eandrews80's review against another edition

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4.0

In the past few years, I've read a handful of books on the environmental crisis, and this one might be my favorite. It's an understatement to say that our planet is in trouble, and while sugar coating the truth helps no one, many authors take a fatalistic tone that will turn off even the most open-minded reader. Leonard, on the other hand, makes a point to identify hopeful trends and solid solutions. She also has the ability to explain extremely complex systems and processes, which is vitally important in this field. Most importantly, the book made me take a good, hard look at how I use -- and discard -- the Stuff in my daily life.

darshbakshi's review against another edition

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4.0

This should be made a compulsory read for everyone even if someone does not like the ideas.

em_and_em's review against another edition

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3.0

Very interesting.

emilysea's review against another edition

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5.0

made me rethink and reevaluate a lot of things I do...it's basically a more in-depth look at the material presented in her video shorts...love annie leonard!

samizimecki's review against another edition

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4.0

While a little dry at times, Leonard does a good job of really helping us look at the big picture by evaluating our everyday actions (and the consequences) on a smaller scale and relating the two. Also I work in transportation, so I found all the supply chain aspects so interesting.

The info can just be a bit chunky at times, but Leonard never comes across as condescending and manages to leave the reader with a bit of hope that there's still time to make a difference and help the environment.

kezreading's review against another edition

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1.0

O livro gasta mais páginas em defesa a social-democracia e sendo anti-capitalista do que conta a história das coisas.

Os males do consumismo:
Eu não sou uma grande defensora do consumismo exagerado, apesar de ser uma grande defensora do livre mercado, reconheço que o consumo compulsório ser maléfico para muita gente, assim como qualquer compulsão. Entretanto, a autora é infeliz ao tentar apontar os problemas do consumismo, apresenta correlações sem provas nenhuma, a maior parte dos argumentos são de forte apelo emocional.

A autora da exemplo dos EUA que é um país com alto poder bélico, alto consumo e com baixo bem-estar populacional e compara com países que praticamente aboliram armas e exércitos, baixo consumo e tem alto bem-estar populacional, uma comparação sem fundamento nenhum e sem dados que comprovam que esses quesitos têm relação com bem-estar; um país como Israel, por exemplo, possui um grande poder bélico, alto consumo e é um dos países com a população mais feliz do mundo.

De quem é a culpa?
No último capítulo do livro é apresentado soluções para redução do consumo e do lixo e algumas das soluções dependem do indivíduo. Porém, a maior parte do livro é culpabilizando terceiros: "a sociedade", "o sistema", "o estado", ou seja, culpando agentes não morais que não fazem nada e nem tem poder para fazer.

Quando terceirizamos a culpa para entidades não morais naturalmente tiramos a culpa dos indivíduos, e se a culpa é "do sistema, do estado, da sociedade" então quem teria que resolver são eles. O problema é que esses agentes não resolvem e não fazem nada, porque não existem. O que existe são um conjunto de indivíduos conscientes, que esses sim, poderiam fazer algo se entendessem que só depende deles.

No caso do estado não poder (nem dever) resolver é ainda mais difícil de entender para a maioria afinal existe uma grande dependência e esperança por parte da população. Não vou me aprofundar no problema de um estado paternalista, mas ainda se encaixa na questão de terceirização da culpa.

Enfim, o livro teria potencial se não fosse o forte apelo emocional e defesa da social-democracia sem fundamento nenhum.

femke495's review against another edition

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4.0

The information in this book is a bit outdated since it’s been written in 2010. Unfortunately it should have been way more outdated than it is. The problems described in this book are still ongoing ten years later. We still produce too much, too fast, too unsustainable and too wasteful. And even though this book focuses mostly on the US (and uses the Netherlands a few times as an example of how it could be done better :) it kinda scares me that the author, at the end of the book, writes an image of the future of how we could live as a society, as humans, together and not use 5 earths in a year to sustain our way of life like it is right now, that everything she describes could be possible right now. She doesn’t come up with futuristic ideas or impossible things that still need to be invented. It’s so simple to make our way of living, of spending our money and time and of our producing of stuff, sustainable; Sharing, leasing, lesser working hours, greener and cleaner energy, less production, more quality etc... still, ten years later, not much has changed...

brinny's review against another edition

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5.0

GREAT. Everyone should read this!

shannoliver's review against another edition

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3.0

A few misleading comparisons, but overall a well informed and entertaining book. I especially liked the Appendix 2 on page 260 where she discussed individual actions one can take, and why to even bother in such a vast system.

Although we probably won't make a dent individually, every purchase we make reflects our individual values. And if we all do it, then it's our community's values, and not corporations, that are reflected in the world.

materialambition's review against another edition

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3.0

horrifying. should be mandatory reading in high school. fuck catcher in the rye