One of the benefits of being a paid subscriber to this newsletter is that you can participate in the monthly Virtual Book Club.
We are starting this new feature in May and plan to have 8-12 monthly club meetings based on how popular you make it. Each month we will feature a single book with the author(s) being present to talk about the book and of course take questions.
Given the global nature of paid subscribers, I have chosen Thursdays from 12n-1p eastern US time. This will allow Europeans to attend in the early evening, and those on the west coast can join at 9a.
Here are the four books and authors. We hope that people will read some of the books beforehand as that will prompt questions. Authors love to talk about their books with people who have already read them.
Author: David Houle
“The 2020s: The Most Disruptive Decade in History” is an introduction to the decade that will have more change, transformation, creative destruction and disruption than any 30 year period in history. The first in a series of short books about the decade this 100 page book is a fast read of high level concepts and overarching macro-trends that will define the next ten years. Consider it a high-level guidebook for this new decade. It will be hard to put down, except to digest the big concepts and insights that you will have” This little book will be considered essential reading for anyone fearful, threatened for excited by the massive changes rushing toward us all.
Authors: James Fathers and David Houle
This book calls for initiating a golden age of design and redesign for the 21st century. Humanity stands on the threshold of a new era that calls for nothing less. In this historically unprecedented decade of the 2020s, the trajectory of humanity for the next 50 years will be shaped. It can only be done with completely new guidelines of Planetary Systemic Design that Fathers and Houle set forward. The climate crisis, over population, artificial intelligence, the future of education, cities, transportation, energy, new forms of reality all require that humanity let go of past thinking and inadequate design principles to fully redesign what exists and design anew nothing less than what humanity must do now! This book will trigger a complete transformation of design thinking for our collective future.
Authors: Bob Leonard and David Houle
This is a book that, in an all-inclusive way, outlines what humanity needs to do to successfully address the root cause of our climate emergency. When it comes to climate change, the past doesn’t equal the future. What is happening now has never occurred during humanity’s time on Earth. The need for URGENCY is reinforced throughout the book. We have until 2030 and we haven’t a minute to waste. Houle and his co-author, Bob Leonard, make the case for humanity to move to a Finite Earth Economy as fully as possible by 2030. They discuss the new metrics and technologies needed to advance from here to there. Houle and Leonard provide clarity as to what must be done at all levels of humanity from global corporations and nation state governments all the way to individuals. This book also deals with two major issues rarely covered in climate change literature: population management and strategic retreat. This book answers the question: “What can we do to successfully prevail over climate change?” The time for dealing with denial is over. Now is the time to focus on solutions… solutions that impact every facet of modern life. For those of you who are ready to do something about climate change, this book will help you walk your talk. “Moving to a Finite Earth Economy” is a clear-eyed look at what’s coming, and what we can do about it.
Author: Christopher Tucker
How many people can the Earth support? Tucker makes the case that the Earth’s ‘carrying capacity’ is limited to 3 billion humans, and that humanity’s century long binge has incurred an unsustainable ecological debt that must be paid down promptly, or else cataclysm awaits. Given that our species has already surpassed 7.5 billion, and is fast approaching 9 billion or more, this is an audacious claim that everyone who cares about the fate of our planet and our species has a responsibility to evaluate for themselves. Tucker, in his exploration of the frontiers of scientific knowledge, urges all of us to question his estimate. He encourages us to marshal our own data and calculations, if we are so inclined, so that we can all engage in this existential debate as educated global citizens equipped to navigate what promises to be an uncertain future.