About BC Books Online
BC Books Online was created for anyone interested in BC-published books, and with librarians especially in mind. We'd like to make it easy for library staff to learn about books from BC publishers - both new releases and backlist titles - so you can inform your patrons and keep your collections up to date.
Our site features print books and ebooks - both new releases and backlist titles - all of which are available to order through regular trade channels. Browse our subject categories to find books of interest or create and export lists by category to cross-reference with your library's current collection.
A quick tip: When reviewing the "Browse by Category" listings, please note that these are based on standardized BISAC Subject Codes supplied by the books' publishers. You will find additional selections, grouped by theme or region, in our "BC Reading Lists."
Description
Global sustainability in the 21st century seems to be an elusive goal. There are too many issues, too many problems—and, increasingly, too many people—to make the major changes required in the time various experts tell us we have left before it’s too late.
To create a sustainable future, we need to change the game itself. We cannot simply try to solve our problems one at a time. Instead, we need to reimagine sustainability in all its dimensions—social, cultural, environmental and economic—to create a global system that reflects how we should be living together, one that generates both hope and possibility.
In this thought-provoking work, Peter Denton argues that the attitudes and values associated with the economics of exchange are in part to blame for our current situation. We need to rediscover what it means to live in a universe of relations, not merely in one that can be counted and measured. The more we are able to replace an economy based on transactions with an ecology based on gifts, the more likely a sustainable future becomes for all of Earth’s children.
Editorial Reviews
This is a very powerful book . . . We seem to be about at the limits of what we can accomplish through endless economic exchange—maybe, as the biologists and climatologists insist, somewhat over the limits. So it's good to know that there are people articulating the other possibilities—we need them!—Bill McKibben, founder of 350.org and author of Eaarth
Peter Denton offers a game-changer, with fresh insight into how our moral development has not kept pace with our technological development, and how we can choose a new way forward, moving from an ‘exchange mentality’ to a "gift mentality." This is a profoundly hope-filled book, demonstrating how sustainability is rooted in the heart and soul, in relationship with the community of Life, and the Love from which all life springs. These pages will inspire you—Mardi Tindal, 40th Moderator The United Church of Canada
We need to bake a new economic cake . . . a sustainable, cyclical, realistic borrow-use-return gift-based ecology, with wonderfully holistic metrics for success. Denton adds organic yeast . . . intentional relationships, enriched by unexpected Gifts. Thank you!—Bob Willard, author of The New Sustainability Advantage and The Sustainability Champion’s Guidebook
A change has become imperative . . . We need to make Giving the organising principle of our lives. We need to unleash our capacities to care, for the Earth, for our communities. Peter Denton's Gift Ecology is a gift for making this transition.—Vandana Shiva, founder of Navdanya and author of Staying Alive
A thoughtful and original examination of the meaning and application of social sustainability. Denton's analysis is a fascinating blend of literary, historical and personal references. Gift Ecology is both inspiring and enlightening.—Samantha Nutt, CM, executive director of Warchild Canada and author of Damned Nations
