the cave door—rather than abstract signals like graphs of atmospheric CO2 that simply do not look threatening,” he notes.
“The World’s responses to signals it does get from Nature generally come too late, or only partially, or not at all. What we’ve got here is a pair of dance partners who don’t do the same steps, don’t feel the same rhythm, don’t listen to each other, and have a growing number of bruised and bloody toes,” he writes, citing Gregory Bateson’s summary of the issue: “The major problems in the world are the result of the differences between the way nature works and the way people think.”
Who’s to Blame?
In a view point that might sound cavalier to some environmentalists, Alan says it's the design and function of systems, rather than the actions of individuals, that is the central problem we face.

“Huge and impersonal forces are at work that are bigger than any individual actor could possibly be responsible for, whatever their motivation,” AtKisson declares. “The World is literally out of control. The problem is not the individual . . . unless you’re a wildlife poacher who formerly worked for Greenpeace.”

AtKisson focuses on the complex systems of how “Nature” gives us signals, or feedback, on its health, and how the “World” does or does not respond. And he does it without getting lost in the arcane language of systems dynamics. Here’s a tasty example from his analysis of the decline of the North Atlantic cod fishery:
Although it might be therapeutic to blame Nature for not responding adequately to humanity’s growing, changing needs—by, say, learning to grow fish faster—it’s hardly helpful. We’re the ones with consciousness, after all. Nature is going to do the rhumba, no matter what we do. So it is incumbent upon us to learn the music, the rhythm, the steps. In dance-floor terms, Nature leads. We have to learn to anticipate her next move.
So who, or what, is to blame? “The problem is not easily attributable to technology, affluence, poverty, population increases, sprawl, economics, human greed, human evil, or human ignorance,” AtKisson decides. “The problem originates in all of the above . . . and while the problem is not our fault, we are obligated to solve it,” he declares.
Where Do We Turn?

Part II of the book deals with the very important question: Where do we go from here in the face of all this bad news and everyone’s refusal to listen? Toward sustainability is AtKisson’s fervent hope.
Sustainability is for AtKisson a coming journey for everyone, from the individual homeowner to the CEO of a transnational corporation. Alan summarizes the allure of sustainability this way: “To prevent global collapse, we need something that is both visionary and highly profitable, something that can appeal to both the ardent altruist and the hardened venture capitalist. We need a source of hope that is also a business opportunity, a hot investment that is extremely idealistic. We need something that will change our higher natures and attract our baser instincts, coaxing us into the game of transformation without polarizing society or fomenting revolution. We need something that has not been seen since humans first began plowing up dirt, building skyscrapers, messing around with atmospheric chemistry. We need something that has the power to command a lifetime of allegiance, even though it does not exist now in practice, and may never really exist except in theory. We need something we can hardly begin to describe in tangible, concrete terms.”
Alan carefully walks the reader through the minimum conditions necessary for a sustainable economy and society, and supports his arguments with real-world examples in the chapter, “Proof of the Possible.” He avoids the anti-business rant of some environmentalists. Indeed, for AtKisson, businesspeople are among the people who must help avert catastrophe. But he challenges business people to understand the difference between “growth” and “development,” and why the world needs less growth and more development.
Sustainability and environmentalism are very different things, says AtKisson. “Activism to protect Nature from the ravages of the economy is different from working to redesign the economy itself,” he writes.
“We continue to need a strong (in fact stronger) environmentalism, setting boundaries and protecting society from some people’s unfortunate tendency to try to get away with profiteering at Nature’s and society’s expense.”
“But for environmentalism’s NO to work, there must also be sustainability’s YES,” AtKisson declares. Sustainability encourages and provides incentives, is about transforming the economy, promotes a vision of the future, creates possibilities, and can be a political win-win situation. “Sustainability is an ideal, like truth, justice, freedom, democracy, and love. We never completely reach our ideals, but we strive toward them—and striving toward them is what defines us as a culture,” he writes.
AtKisson believes that, in the end, society will become sustainable because it has to. “We’ll become sustainable at some level of comfort or discomfort, by choice or by Nature’s forcing hand. It is far more desirable to attain it by choice, and that means studying it, planning for it, measuring our progress toward it,” he writes.
This piece was written for Chelsea Green's newspaper The Junction by reviewer George Thabault, who is a freelance writer from Colchester, Vermont, a Burlington Free Press correspondent, and former communications director for The Center for a New American Dream (www.newdream.org). He and his family also sell fruits and veggies at the Burlington Farmers’ Market.

