This book sets out the essential features of a new kind of philosophy, now beginning to take hold among younger generations, that will have a beneficial impact on the earth's natural and human environment. Philosophers usually stick to conceptual ideas without much attention to the messy details of worldly reality, ideas that are wonderful in themselves, but in need of confrontation with the actualities of natural and human history. In these pages, concern is directed especially to the values we hold toward our natural environment, and in particular toward the global problem of climatic warming. Philosophy can inform us not just about deciding how we should live, but about how our values will influence future prospects for the natural world from which we gain sustenance and much of our spiritual inspiration.

Economists like to say that there is no such thing as a "free lunch" whenever we move our social arrangements in a new direction. According to this kind of thinking, a price will inevitably be paid for addressing big, society-wide problems such as global warming. This book takes a contrary view--resolving the problem of global warming and moving to a more spatially compact form of human settlement will generate a durable and widespread prosperity and improvements in the quality of life. In short, fixing global warming will be a "free lunch." We will all end up being better off independently of any gains to the climate or the natural environment. The turn to clean energy will set off an unprecedented economic boom driven by innovation in energy conservation, production, and distribution and by a move toward high density urban living and the private and public construction that will go with it. Unlike the economic expansions of recent decades, growth induced by a shift to clean energy and compact living will truly lift all economic boats. Turning to compact green living and freeing ourselves from the environmental tyranny of fossil fuels will set off an investment boom of a new kind--a good boom that will help cure some of our most intractable social and environmental ills. This combination of ideas is the unique and original contribution of this book.

Land trusts are a new and growing phenomenon and are not yet much studied by academics. This book provides an entry point into the world of land trusts and biodiversity for anyone (i) doing academic work in the conservation sciences, (ii) taking their first job with a land trust and in need of an overview of the topic, or (iii) who has a general interest in land conservation and the protection of biological resources. The book sets out an intellectual framework for thinking about land trusts and biodiversity conservation, one that blends the critical edge of the academic and pragmatic concerns of the practitioner. The essential purpose of the book is to show how land trusts protect biodiversity in the work they do and how this work is an important step in reforming the institution of property to account for the welfare of all of nature's living beings. Anyone wanting a simple overview of the land trust movement and its work on the conservation of nature's assets need go no further.

This book challenges the prevailing view that regional economic decline is caused by unionization and can be avoided through tax cuts. Respected economist Douglas Booth suggests the establishment of cooperative financial institutions in order to shift corporate responsibility from stockholders to employees. Policymakers, those interested in employee ownership, unionists, and those interested in the nation's economic problems in general will find the book provocative and timely.