Green Plans: Greenprint for Sustainability (Our Sustainable Future)

Green Plans: Greenprint for Sustainability (Our Sustainable Future)

Green Plans: Greenprint for Sustainability (Our Sustainable Future)Author(s): Huey D. Johnson, David R. Brower

Publisher: University of Nebraska Press (December 28, 1996)

Paperback: 210 pages

ISBN: 080327596X

ISBN-13: 978-0803275966

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Green Plans are the most effective strategies yet developed for moving from industrial environmental deterioration to postindustrial sustainability. Huey D. Johnson provides the first detailed and understandable examination of the theory, implementation, and performance of green plans in the Netherlands, Canada, and New Zealand. Plans being considered in Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Austria, the United Kingdom, Germany, Singapore, and the European Community are also discussed. Green plans will serve future generations as models of creative collaboration between government and business.

Review

Green Plans examines strategies utilized in several countries for dealing with sustainable development. ”Green Plans” are comprehensive schemes requiring extensive dedication and a large-scale integrated commitment by government. Johnson maintains that America”s approach to environmental problems has usually involved a narrow focus on individual issues that sometimes comes too late, whereas comprehensive and integrated green plans involve all of society. . . . This is not another ”doom and gloom” depiction of the environment with extensive fingerpointing at industry, but is instead a balanced, well-written argument for a mutually beneficial plan for enabling sustainable development while protecting environmental quality.”—Choice

(Choice )

“In this plainly written manual, Johnson . . . offers green planning (developing comprehensive and integrated plans to protect and sustain the environment) as a practical alternative to the hopelessness and sporadic reaction to single issues with which we face continuing environmental degradation. . . . Johnson argues that green plans work because, unlike laws or regulations that address specific issues, they provide a framework, goals, and priorities for long-term sustainable resource management.”—Library Journal

(Library Journal )

“This book is quite informative. It would be useful for anyone seeking (detailed) knowledge about designing a ”greenprint for sustainability.” The more technical emphasis, in combination with a case-study approach, make it quite suitable for public officials, such as environmental planners/managers, and for beginning students of environmental policy. . . . As one of the first books to deal with the development, implementation, and performance of green plans, this is certainly a welcome addition to the literature relating to the operationalisation and implementation of the concept of sustainability.”—Environmental Politics

(Environmental Politics )

“Green plans can solve environmental problems for the world, the nation, businesses, labor, environmentalists, future generations—for everyone. They show what planning can and should be, and rescue the concept of planning from the scrapheap of history. Green plans are comprehensive, integrated, and large-scale—three traits that are key to solving environmental problems. . . . [This book is] clearly-written and important.”—Future Survey

(Future Survey )

“Green plans are comprehensive, integrated and large-scale national environmental strategies. H. J. Johnson shows us what Green Plans are and what they are not. His examples of pioneering countries, The Netherlands, New Zealand and Canada are very convincing. He shows how those very different countries have developed innovative Green Plans, how they translated the concept of sustainability in practical strategies and action plans. His personal experience, as head of California”s Resources Agency, from 1977 to 1982, in developing a comprehensive resource strategy, called Investing For Prosperity (IFP) gave him a basic understanding of Green Plans. He gives us a very good overall view of Green Plans, their ingredients for success, their principles and techniques and the new relationship needed between government and business. His clear vision for the United States should be read by all politicians and concerned citizens. It is still very actual. Of the many books published in environmental protection and sustainable development, this book should be on all bookshelves. And it is a real pleasure to read.”—Julius de Heer, ECOSCAN sa, Lausanne, Switzerland

(Julius de Heer ECOSCAN )

“As we strive to implement sustainable development, we must share experience of how green plans can work, as Huey D. Johnson has done here. Green Plans is a necessary book that many of us need to read.”—Gro Harlem Brundtland, Prime Minister of Norway

(Gro Harlem Brundtland )

“Persuasive and urgent.”—RECIEL: Review of European Community and International Environmental Law

(RECIEL ) –This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

About the Author

Huey D. Johnson is founder and president of the Resource Renewal Institute in San Francisco. David R. Brower, the first executive director of the Sierra Club and cofounder of Friends of the Earth, is the author of numerous books including For Earth’s Sake.

