Book Review: EcoMind

Okay, so it isn't new, new, but it's new to me. I just finished Frances Moore Lappe's book, EcoMind: Changing the Way We Think to Create the World We Want, and I am on a campaign to get as many of my friends to read it as possible. Most of us are familiar with her first book, Diet for a Small Planet, but Ms. Lappe is a prolific writer and has many works published, many of which I have read.

I have always felt that we create the world we see in our minds and the theme of this book is right in line with that thought. In it, Ms. Lappe focuses on the framing by the environmental movement and how it discourages the kind of thinking needed to solve our environmental problems, especially climate change. She focuses on seven thought traps:

• No Growth is the Answer
• "Consumer Society" is the Problem
• We've Hit the Limits of a Finite Earth
• We Must Overcome Human Nature to Save the Planet
• To Save Our Planet, We Have to Override Humanity's Natural Resistance to Rules
• Humans Have Lost the Connection to Nature
• It's Too Late!

What I found especially intriguing in the book are the examples from local people all over the world that are truly having an impact. Since all politics are local, this is where each of us can make a difference. The book is thoroughly documented for those of us who like to go back to the source for more information and to verify conclusions.

Read this book. You can get it on Amazon (of course) or from Ms. Lappe's organization, Small Planet Institute.

If you are not a reader, you can watch the YouTube video . Personally, I think Ms. Lappe is a better writer than speaker, but you can certainly get a notion of the information in an hour watching the video.