E-Book Overview
Imagine you are first in line at a potluck buffet. The spread includes not just food and water, but all the materials needed for shelter, clothing, healthcare, and education. How do you know how much to take? How much is enough to leave for your neighbors behind you—not just the six billion people, but the wildlife, and the as-yet-unborn? In the face of looming ecological disaster, many people feel the need to change their own lifestyles as a tangible way of transforming our unsustainable culture. Radical Simplicity is the first book that guides the reader to a personal sustainability goal, then offers a process to monitor progress to a lifestyle that is equitable amongst all people, species, and generations. It employs three tools to help readers begin their customized journey to simplicity:>It builds on steps from Your Money or Your Life so readers can design their own personal economics to save money, get free of debt, and align their work with their values. It uses refined tools from Our Ecological Footprint so readers can measure how much nature is needed to supply all they consume and absorb their waste.Combining lyrical narrative, compassionate advocacy, and absorbing science, Radical Simplicity is a practical, personal answer to twenty-first century challenges that will appeal as much to Cultural Creatives and students as to spiritual seekers, policy makers, and sustainability professionals.Jim Merkel quit his job as a military engineer following the Exxon Valdez disaster and has since worked to develop tools for personal and societal sustainability. He founded the Global Living Project to further this work and conducts workshops around North America on this topic.
E-Book Content
Advance Praise for RADICAL SIMPLICITY Jim Merkel offers a special mix of practicality and idealism: a workable mix. I defy you to read this book and not come away thinking of ways your life might change for the better. — Bill McKibben, author of The End of Nature The delight of this book is that it is written so clearly from the author’s heart. Merkel’s passion for creating a more humane world shines through on every page. A real inspiration! — Janet Luhrs, author of The Simple Living Guide, and Simple Loving, and editor of Simple Living newsletter Jim Merkel has written the most persuasive argument I have yet seen for all of us to radically change the way we live day-to-day. As a former engineer working on weapons who went through a dramatic change in consciousness, his words have a special power. Radical Simplicity joins the evidence of science to a fertile imagination. At a certain point in his life, Merkel became, as he puts it,“free and on fire” and he conveys that excitement to his readers, in an engaging style. Furthermore, he has carried out his ideas in his personal life and as a social activist, illustrating the practicality of his proposals. This is a profoundly important book. — Howard Zinn, author of A People's History of the United States Square two simplicity at its best! Jim Merkel takes us beyond extended vacations and cleaning closets to hardcore simplicity that aims to save the planet. Radical Simplicity gets to the root of our sustainability dilemma and proposes practical ideas for boosting our quality of life, caring for Mother Earth, and practising right livelihood based on justice and love. A wonderful contribution to the voluntary simplicity literature. — Mark A. Burch, author of Simplicity: Notes, Stories and Exercises for Developing Unimaginable Wealth, and Stepping Lightly: Simplicity for People and the Planet Jim Merkel wants to do nothing less than save our planet and our very lives. Radical Simplicity is an empassioned blueprint for the practice of sustainable, accountable living that can’t fail to give joy to old hands. As for newcomers — watch out! Jim has started a revolution, and this bo