Location: Seattle
What do a bicycle, a clothesline, and a locally grown tomato have in common? More than ordinary things, they are just three examples of seven everyday wonders. Each one reveals the extraordinary impact we can have in the fight against global warming, according to a newly released and updated book, Seven Wonders for a Cool Planet: Everyday Things to Help Solve Global Warming (published by Sierra Club Books) by award-winning journalist Eric Sorensen and staff of the Seattle-based Sightline Institute.
By now, the human impact on climate change has been established many times over by worldwide scientific consensus, not to mention a constant stream of articles, studies, and media that present a daily and daunting predicament to remedy.
“More than just another book of tips, Seven Wonders for a Cool Planet is a compact and engaging ode to miraculous, human-made wonders that already surround us,” commented the book’s co-author Eric Sorensen. “Each wonder—from the ceiling fan to the tomato—is a powerful and elegant friend of the climate—not to mention your wallet, your health, and your community.”
Seven Wonders suggests a new way to think about solving the climate crisis once and for all by designing sustainability into the very heart of our lives, communities, institutions, and economy, said Sightline senior researcher Eric de Place. “It is a reminder that we aren’t only part of the problem, that we already have at our hands some of the right tools to become part of the solution.”
Each wonder is profiled in a short, lively chapter that is also a springboard for exploring key issues behind global warming: transportation (“The Bicycle”); population (“The Condom”); energy efficiency (“The Ceiling Fan”); renewable energy (“The Clothesline”); food production and distribution (“The Real Tomato”); resource conservation and reuse (“The Library Book”); and the information economy (“The Microchip”).
Proving the proverb “good things come in small packages,” Seven Wonders is an inspiring and hope-filled elegy to the endlessly renewable resources of human ingenuity and a powerful template for personal action.
Books are available now in many bookstores and online at:
www.amazon.com
www.barnesandnoble.com
Sierra Club Books
About the author:Eric Sorensen is a journalist with 25 years of daily newspaper experience, including five years as the science reporter for the Seattle Times. He holds an MS degree from the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism, and is the former program director of the Seattle nonprofit Resource Media. At the Times, he was co-author of Natural Wonders. Sorensen currently lives in Kenmore, Washington, and is a senior writer for Seattle University.
About Sightline Institute:Sightline Institute is an independent nonprofit think tank based in Seattle. Its focus is Cascadia, or the Pacific Northwest, and its mission is to bring about sustainability–a healthy, lasting prosperity grounded in place. Sightline’s only ideology is commitment to the shared values of community, responsibility, fairness, and opportunity. For more information about Sightline Institute and Seven Wonders, visit sightline.org/research/seven-wonders-for-a-cool-planet
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