Alternatives to Growth: Efficiency Shifting - Softcover

Author,Conrad Schmidt. CONRAD SCHMIDT worked for eight years as a software engineer for one of the world s largest automation firms. His expertise as an engineer was in human machine interface. He quit his job to become a writer and filmmaker. He is the author of the book Workers Of The World Relax, Efficiency Shifting and the director of the film Five Ring Circus.

Alternatives to Growth may be the most important book I have read on climate change. Conrad Schmidt discusses the interconnectedness of the history of the Industrial Revolution, the economy, the environment and the social and cultural interdependencies that define our human communities all in 150 pages! He describes the false hope and environmental and social devastation that unlimited growth and a consumption based lifestyle has produced. Conrad presents solutions to the combined crises of climate change, energy stress, poverty and wealth inequity, and environmental degradation. It s one thing to understand how we got to a place where radical and rapid change is necessary, it s another to provide the blueprint for how that change can happen so that it feels simple and straightforward and safe. That s exactly what efficiency shifting does and the solutions are powerful on many levels. --- Jane Sterk, leader of the Green Party of BC

Conrad Schmidt hits the ecological nail on the head once again with Efficiency Shifting. As with Workers of the World Relax, Schmidt understands that humanity cannot grow itself out of its dilemma of overshoot. Growth is our problem. In this book he describes the only path that will help us restore a genuinely sustainable society. We cannot just continue to create meaningless work, but must rediscover fundamental values of nature, family, community, and the time-honoured practice of just hanging out with each other. --- Rex Weyler, author, Greenpeace: The Inside Story. Co-founder of Greenpeace International.