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Confessions of a Greenpeace Dropout: The Making of a Sensible Environmentalist is Dr. Patrick Moore’s engaging firsthand account of his many years spent as the ultimate Greenpeace insider, a co-founder and leader in the organization’s top committee.

Moore explains why, 15 years after co-founding it, he left Greenpeace to establish a more sensible, science-based approach to environmentalism.

Confessions details Moore’s vision for a more sustainable world. From energy independence to climate change, genetic engineering to aquaculture, Moore sheds new light on some of the most controversial subjects in the news today.

In Confessions Moore persuasively argues for us to rethink our conventional wisdom about environment and, in so doing, provides the reader with new ways in which to see the world.

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Terry Simmons, Ph.D. geographer, lawyer, Greenpeace co-founder, says:

“I have known Patrick Moore as a friend and colleague since we co-founded Greenpeace 40 years ago. He is a tough minded scientist and an advocate for sound scientific research, policy, and practical, sustainable development. Former colleagues in the environmental movement scorned and shunned Dr. Moore, after he left Greenpeace to return to his family roots in forestry and fishing in British Columbia, and to promote environmentally sound business. Confessions of a Greenpeace Dropout: The Making of a Sensible Environmentalist describes Dr. Moore’s personal, often controversial journey, and important changes within the environmental movement.”

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Helpless by Christie Blatchford

“In case you’ve forgotten, on Feb. 28, 2006, a few protesters from the nearby Six Nations reserve walked on to a construction site in Caledonia, Ontario, and took it over. In the next few months, the protesters – bolstered by supporters from outside – erected barricades, dug a trench across a town street, dropped a van over a bridge on to the highway below and toppled a Hydro One tower. Four and a half years later, the barricades are still up. …Blatchford’s book may be one-sided but it provides a service for everyone. It shows just how much trouble we’re in. Caledonia marks the ultimate failure of the enduring Canadian political strategy inherited from prime minister Mackenzie King: Ignore a crisis as long as possible (or even longer) in the hope that some day it will just go away.”

Globe and Mail

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Intellectuals and Society by Thomas Sowell

Sowell shows how intellectuals have filtered information in the media, in the schools, and in academia, to leave out things that threaten their vision of the world. Intellectuals’ downplaying of objective reality and objective criteria, says Sowell, extends beyond social, scientific, or economic phenomena into art, music, and philosophy. Above all, he reveals how intellectuals exalt themselves by running America down and turning Americans against each other. Whether the subject is crime, economics, or other matters, intellectuals hold positions that are conspicuously different from those held by society — while presenting themselves as intellectually and morally superior to ordinary folk.

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Thomas Sowell talks about this book in this interview.

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Backwater: Nova Scotia’s Economic Decline

This hard-hitting but fair assessment of Nova Scotia and the Maritimes will shock and surprise many

Maritimers who have been conditioned to think that the east coast of Canada is one of the most liveable regions in the country. Author Peter Moreira, a native Maritimer who returned home after working overseas for more than a decade, offers a straightforward analysis of why the region has fallen so far behind the rest of the country in terms of most economic and social indicators. Backwater is not an attack on the place we call home, but rather a wide-ranging and timely examination of the region’s flawed policies and thinking. The book makes bold recommendations for fixing the Maritimes’ current problems, citing many leading professionals and politicians in the region, including Nova Scotia premier Darrell Dexter.

Peter Moreira has worked as a journalist in Halifax, Ottawa, Hong Kong, Seoul, and London for such news organizations as Bloomberg News, the South China Morning Post, and the Canadian Press. He is now a correspondent and editor for The Deal, a New York-based corporate finance publication. He is also the author of Hemingway on the China Front (Potomac Books 2006). Peter lives in St. Margaret’s Bay, Nova Scotia, with his wife, Carol, and children, Cat and Scott.

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Climategate

A book climate change believers should read

The Climategate scandal covered from beginning to end–from ‘Hide the Decline’ to the current day. Written by two authors who were on the scene–Steven Mosher and Tom Fuller–Climategate takes you behind that scene and shows what happened and why.

For those who have heard that the emails were taken out of context–we provide that context and show it is worse when context is provided.

For those who have heard that this is a tempest in a teacup–we show why it will swamp the conventional wisdom on climate change.

And for those who have heard that this scandal is just ‘boys being boys’–well, boy. It’s as seamy as what happened on Wall Street.