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Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
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Change Agents, The Limits, The Innovation Diffusion Game, The Proof of the Possible, Sustainable Seattle, Cassandra's Laughter, United Nations, Cassandras Dilemma, Cassandra's Tears, Dead Planet Blues, Planet Earth, Conclusion Number, The Natural Step, Amory Lovins, Silent Spring, Karl Ludwig, The Hundredth Monkey, Rachel Carson, New York Times, North Atlantic, United States, San Diego, The End of Nature, Elliot Richardson, Richard Conlin Browse Sample Pages:
Front Cover | Table of Contents | First Pages | Index | Back Cover | Surprise Me!

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12 Reviews 5 star:  (7) 4 star:  (2) 3 star:  (2) 2 star:    (0) 1 star:  (1)           Average Customer Review 4.2 out of 5 stars (12 customer reviews)		Share your thoughts with other customers: Create your own review
Most Helpful Customer Reviews   27 of 28 people found the following review helpful: 5.0 out of 5 stars Really important books are rare. This is one., November 11, 1999 By A Customer This is a transcript of key points of my review of BELIEVING CASSANDRA on Vermont Public Radio in October: Really important books are rare. I've found one...and it's just been published in Vermont... How often do you read a book that will in some way change you and maybe even change the course of human events? When as a teen, I read GRAPES OF WRATH by John Steinbeck, it changed my perception of the world and awoke a social conscience in me. When as a medical educator I read ON DEATH AND DYING by Elizabeth Kubler-Ross, it changed the way I taught and changed the way medicine was practiced all over the world. EUROPE ON $5 A DAY changed the way Americans traveled. And Rachel Carson's SILENT SPRING changed some of the ways humans relate to their home planet. Well, I've just finished another book that may alter our relationship with Ma Earth. It's called BELIEVING CASSANDRA: AN OPTIMIST LOOKS AT A PESSIMIST'S WORLD. It was written by Alan AtKisson... The book is about---do not turn off the radio when you hear this word!---SUTAINABILITY. But it's not airy-fairy, not doom and gloom, not all charts and graphs. Instead, it makes clear and important distinctions between, for example, growth and development; growth means increases in quantity while development means improvements in quality. And while there are truly limits to growth, AtKisson believes there are no limits to development. That's what makes him an optimist. BELIEVING CASSANDRA is an unusually readable book. AtKisson has a light touch. (He's also a singer-songwriter and public speaker.) And he spells out, clearly and understandably, what he believes will takes us off the track which we're now on, the one that leads to a horrible crash between humanity and Mother Nature. He's also got a great eye for finding pieces that fit into the big puzzle. He pulls in everything from global warming to codfishing to A HITCHHIKER'S GUIDE TO THE GALAXY to scurvy. Scurvy? "Consider the story of scurvy. In 1601 a British Captain General discovered a cure for scurvy, a disease that routinely struck sailing crews on long voyages. We now know that scurvy, which involves an outbreak of large and painful sores, is caused by a deficiency of vitamin C. By giving lemon juice to sailors and observing the results, he found that the juice would alleviate the sores. He duly reported his discovery to the naval authorities and recommended that lemons be kept on board as a remedy. His findings and recommendations were politely ignored." AtKissons follows the course of the disease and its potential cure. "It was 264 years between the time when the cure was first discovered and the time when any British seaman could go on a long voyage without the fear of the disease. Scurvy's tale is a cautionary one, about the costs to people and society when there are delays in adopting good new ideas." BELIEVING CASSANDRA is a timely execution of a good idea... This is Jules Older in Albany, Vermont, the Soul of the Kingdom. Comment Comment | Permalink | Was this review helpful to you? Yes No (Report this)   12 of 12 people found the following review helpful: 5.0 out of 5 stars Practical Help for Saving the World, February 6, 2000 By  Sandy Bradley (Nahcotta, WA USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)    Book of the Year Our children, our grandchildren, their children and their grandchildren offer a sense of continuity for our efforts, a long term stewardship sensibility which guides our daily choices. We learned this from our parents and their parents, as they tried to offer us a better world than they had as children. Looking ahead three or four decades offers our generation a much more clouded vision of what future generations may have to face. The sheer magnitude of the possible impact of environmental changes defies consideration. The issue is too huge and too important, and our pea-brains deflect in self-defense. We're a crummy little species, but we're all we've got, so we've got to find a way to make the best of it. In Believing Cassandra, Alan AtKisson offers an realistic analysis of the global situation with upbeat examples of past social change successes and current brilliant pragmatic responses to our species' greatest challenge. This book is cajoling, joyous and entertaining. It is chocolate for the soul, offering a way to consider our future with a constructive attitude. You will laugh, you will understand, and you will start to develop an appetite for the solutions. At the