You Can Change the World The Global Citizen's Handbook for Living on Planet Earth

by Laszlo, Ervin; Coelho, Paulo; Saionji, Masami; Gorbachev, Mikhail

• ISBN13: 9781590790571
• ISBN10: 159079057X
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2010-01-01
• Publisher: SelectBooks

Summary

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.

Author Biography

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.

Table of Contents

Introduction	xi
by Mikhail Gorbachev
Preface	xv
1 The World in Our Hands	3	(10)
2 Breakdown or Breakthrough: A Choice of Futures	13	(12)
3 Think Responsibly	25	(16)
4 Act Responsibly	41	(12)
5 A Star to Follow	53	(18)
6 You Can Change Yourself	71	(26)
by Masami Saionji
Postscript	97	(4)
The Tale of the Ancient Alchemists
by Paulo Coelho
Appendices	101	(18)
The Manifesto on Planetary Consciousness-The Club of Budapest
Statements on Violence and War-The Club of Budapest
Declaration for All Life on Earth-The Goi Peace Foundation
A Short Introduction to the Scientific Worldview of the 21st Century-Ervin Laszlo
A Concise Guide to Further Reading	119	(4)
Compiled by David Woolfson
Biographies	123