Plug for end of consumerism

Thom Hartmann is the renaissance man of the pro-democracy movement. Prolific author, journalist, lecturer, and radio host, Hartmann is erudite, politically astute, and an environmentalist.

One of his greatest skills in this book is to help us learn from wise philosophers and ancient cultures, as we attempt to come to terms with the limited resources of our planet as it faces the onslaught of a consumer society that continues to scar and deplete it.

"The Last Hours of Ancient Sunlight" is as accessible as it is profound. Hartmann knows that to be didactic is to kill the message, so he never lapses into boring, lecturing rhetoric. He doesn't fashion himself a guru, just an individual who examines the fate of the planet and offers options for saving it.

Hartmann knows that no single person has the answers to the environmental disaster awaiting us if we don't modify our materialistic appetites and predatory corporate destruction of eco-cultures. The subtitle of this informative AND spiritual book is "The Fate of the World and What We Can Do Before It's Too Late." That is at the heart of Hartmann's writing: the empowerment of all of us to change the world around us for the better by changing ourselves.

It's rare to read a book this rich, wise and compelling. Hartmann casts a spell with words that bring you closer to the deep issues of coming to terms with living on a planet that we inherited and that others will inherit from us.