same time, it provides an engagingly fluid and readable explanation of systems theory. AtKisson, an occasional resident of Seattle, was one of the architects of Sustainable Seattle, which developed a set of indicators for evaluating the sustainability of the choices we are making for our future. You can't use up more than you replace, or the world runs out. Sustainable Seattle has become a template for evaluating the long term impact of environmental and political policies in communities all over the world, and has had a significant effect here at home. Cassandra, you might recall from Homer, made a deal with Zeus, trading herself for the ability to see the future. She reneged on her part of the deal, but Zeus couldn't withdraw his gift, once given. He got even by confounding her gift with a curse: she would be able to see the future, but nobody would believe her. Thus when she warned the Trojans about the big wooden horse, but they ignored her. We've been ignoring her, too. The planet has a problem, and we are it. Believing Cassandra allows us to look forward to the joys inherent in the solutions. Comment Comment | Permalink | Was this review helpful to you? Yes No (Report this)   9 of 9 people found the following review helpful: 5.0 out of 5 stars A fantastic work of art that does not "just sit there.", October 28, 1999 By  Joseph Amrbose Harris (tsogood@hotmail.com) (Chiang Rai, Thailand) - See all my reviews Alan AtKisson's Believing Cassandra occupies an incredibly rare space in the sustainable development literature of our time. It unites the scientific with our own individual experience and manages to reach us deeply on a very human level. It is BEYOND important. It is moving. The way AtKisson has managed to weave so seemlessly an endearing prose style (that sings of Douglas Adams' influence among others) with hard science-based facts, abstract theoretical concepts, and the relating experiential vignettes that pull it all together is absolutely stunning. It is a work of art that does not "just sit there." It accomplishes something - inspiring action and hope through an understanding of the past we can all relate to and an innovative framework for the future to take as our lens. For all of that, the author should be very, very proud. If the book has a flaw, it is that it eventually ends as all things must. In reading it, when I came across a phrase that registered with my intuition, I turned down the corner of the page. The problem came when I realized I was turning down every other page because of the frequency of so many magically potent phrases. Believing Cassandra's size nearly doubled because of all the wonderful words I wanted to keep close to both my head and heart! Kudos to Alan AtKisson for a triumph that will will be in the fore of this reader's mind as he goes out into the world to put the concept of sustainability into practice. Comment Comment | Permalink | Was this review helpful to you? Yes No (Report this) Share your thoughts with other customers: Create your own review › See all 12 customer reviews...		Ad feedback   Most Recent Customer Reviews 3.0 out of 5 stars A good read for eager activists This book provides good views that make sense and can help you remain engaged in mainstream concerns to understand the audience and how you can better approach them... Read more Published 8 months ago by Roberto Giannicola 4.0 out of 5 stars Read this! A brilliant, sensitive, amusing, personal and deeply profound look at the current attitude towards important environmental issues including climate change - it depresses, accuses,... Read more Published 12 months ago by commander pj 1.0 out of 5 stars A Different Kind of Environmentalist, Perhaps? In this book, the author skillfully co-opts the thinking and valuable contributions of those considered to be pro-people-oriented development, such as Susan George and Amartya... Read more Published on May 24, 2006 by Gregory McMahan 4.0 out of 5 stars A Good Optimistic Outlook Don't be put off by the cover photo. This is a great overview of the environmental issue. But as opposed to many books by environmental doomsday prophets, this book tells a... Read more Published on August 30, 2004 by J. Bosiljevac 3.0 out of 5 stars Hip Shooter with a Big Heart Believing in Cassandra has terrific quotes; the story about how long it took to lick scurvy was fascinating and the central message is hard to argue with. Read more Published on February 14, 2003 by 5:51 5.0 out of 5 stars Believe AtKisson Don't stop, don't even slow down - hit the button right now to add this book to your shopping cart. You'll be glad you did. Once you have read it, be sure to pass it on. Read more Published on November 13, 2001 by Doubter 5.0 out of 5 stars Believing Cassandra Excellent review of the global warming issue, including history and current aspects, and a good introduction for those new to this concern. Read more Published on June 17, 2001 5.0 out of 5 stars Cassandra I believe that the author's points are made in the most beautiul style. Not only does Mr. Atkinsson believe in what he is writing, but he also gives practical solutions for... Read more Published on May 27, 2000 by ElizabethWard 5.0 out of 5 stars This is a book to believe! Believing Cassandra is a book well worth recommending. It is a great introduction to the concept of "sustainability," putting it into terms that are understandable by the average... Read more Published on October 23, 1999 by Joseph C. Jenkins Search Customer Reviews Only search this product's reviews › See all 12 customer reviews...

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