Deep Economy: The Wealth of Communities and the Durable Future
Starred Review.Challenging the prevailing wisdom that the goal of economies should be  unlimited growth, McKibben (The End of  Nature) argues that the world doesn't have enough natural resources  to sustain endless economic expansion. For example, if the Chinese owned cars  in the same numbers as Americans, there would be 1.1 billion more vehicles on  the road—untenable in a world that is rapidly running out of oil and clean  air. Drawing the phrase "deep economy" from the expression "deep ecology," a  term environmentalists use to signify new ways of thinking about the  environment, he suggests we need to explore new economic ideas. Rather then  promoting accelerated cycles of economic expansion—a mindset that has brought  the world to the brink of environmental disaster—we should concentrate on  creating localized economies: community-scale power systems instead of huge  centralized power plants; cohousing communities instead of sprawling suburbs.  He gives examples of promising ventures of this type, such as a  community-supported farm in Vermont and a community biosphere reserve, or large  national park–like area, in Himalayan India, but some of the ideas—local  currencies as supplements to national money, for example—seem overly  optimistic. Nevertheless, McKibben's proposals for new, less growth-centered  ways of thinking about economics are intriguing, and offer hope that change is  possible.(Mar. 20)Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.