Amory B. Lovins

Natural Capitalism starts with a description of a clean, peaceful city with public transportation, low energy costs and little or no un- or underemployment. At the beginning of the book, this vision strained the bounds of credulity. By the middle of the book, I was describing to friends and family the only optimistic book about the environment I've ever read. And by the end, I was done with conventional debate about the zero-sum game between economic gain and the environment. Why can't we show more design a tax system that rewards efficiency instead of punishing it? Why can't we support ourselves and our families in a way that doesn't preclude future generations from supporting their families?

This is the sort of breath of fresh air that political debate needs - why can't we create a health care system that doesn't have an interest in keeping us as unhealthy as possible? Why can't we attract human capital from all over the globe that contributes to our prosperity? Why can't the Red Sox win the World Series? Twice? [10/30/07 - or many, many times!?!?]

The key - according to Natural Capitalism - is to fix some of the weird leftovers from previous experiments in economics. Subsidies to destructive industries, disincentives to invest in efficiency and public finance of environmental degradation have all got to go. In their place, take your pick between thousands of successful programs around the world (and even here in the US) including taxes, fees, rebates, markets to trade energy savings for energy consumption, better information, better design, and even letting a free market drive competition. There aren't a lot of examples of good old fashioned regulation, and with good reason - the things that need regulating are growing faster than our ability to write and fund regulations. Instead, Natural Capitalism turns toward encouraging a few basic principles: energy efficiency, reduction in waste in any form (effluent, toxins, CO2, etc.) and not spending down the enormous natural endowment of the planet. The market sorts out the rest.

I hope there's a companion volume in he works. 8 years from the original publication date, are we any closer to this world? show less

I abandoned this book after a few chapters due to the fact that it didn't make much sense. Initially it promises to describe how, without any effort, the whole economy can - and in fact will - change to become sustainable. In fact, a sustainable economy is actually more efficient and more profitable than the one we have now, it promises.

Already there is a significant problem with this promise. If it's more profitable, and we can put our faith in the market, why isn't it already happening? show more This is especially pertinent given that this book was written over ten years ago and none of the predictions I read have come to pass.

The book says that it will explain how the market will provide all of these solutions but the two chapters that follow don't explain it at all. Instead they abandon economics altogether in favour of propagating half-truths about engineering and science that seem to contradict the thesis of the book.

At that point I gave up. show less

As a book of ideas it is excellent. As a read it is not nearly so satisfying, which is a real shame.

However, those ideas make it a worthwhile read if you are interested in solutions to environmental problems that are economically and scientifically feasible, and, one would like think, politically acceptable.

Quite apart from technical fixes - why aren't we all driving round in hypercars? why aren't all new buildings made to passivhaus standards? - which would make everyone better off, it also show more suggests solutions to problems with the market system, using, to a large extent market mechanisms. Thought provoking stuff: for example a local government in California wanted to allow new housing in the town but new the water supply was not sufficient. The solution was to tell developers that they could only get planning permission for a new house if they saved twice its projected water usage elsewhere in the existing water system. Developers were happy to do this (incorporating the cost in the cost of the new houses), smart entrepeneurs set up companies to do it for them, existing householders were approached with offers of free new bathrooms (the smart ones refused and were able to charge for the privilege), and the town used less not more water afterwards... imagine applying that approach to energy conservation.

So full of ideas (some of course better than others) but probably not one to read cover to cover. show less

I read this entire book for my book group which I think is quite an accomplishment for me. I learned quite a bit about alternative sources of fuel. There are options presented here I had never dreamed about and not always in the status quo of "going green" the way we tend to think of the future. It's more like "going greener". One of the more interesting statistics (for me) is that cars got the best gas mileage in the mid-80's. Worst year for gas mileage - 2001. This is why my mid-80's show more Prelude got much, much better gas mileage than my 2001 Prelude. What's more relevant in the book is gas mileage now and in the future but that fact stayed with me.

Lots of food for thought in this book about energy sources for future generations. show less