Table of Contents
List of Illustrations
Foreword By David R. Brower
Introduction
1. A Commitment to Change
2. Sustainability from Theory to Practice
3. A Green Plan Predecessor: California’s IFP Program
4. The Netherlands: Each Generation Cleans Up
5. New Zealand Starts from Scratch
6. Canada’s Green Plan: Making Virtue of Necessity
7. On the Green Plan Path
8. Broadening the Scope of Resource Management: Principles and Techniques
9. A New Relationship between Government and Business
10. Building a Political and Social Base for Change
11. A Greenprint for the United States
Afterword
Appendix
Notes
References
Index

Earth in the Balance: Ecology and the Human Spirit

Earth in the Balance: Ecology and the Human Spirit

Earth in the Balance: Ecology and the Human SpiritAuthor(s): Al Gore

Publisher: Plume (January 1, 1993)

Paperback: 432 pages

ISBN: 0452269350

ISBN-13: 978-0452269354

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Global warming. The deteriorating ozone layer. The rapid destruction of the world’s rain forests. Rising carbon dioxide levels. This bestselling work on our planet’s environmental crisis gives a shocking account of just how serious all of these problems have become. New foreword by the author. Illustrations and photos. (Environmental Issues) Synopsis A passionate defender of the environment for more than 20 years, Senator Al Gore from Tennessee is now convinced that the engines of human civilization have brought us to the brink of catastrophe. In this brave work, he argues that only a radical rethinking of our relationship with nature can save the earth for future generations.

Green Dreams: Travels in Central America

Green Dreams: Travels in Central America

Green Dreams: Travels in Central AmericaAuthor(s): Stephen Benz

Publisher: Lonely Planet

Paperback: 280 pages

ISBN: 0864425236

ISBN-13: 978-0864425232

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It’s hard to imagine that newspaper editors turned down the submissions Stephen Benz filed from Peru in 1984 in his quest to become a foreign stringer, but their loss is our gain, because those disappointments set Benz on the ecotrail through Central America that resulted in this fair-minded, observant, timely, and beautifully written book. Central America is a complex place, with as many issues and viewpoints as plant, bird, and insect species. Head to the jungle and the scenery is breathtaking, but the politics are hairy. How do tourist dollars impact oppressed Indian groups? Is accepting a stork dinner exhibiting sensitivity to indigenous cultures or exploiting the wildlife? Is it true that the only hike worth taking is the one that’s excruciatingly difficult and preferably life threatening? Benz has a keen eye, a fine wit, an endearing candor, and a laudable willingness to listen to the opinions of all the individuals and factions involved. He reports with a facility that belies the difficulty of the task, covering the views of students and local businesspeople, backpackers and tour guides, holier-than-thou sorts and oblivious vacationers, landowners and Mayan activists. Benz portrays with great style a beautiful land, a profusion of conflicts, and an amusing assortment of adventures in a book that’s as valuable to read as it is entertaining and enjoyable. –Stephanie Gold

Investigating the “green dreams” – those well-intentioned but often misguided visions – that inspire tourism in Central America, Steve Benz travels from the Mosquito Coast to Costa Rica and along the Ruta Maya. His encounters with foreigners, including “New Agers” at Mayan ruins, North American retirees in Costa Rica, and eco-tourists in the rainforest, lead him to question the impact that visitors are having on the region and its people.

Honduras: Adventures in Nature

Honduras: Adventures in Nature

Honduras: Adventures in NatureAuthor(s): James D. Gollin, Ron Mader

Publisher: John Muir Publications

Paperback: 344 pages

ISBN: 1562613413

ISBN-13: 978-1562613419

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Why visit Honduras? Because it is the most underrated tourist destination in Central America. Honduras has more accessible and beautiful reefs than Belize or the Yucatýn, more extensive rain forests and cloud forests than Costa Rica, Mayan ruins comparable to those of Guatemala, better beaches than Nicaragua, a more peaceful political climate than El Salvador, safer cities than those of Panama, and the greatest undeveloped wilderness area in all of Central America. For environmentally-oriented travelers, especially for those who like to get off the beaten path, Honduras is a dream come true. Honduras: Adventures in Nature provides your best guide to travel in this country. Honduras is not the kind of place to experience in an air-conditioned tour bus, shuttling from monument to museum to mountain vista. To sample the greatness of the country, that which sets it apart from other tropical destinations and from your home town, you’ll have to put on hiking boots, or fins, or water sandals. You can gaze at the birdlife through binoculars or peer at the living rainbow of the coral reefs through a diving mask. You can pole a cart along a banana company railway, paddle a high-tech kayak to uninhabited isles, or climb the rock face of a rain forest waterfall. And, when you’ve had enough, you can contemplate an archaeological site built long before the birth of Christ, watch the sun set through the palms, or listen quietly to the hoots, calls, trills, and buzzing of rain forest life.