Showing posts with label environment. Show all posts
Showing posts with label environment. Show all posts

Monday, January 21, 2013

Book Review: Natural Capitalism: The Next Industrial Revolution

Natural Capitalism is a book that focuses on the natural development of the economic system. The work by Paul Hawken, Amory Lovins, and Hunter Lovins discusses the nature of technology and development within the economic system and how this impacts the natural environment. It discusses in great deal the next industrial revolution, economic waste, costs within organizations, food development, financial solutions, and human capitalism. Through the chapters the reader will be brought through painstaking detail the components of economic system and how the circumstances are right for another transformational development.

The book makes the theoretical argument that the next industrial revolution will be a natural environment one. At present the economic system focuses heavily on human capacity but will soon be more focused on natural resources and the efficient use of such resources. People could live twice as well on half as much energy and resource waste. The creation of efficient environmental usage will develop higher levels of social and economic existence. It is a systematic approach to society and its relation to the natural environment.

The book is written at a graduate level for other academics. It can be hard to follow or stay focused if one is not interested in the topical area. Much of the work has multiple statistics, lists of facts, and detailed information that eventually leads one to a conclusion about the system and its environment. However, the prose is not particularly interesting for the casual reader so one should already have a keen understanding of these concepts. The book's theoretical pitch, with environment changes a new way of societal interaction with the environment is coming, appears to be a sound one. There are lots of references for people who are interested in finding additional resources.

Hawken, P., Lovins, A. & Lovins, H. (1999). Natural Capitalism: creating the next industrial revolution. NY: Little, Brown & Co. ISBN: 0-316-35316-7

Blog Ranking 3.6 -1 (Age of Book)=2.6
Price: $13
Pages: 322