No comments about Sustainability and the Civil Commons: Rural Communities in the Age of Globalization.

1 comments about Paying the Price: The Status and Role of Insurance Against Natural Disasters in the United States (<i>Natural Hazards and Disasters: Reducing Loss and ... in a Hazardous World</i>: A Series).

1. Kunreuther, et al have made a major leap forward in helping to educate and inform insurance and non-insurance people alike on the threats associated with natural hazards of all kinds, how insurance companies historically and are now reacting to how those hazards affect their business as they seek to help their insureds manage the risks they face, to demystify the complex world of insurance, and to offer some well reasoned suggestions for all who have a stake in managing the risk of damage from catastrophic natural hazards like hurricanes, earthquakes, floods, etc. Whether the reader is: an individual homeowner; a member of the scientific or academic community; an interested federal, state or community official; an insurance or reinsurance company employee; or one of the other parties who should be concerned about how catastrophes might impact their customers and constituents, this book is a must! Read it to understand the extent of the problem. Read it to understand how mitigation of future damage may be a key part of the solution for the risk that the individual homeowner whose home is located in harm's way (nature's fury) faces. Read it to understand what's been tried and what's suceeded or failed. But mostly read it to seriously consider how you can participate in the solution. The responsibility rests with the individual homeowner to make sure that his or her home is as safe and strong as it should be - for the sake of his or her loved ones (including the family pets), his or her irreplaceable or prized possessions, and that their psychological well-being and lifestyle are not significantly disturbed after a major catastrophic event. And he or she must see themselves as part of a safe and strong community that can similarly weather what Mother Nature can (and at some time certainly will, regardless of how small the probability) throw at them so that the goods and services it provides can be continued after such an event. This book provides a balanced approach to helping the reader understand the role insurance can, should, and does play. But it also helps place it into perspective and suggests some next steps. It explores the reasons for why the different stakeholders act the way they do. Why do people not react to the risk they face by demanding and then paying to make their homes stronger and safer? Why do insurance companies not offer premium incentives? How do various public policies and practices get in the way of efforts to invest significant tax dollars to promote stronger, safer homes and communities, when the original objective of that investment was to avoid spending significantly more tax dollars every year to bail out people and communities living in areas at risk to hurricanes, earthquakes, floods, and other natural hazards (sometimes repeatedly) because they either didn't fully understand the risk or they simply chose not to act to avoid or reduce the subsequent damage? Read this book to learn. Read this book to capture a vision of what needs doing. Seek more information from the Federal Emergency Management Agency or from the Institute for Business and Home Safety on how to retrofit your own home or how to contribute to community based programs. Both have very good web sites that are mentioned in the book. And finally carefully evaluate your own risk to natural hazards and take action to protect your family (both physically and psychologically), your irreplaceable and prized possessions, and get involved with others in your community to do the same thing for the environment in which you live, work, and recreate. Thanks to Kunreuther, et al for giving us such a wonderful resource to get us thinking about the status and role of insurance against the adverse impacts of natural disasters in the United States, but also for helping awaken us to our own status and role in protecting our families, our homes, and our communities because it should now be clear that insurance is only part of the solution. Keeping it affordable and available requires us to begin seeing insurance as just one, albeit very important, part of our arsenal for managing our individual and corporate risk of loss from natural hazards that threaten us where we live. Respectfully submitted, Dennis Fasking

No comments about Careers for Nature Lovers & Other Outdoor Types (Careers for You Series).

No comments about Towards Sustainable Development in Central America and the Caribbean.

No comments about The Enclave Economy: Foreign Investment and Sustainable Development in Mexico's Silicon Valley (Urban and Industrial Environments).

4 comments about Developing Ecological Consciousness: Paths to a Sustainable World.

1. This book is an exceptional book covering not just ecology as a science but also the need for humans to awaken to earth's beauty, its Being, and our relationship to it. The book is not a radical environmental one where humans must go back to tribal living, but a very thought out and even carrying book. It belongs on the shelf of humanistic and transpersonal students as well as integral philosophers. The only bad thing about the book is that it is so unknown.



2. From a multitude of perspectives (student, teacher, communicator, lover of the environment), this book speaks to the reader not only on a knowledge-based, fact-oriented level, but also (and possibly more importantly) to the most basic and essential needs of humanity. These needs include compassion, understanding, sustainability, and harmony and through the book, are translated into a sense of awakening, comprehension, hope, and tools to shape a universal ideal for a world in which we all hope to live. If there were ever to be a "required life text", I can only hope that this would be it.



3. 'Developing Ecological Consciousness' is brilliant and accessible to virtually anyone. Christopher Uhl has managed to write a book that is biologically informative and also personal, engaging, and poetic in its beauty. Through both fact and anecdote, he weaves the story of our deep interconnection with the planet and universe, and awakens in us a sense of what it really means to be human. This is an important and enjoyable read that I highly, highly recommend.



4. Great reading to help connect and understand mother earth...
   
   and not only mother earth but everything. The book offers information, reflections and activities that will help the reader appreciate everything that is around them...and I mean everything...from the stars in the sky to the cells in your body.

No comments about The Corporate Social Responsibility Reader: Context & Perspectives.

1 comments about Thinking Today as if Tomorrow Mattered: The Rise of a Sustainable Consciousness.

1. In a day where we are flooded with sustainability books focused on technology, John Adams' book - Thinking Today As If Tomorrow Mattered: The Rise of a Sustainable Consciousness - charts a clear path from our unconscious destructive autopilot thinking to the new sustainable consciousness that can free us and save our world. Read this book!

   Janet Beazlie, Former Interim Executive Director of the World Business Academy, sustainability consultant, naturalist and environmentalist

1 comments about Corporate Community Relations: The Principle of the Neighbor of Choice.

1. This is an excellent book that will help companies focus there business on strong relationship with the community they live in. The one weakness I see is an over emphasis on philanthropy. I am not so sure that throwing money at the community will really buy a good relationship. This book should be read by anyone who is involved in the management of a manufacturing facility.

No comments about Identifying Environmental Aspects and Impacts.