Cradle to Cradle

I finished "Cradle to Cradle" yesterday and I have to say it is a good book. The first half talks about impacts, how we got here, credentials etc. The second half of the book goes deep. It talks about Natural vs. Technological waste, upcycling and downcycling, industrial rental (which is a great idea) and many other aspects of where economy, ecology and industry is going. Definitely worth picking up and if you are already somewhat knowledgeable about environmental issues grin and bear it until page 100. Here are a couple quotes I pulled from it:

If our systems contaminate Earth's biological mass and continue to throw away technical materials (such as metals) or render them useless, we will indeed live in a world of limits, where production and consumption are restrained, and the Earth will literally become a grave.

The vitality of ecosystems depends on relationships: what goes on between species, their uses and exchanges in materials and energy in a given place. A tapestry is the metaphor often invoked to describe diversity, a richly textured web of individual species woven together with interlocking tasks. In such a setting, diversity means strength, and monoculture means weakness.

For the engineer who has always taken-indeed, has been trained his or her entire life to take-a traditional, linear, cradle-to-grave approach, focusing on one-size-fits-all tools and systems, and who expects to use materials and chemicals and energy as he or she has always done, the shift to new models and more diverse input can be unsettling. In the face of immediate deadlines and demands, such changes can seem messy, burdensome, and threatening, even overwhelming. But as Albert Einstein observed, if we are to solve the problems that plague us, our thinking must evolve beyond the level we were using when we created those problems in the first place.