Discovering the New America (English Edition) [Kindle-editie] beoordelingen het boek quotes

The goal of this book is to introduce elected officials and civic volunteers throughout our country to proven recipes for success they can use when they set out to solve problems existing in their towns, counties, and states. In days gone by, miners took canaries deep down into the earth and watched them carefully. These little biological “guard birds” had the natural need to breathe rapidly, and any airborne poisonous mine gas killed the bird before it killed the humans. Miners who saw a bird topple knew to get out of the mine quickly.Unlike the miners, as both visible and invisible canaries are toppling around us, we have nowhere to run. If we and our offspring are to survive and prosper, we have to identify and solve the problems rather than try to flee.The population of our world has gone from 2.5 billion in 1950 to around 5 billion by 1990 and is on track to hit 7.5 billion around 2020—three times more mouths to feed. The combined populations of India and China, roughly 2.6 billion people, are at risk for their future food supply because of declining water supplies as climate change has shifted precipitation. Our oceans are almost fished out. The International Energy Agency says that if we burn less than one third of our known hydrocarbon resources climate change will further reduce food production—but demand for coal and oil is rising, not falling. We have a rising population of neurologically damaged babies. In the United States, one out of every three deaths is due to cancer—much of it preventable. And one in three adults is clinically obese due to a combination of causes, including subsidized unhealthy food. Many more facts like this are in the chapters that follow.As a country, we are not without solutions. If we just imitate successful strategies already developed by our fellow Americans, we can lower birth defects, increase educational levels, reduce unwanted pregnancy, create employment, clean up the environment, rehabilitate prisoners, help single parents do a better job raising the next generation, deliver better health care, feed the hungry, shelter the homeless, reduce climate change, stop the spread of infectious disease, and, oh, by the way, reduce costs and taxes while we do it.Others already have done it.