God's Last Offer: Negotiating for a Sustainable Future

Rating:
Summary: Profound information with personal solutions
Review: I was impressed with the compilation of the massive amounts of information about the environment put in a way that creates an illumination of the actual problem that exists on earth. More impressively, it gives practical solutions that each of us personally can work to do in our lives.

Rating:
Summary: An Absolute Must-Read
Review: If I could afford to, I would buy a copy of this book for everyone I know and almost everyone I encounter, on the off-chance that they might read it and take personal action (or at least, begin to connect the dots between their own consumer frenzy and the fate of the planet). Although I was already aware - in fragments - of most of the looming crises mentioned in the book, Ayres puts it all together and makes causal connections: between the Aswan Dam and famine in the Middle East; between the shortage of wheat in China and rising prices in America; and if course, between a society gone mad for SUVs, fast food and mansions in the suburbs and the potential (or rather, current) disastrous changes in the world climate. The message of the book is that life as we know it is no longer sustainable, but if we act now, and act together (Ayres also makes a wonderful case for community as opposed to "survivalism") there is hope not only for life on this planet, but a better life for its inhabitants. Read this book; your life may depend on it. And pass it on.

Rating:
Summary: I was floored!
Review: In this 1999 masterpiece of activist writing, Ed Ayres eerily predicts what the future holds if humanity continues upon it's suicidal path of rising carbon, consumption, population, and biodiversity loss. Reading this today (May 2003) will bring chills to your spine. Everything Ayres prognosticated in 1999 has come to pass: massive terrorism from non-aligned organizations (bin Laden-ism), widespread corporate deceit (Enron), rise of mega-viruses (SARS), and unimaginable species extinctions. And for those of us who aren't in denial and choose not to ignore, we realize the worst is yet to come. There is little chance of reversing this downward spiral... but doing nothing is too shameful to contemplate. This book should be required reading for all graduating college - or even high school - seniors.

Rating:
Summary: Clarity Amidst the Clamor
Review: Information. There's so much of it, how do we decide what is important and what isn't? Where do we look? Ed Ayres' new book is a plea for a new vision -- a realistic vision of what kind of world we have already, and what kind of world we will have if we don't take action. The warnings here are not new: overpopulation, excessive consumption, massive extinction of species, and the impending climate upheavals caused by escalating carbon emissions. What IS new in Ayres' approach is his tight analysis of how people become distracted from these problems and end up refocused on the trivial, the derivative, or the flat-out fantastical. The book is especially strong when he calls for new KINDS of forms to deal with global problems. For example, as rivers begin to run dry and drinking water becomes even more scarce, it doesn't make sense for nation-states to compete for the water -- upstream vs. downstream. What is needed is a bioregional system whereby the entire watershed is seen as a whole, set within its natural context. Only these kinds of solutions are sufficient for the future. All in all, this is a well-researched yet passionate appeal.

Rating:
Summary: Wake Up call that should be mandatory reading
Review: On November 1999, Time magazine published a set of fascinating and thought-provoking articles on a variety of subjects entitled "Visions of the 21st Century". Amongst these articles was one authored by Ed Ayres under the title "Will We Still Eat Meat?" and what a fascinating couple of pages worth of statistics and insight for those intelligent and sensitive enough to care!

While only the text of it can be easily found on the web (http://www.junkscience.com/nov99/ayres.htm ), it summarizes eloquently some of the resource-availability-and-impact issues which are masterfully detailed in this extremely important book "God's Last Offer: Negotiating for a Sustainable Future".

Civilized countries should revise their educational programs to incorporate this book into their systems while there may be time to revert some of the human-made ecological disasters that result from the common "Quick Buck" mentality and particularly the cruelty associated with animal meat consumption - but, unfortunately they will not. Well established meat profiting industries, as well as, idiotic religious fervor will get in the way to promote the perpetual and biggest crime of humanity. What a shame!

By all means - BUY THIS BOOK if you haven't.

Rating:
Summary: A disturbing wake-up call to a culture in denial.
Review: This book is not another fun summer read. It is, rather, more like a sledgehammer assault on our collective complacency and cultual denial.By summarizing out current environmental malaise by means of the four easily understood "spikes", Ayers makes clear (at least to this reviewer)the time to wake up from our "business as usual" slumbers is now. He convinced me of his diagnosis. I was a little less convinced that there was much any one person could do about it. I was looking at our tired old earth a little differently after this one.