20 Global Issues and 20 Years to Solve Them
GIN Suggested Reading
We welcome your suggestions if you know a good book.
The Have and the Havenots:
The Haves and the Havenots is a book that focuses, primarily, on inequality and how the people on the wrong side of the balance have to bear with themselves. It studies inequality and its causes from an economic perspective. It compares countries’ level of inequality with its living standards and how these are measured. Human capital is one of the major sources of inequality as differentiation leads to different incomes. Other questions addressed by the book are: How does inequality affect economic growth? Very interesting for people who's interests are closely linked to economics but also the quality of life among different regions.
The Boy who harnessed the wind
This book is about a boy from Malawi, a country with a very low quality of life, who after reading a book about windmills dreamed of building one for his village to provide electricity and water. He wanted to provide what the west considered a necessity and for his country was a luxury. He had to drop out of school to help out with the family’s necessities, but always remembered his dream. He managed to build a windmill from recycled material; it could eventually turn on four lights and pump water. He became an inspiration and improved the living conditions of his people.
Silent Spring
Silent Spring, written 1962, deals with how humans affect the ecosystem with, mainly, synthetic chemicals. It explain how much time the world has needed in order to balance itself out, and how little time humans have needed to put it out of balance. It focuses on the use of DDT and other pesticides and how this affects people eating these crops, or using any of the resources that is being contaminated by this chemicals, such as water. Its greatest appeal for readers is that it was written for the public but still has some understandable concepts of chemistry.
Wangari's Trees of Peace
This books talks about the life of Nobel Peace Prize winner Wangari Maathai. As a young girl growing up in Kenya, Wangari Maathai remembered her birthplace full of trees, before she returned from studying abroad. When she returned, she observed that all of the trees had been destroyed. After this, she gives herself the purpose of replanting all of this trees and begins by planting nine seeds in her backyard. As she received more support for this initiative her plans grew and so did the reforesting of Kenya.
Eco Barons
This book talks about a new generation of Rockefellers and Carnegies, and how they are working to save the environment. These visionaries save species from the brink of extinction, saving forests, and are pioneers in the use of environmental friendly technology, like the plug in hybrid. This has been key to the reduction of green house gas emissions all around the world, and the stopping of ecological destruction.