Review by Meghan Mast

By now, almost everyone knows the bad news when it comes to the state of our planet. Global warming is getting worse, and it is our fault. So now what?

Stirred by the spreading sense of discouragement, David Suzuki and Holly Dressel set out to find examples of individuals who are genuinely seeking sustainable and alternative living. Expecting to come up with a thin book, the two were delighted to find they had enough information to write multiple volumes.

After traveling across three continents, Suzuki and Dressel discovered that a growing number of people are arriving at the same conclusion. The natural systems that support our lives are in trouble. So what’s the good news? Change is possible, and countless individuals, organizations and movements are proof of this. Even better, change is not happening in isolated pockets, but is instead in a “vibrant and interwoven movement.”

Suzuki and Dressel concentrate on the positive, providing readers with vibrant illustrations of good that is happening across the globe. Too often the message from environmentalists has been that we are living destructively and now we are in serious trouble. This may be true, but when the message ends there, hope is snuffed out.

Infused with hope for a better world, Good News for a Change stomps out sentiments of despair and instead provides readers with renewed inspiration to get out there and make a difference. The book concludes with a powerful message. Do not become overwhelmed by all the separate problems of the world.

Solutions can be reached one problem at a time, and since invisible relationships weave throughout natural systems, when we affect positive change in one area, that positive change will spread to other areas.

As Holly Dressel’s friend Ken Pizzolito says, “If I work on [saving] the whales, I am fighting global warming and vice versa. It’s all the same thing.” Now that’s some good news, for a change.

This entry was posted on Friday, March 28th, 2008 at 6:50 am and is filed under What's Happening, Book & Movie Reviews. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.