This is a book of journalism, not political or economic analysis. It does a great job of bringing the reader's attention to the links between the environmental and moral limits to endless capitalist growth, and the essentially social or psychological impulse to reconstruct society on a smaller, more personal scale. But as none of the factors McKibben suggests we need to balance are conveniently measurable in dollars (pretty much the only universal measurement left), he's left with examples, stories, anecdotes. If they echo your experience, you'll probably accept his larger thesis; if they don't, you'll probably complain about the book's lack of rigor, as though that makes its points moot.I'm already on board with these ideas, so for me it was a quick read, giving me more examples and variations of the kind of thinking needed to sustain civilization globally and locally at something approximating its current standards. Where I live, this is the stuff of everyday life and casual conversations. Reading the book just filled in some of the background I'd missed.Worth noting: I was surprised as I read by how little the book was affected by the experience of the economic crises and political changes of the last five years. In a revised edition I'm sure McKibben would point to them as examples to support his thesis, but it's actually nice that the book as-is allows the reader to supply the updates from his or her own experience.
