Description from amazon.com is: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00J2ANQV4
You Can Change the World: The Global Citizen’s Handbook for Living on Planet Earth Kindle Edition
by Ervin Laszlo (Author), Masami Saionji (Author), Mikhail Gorbachev (Introduction), Paulo Coelho (Preface)
You Can Change the World: The Global Citizen’s Handbook for Living on Planet Earth should be required reading for anyone who cares about the future of the planet. Written by renowned scientist, futurist and Club of Budapest founder Ervin Laszlo, You Can Change the World answers two pertinent questions-first, what is at the root of all the conflict and crisis in today’s world? And second, what can actually be done to move toward a world where we can live in peace, without marginalizing and killing each other and destroying the environment?A handbook that urges readers to become global citizens who aspire to live responsibly on this precious but highly exploited and crisis-prone planet, You Can Change the World provides a simple and basic message: in today’s world it is neither wealth nor power, nor the control of territory and technology that make the crucial difference. How we think and act shapes our present and decides our future.
Editorial Reviews
Review
“…a groundbreaking book for healers environmental activists and pro-active citizens who see the world as a global community.” — New Living Magazine, September/October 2004
From the Publisher
According to systems philosopher and Club of Budapest founder Ervin Laszlo, our world is both unstable and unsustainable. Population pressure is increasing – there are over 77 million humans added to the world each year, 97% of that number in poor countries. More than one-third of the world’s natural resources have been destroyed by human activity and, if this trend were to continue, we would need not one, but two other planets the size of Earth by the year 2050. Poverty is spreading – there are nearly 2 billion people living on less than 2 dollars a day, and the threat of terrorism is growing. Laszlo predicts that change must come: “Our world is divided and conflict-torn, and socially and ecologically unsustainable. We cannot remain as we are, nor can we go back to the conditions that are now behind us. We can only move forward, but not on the same path we have been following until now. We need to find a new direction for our individual and collective future. Half a century ago, Albert Einstein noted that we cannot solve a problem with the same kind of thinking that gave rise to it.”
To inspire citizens to become agents of change, Laszlo created You Can Change the World: The Global Citizen’s Handbook for Living on Planet Earth. Based on a report by the Club of Budapest, You Can Change the World (SelectBooks, $19.95) answers two pertinent questions – first, what is at the root of all the conflict and crisis in today’s world? and second, what can actually be done to move toward a world where we can live in peace, without marginalizing and killing each other and destroying the environment? You Can Change the World includes an introduction by former Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev, and contributions from Japanese spiritual master Masami Saionji and best-selling spiritual author Paulo Coelho, as well as a guide to further reading.
From the Author
Read this handbook, and start thinking. This is important for you, for your family, for your present or future children and grandchildren, for your friends and for everyone around you.
From the Inside Flap
“I’m not a Prime Minister or a CEO. How can I fix the world?”
For anyone who has ever asked that question, You Can Change the World provides the answer. Founder of the Club of Budapest, scientist-futurist Ervin Laszlo has written a handbook for responsible living that is required reading for the global citizen of the 21st century. Professor Laszlo describes simple but crucial things anyone can do to help bring about positive change immediately:
• How to apply real pressure to government, big business and the media.
• How changing your belief system can actually change the world—for the better•How you can become part of the growing class of “Cultural Creatives.”
Rising above the partisan bickering that dominates so much of today’s political discourse, You Can Change the World takes a clear-eyed look at the root causes behind the threats facing the planet today—from global terrorism to global warming—in order to discover real solutions. On a more fundamental level, this book advocates a grassroots spiritual revolution—a revolution that begins with each individual.
Japanese spiritual master Masami Saionji and author Paulo Coelho describe how you can launch such a revolution immediately, using only the tools of your own consciousness.
As Mikhail Gorbachev points out in the introduction to this volume, “it is we, each one of us, who not only can understand these problems, but can also do something significant to overcome them.”
A combination of timely observation and timeless wisdom, You Can Change the World points the way back to a world of sustainability and sanity.
About the Author
Peter Seidel (MS Ill. Inst. of Technology) was a student of Mies van der Rohe and planner L. Hilberseimer, and has taught at universities across the globe. A systems oriented environmental planner and architect, he is a widely published author on environmentally friendly buildings and sustainable community planning.
Paulo Coelho is a Brazilian lyricist and novelist. He has become one of the most widely read authors in the world today. He is the recipient of numerous international awards, amongst them the Crystal Award by the World Economic Forum. The Alchemist, his most famous novel, has been translated into 67 languages. The author has sold 150 million copies worldwide.
Masami Saionji, born in Tokyo, Japan, is a descendant of the Royal Rykyu Family of Okinawa. She was educated at the prestigious Gakushuin School in Tokyo and went abroad to the United States to study English language at Michigan State and Stanford Universities. In her teens, Masami Saionji met Masahisa Goi, founder of the international movement of world peace through prayer. She became a devout student of Founder Goi’s philosophies and was soon adopted by him as his daughter and successor.
Mikhail Gorbachev is a former Soviet statesman. He was the final leader of the Soviet Union, having served as General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union from 1985 until 1991, and as the country’s head of state from 1988 until its dissolution in 1991. Gorbachev’s policies of openness and restructuring as well as summit conferences with President Ronald Reagan contributed to the end of the Cold War. He was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1990.
