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The point is to change it
Review Worldchanging: A user’s guide for the 21st century edited by Alex Steffen, published by Abrams, £24.95, ISBN 0810930952
THE POINT IS TO CHANGE IT
■
THESE are sad times for neoclassical economists: their pin-up is dead. She may have been far from perfect, a bit one-track, and always insisting everything be done her way, but free-marketeers like Margaret Thatcher loved her with a blind devotion. Her name was Tina, which stood for There Is No Alternative, and she was the embodiment of the “privatise, liberalise and deregulate” approach to economics. Tina stifled debate with the efficiency of a secret policeman from the cold war era. Yet looking back, the assumption that there was just one economic solution to the world’s problems seems immature. Left to themselves, society and nature flourish on diversity; they are just too complicated for one-size-fits-all answers. We now seem to have an explosion of new ways to tackle the problems of a troubled planet, and few will mourn Tina. Among the publications offering ways out of global dysfunction is Worldchanging, a well-illustrated book intended for environmental campaigners and the coffee-table market. Given the book’s green-leaning audience it is hard to see why it needs such a cute box-as-cover. Another question is whether campaigners are the sort to buy such books, or whether people who buy such books are the sort to campaign. But it works www.newscientist.com
well as a field guide since not even super-keen activists are likely to read the book from cover to cover. You may already have visited the Worldchanging.com website, the true “author” of this book. This is a site sponsored by TED (Technology, Entertainment, Design, which sees itself as an ideas factory and a force to be reckoned with in the solutions game). For the book, Alex Steffen, Worldchanging.com’s co-founder and executive editor, has gathered dozens of examples covering solutions to every global problem, from poverty to the excesses of consumerism, and from climate change and urban design to the failure of political systems. In one section, you hop almost seamlessly from entries on “questioning consumption” to
“Left to themselves, society and nature thrive on diversity” “biomimicry in action”. The latter introduces you to the “incredible adhesive power” of gecko tape and its potential in sustainable building or assembly. It’s the sort of thing that will be familiar to New Scientist readers, and much of the book reads a little like the In Brief section of this magazine. Much, though, will be less familiar. Other sections look at social entrepreneurship (running
THIERRY ROGE/REUTERS
The one-size-fits-all economic thinking of the late 20th century has gone – and good riddance, says Andrew Simms. The burning question now is what to put in its place
an enterprise to benefit the public rather than to profit shareholders, an idea very much in vogue among policy-makers), urban community development, and how to reinvent the refugee camp. In the latter section, you discover the drinking straw that kills E. coli and a host of other nasties, a super-food called Plumpy’nut, and a compostable tent city. Worldchanging works hard to hit the right notes, but it doesn’t suggest how to avoid the need for refugee camps. Instead it tells us that we can help bring victims “to a place where they can re-imagine their own lives and acquire the skills to forge their own paths”. This betrays a rather technocratic mindset that seeks to “apply” solutions from outside, instead of acknowledging that refugees, like other people, often know perfectly well what they need, and probably have a wide range of skills that are going to waste when they could be put to good use. If the book has a weakness, it
Improving refugee camps is a fine idea, but why are they there at all?
stems from an apolitical, breathless enthusiasm for quick techno-fixes. Anyone who works in development and humanitarian relief will roll their care-worn eyes at the thought of yet another well-meaning sales rep from a rich country offering magic nutrition for hungry people. Such shortcomings apart, Worldchanging tries to make the positive point that all is not hopeless, and that there are more ways of improving the human lot than are being used. Every project needs a catchphrase. Tina is dead, so what to call her replacements? How about Ophelia: One Planet Has Endless Lyrical Interesting Alternatives? ● Andrew Simms is policy director of the London-based New Economics Foundation and author of Ecological debt: The health of the planet and the wealth of nations (Pluto Press, 2005) 23/30 December 2006 | NewScientist | 69
THE POINT IS TO CHANGE IT
■
THESE are sad times for neoclassical economists: their pin-up is dead. She may have been far from perfect, a bit one-track, and always insisting everything be done her way, but free-marketeers like Margaret Thatcher loved her with a blind devotion. Her name was Tina, which stood for There Is No Alternative, and she was the embodiment of the “privatise, liberalise and deregulate” approach to economics. Tina stifled debate with the efficiency of a secret policeman from the cold war era. Yet looking back, the assumption that there was just one economic solution to the world’s problems seems immature. Left to themselves, society and nature flourish on diversity; they are just too complicated for one-size-fits-all answers. We now seem to have an explosion of new ways to tackle the problems of a troubled planet, and few will mourn Tina. Among the publications offering ways out of global dysfunction is Worldchanging, a well-illustrated book intended for environmental campaigners and the coffee-table market. Given the book’s green-leaning audience it is hard to see why it needs such a cute box-as-cover. Another question is whether campaigners are the sort to buy such books, or whether people who buy such books are the sort to campaign. But it works www.newscientist.com
well as a field guide since not even super-keen activists are likely to read the book from cover to cover. You may already have visited the Worldchanging.com website, the true “author” of this book. This is a site sponsored by TED (Technology, Entertainment, Design, which sees itself as an ideas factory and a force to be reckoned with in the solutions game). For the book, Alex Steffen, Worldchanging.com’s co-founder and executive editor, has gathered dozens of examples covering solutions to every global problem, from poverty to the excesses of consumerism, and from climate change and urban design to the failure of political systems. In one section, you hop almost seamlessly from entries on “questioning consumption” to
“Left to themselves, society and nature thrive on diversity” “biomimicry in action”. The latter introduces you to the “incredible adhesive power” of gecko tape and its potential in sustainable building or assembly. It’s the sort of thing that will be familiar to New Scientist readers, and much of the book reads a little like the In Brief section of this magazine. Much, though, will be less familiar. Other sections look at social entrepreneurship (running
THIERRY ROGE/REUTERS
The one-size-fits-all economic thinking of the late 20th century has gone – and good riddance, says Andrew Simms. The burning question now is what to put in its place
an enterprise to benefit the public rather than to profit shareholders, an idea very much in vogue among policy-makers), urban community development, and how to reinvent the refugee camp. In the latter section, you discover the drinking straw that kills E. coli and a host of other nasties, a super-food called Plumpy’nut, and a compostable tent city. Worldchanging works hard to hit the right notes, but it doesn’t suggest how to avoid the need for refugee camps. Instead it tells us that we can help bring victims “to a place where they can re-imagine their own lives and acquire the skills to forge their own paths”. This betrays a rather technocratic mindset that seeks to “apply” solutions from outside, instead of acknowledging that refugees, like other people, often know perfectly well what they need, and probably have a wide range of skills that are going to waste when they could be put to good use. If the book has a weakness, it
Improving refugee camps is a fine idea, but why are they there at all?
stems from an apolitical, breathless enthusiasm for quick techno-fixes. Anyone who works in development and humanitarian relief will roll their care-worn eyes at the thought of yet another well-meaning sales rep from a rich country offering magic nutrition for hungry people. Such shortcomings apart, Worldchanging tries to make the positive point that all is not hopeless, and that there are more ways of improving the human lot than are being used. Every project needs a catchphrase. Tina is dead, so what to call her replacements? How about Ophelia: One Planet Has Endless Lyrical Interesting Alternatives? ● Andrew Simms is policy director of the London-based New Economics Foundation and author of Ecological debt: The health of the planet and the wealth of nations (Pluto Press, 2005) 23/30 December 2006 | NewScientist | 69