the story of this book
In 1990, at the height of the environmental movement, bookstores were packing their shelves with practical, action-oriented books on how to live a more earth-friendly existence on the planet. It was right around this time that Ellis Jones had a flash of inspiration. Why limit practical actions to environmental issues? The world‰s problems were certainly not limited to just this one area. What was needed was a book that would cover all of the challenges that face us as human beings on this planet: violence, poverty, social injustice, inequality. Instead of leaving social change up to academics or politicians or even activists, everyone needed to have access to being part of the solution.
But the book never showed up on the shelves, and despite his inspiration, Ellis found the task of writing it was nearly impossible for one person to take on. It wasn‰t until almost seven years after the original idea was formed that four idealistic friends came together around a common desire to make a difference. The book finally began to take shape. Ellis brought vision, Brett supplied rigor, Ross provided momentum and Brian came with resources. And thus was born a gang of dedicated, passionate, hopeful authors hell-bent on writing a book that would help people make the world better. An amazing chemistry occurred in this group that transcended each member as an individual. We came together as a team to support each other when one of us would falter. The resulting book turned out different and better than any one of us could have imagined it, and it passed our ultimate test Ö this is the book that we had always wanted to see. We came into the process with many complicated questions, we put in thousands of hours of research and we compiled our results into what we believe is the best book available on informed and effective actions to build a better world.
Our book answers 3 basic questions: 1. What stops people from getting involved in making a difference in the world? (Building a Better World), 2. What are the major challenges facing our world? (The Seven Foundations of a Better World), and finally 3. What can the average person do in their everyday life to make the world better? (Actions for a Better World) This final question is what makes up the core of the book.
While most people may not participate in traditional ëactivism,‰ many of us want to have a positive impact on the world. We‰ve written this book to help you recognize the profound impacts you have on your local and global communities, and to inspire you to turn your good intentions into everyday actions that will make a difference across the entire spectrum of the world‰s problems.
