by Alastair Mc Intosh (Author)
Climate change is the greatest challenge that the world has ever faced. In this groundbreaking new book, Alastair McIntosh summarises the science of what is happening to the planet - both globally and using Scotland as a local case study. He moves on, controversially, to suggest that politics alone is not enough to tackle the scale and depth of the problem. At root is our addictive consumer mentality. Wants have replaced needs and consumption drives our very identity. In a fascinating journey through early texts that speak to climate change - including the ancient Sumerian Epic of "Gilgamesh", Plato's myth of "Atlantis", and Shakespeare's "Macbeth" - McIntosh reveals the psychohistory of modern consumerism.He shows how we have fallen prey to a numbing culture of violence and the motivational manipulation of marketing. To start to resolve what has become of the human condition we must get more real in facing up to despair and death. Only then will we discover the spiritual meaning of these our troubled times. Only then can magic, new meaning, and all that gives life, start to mend a broken world.
Format: Paperback
Pages: 289
Publisher: Birlinn Ltd
Published: 01 Jul 2008
ISBN 10: 1841586226
ISBN 13: 9781841586229
'the book of the decade'
-- Robin Harper MSP'This is a world-changing book ... one day it'll be recognised as a classic'
* Sunday Express *'It is a beautifully written analysis'
* Scotland on Sunday *'A book of passion and wit ... weaving a dizzying range of ideas into a bright fabric ... It is a book every Scot should read'
-- John Burnside * The Scotsman *Praise for Soil and Soul by Alistair McIntosh:'a terrific book'
-- Brian Logan * The Guardian *Alastair McIntosh is an independent writer, broadcaster, speaker and activist who is involved in a wide range of contemporary issues, from land reform, globalization and nonviolence to psychology, spirituality and ecology.