Water Wars: Privatization, Pollution, and Profit

Book Description

While draught and desertification are intensifying around the world, corporations are aggressively converting free-flowing water into bottled profits. The water wars of the twenty-first century may match-or even surpass-the oil wars of the twentieth. In Water Wars: Privatization, Pollution and Profit, Vandana Shiva, "the world's most prominent radical scientist" (the Guardian), shines a light on activists who are fighting corporate maneuvers to convert this life-sustaining resource into more gold for the elites.

In Water Wars, Shiva uses her remarkable knowledge of science and society to outline the emergence of corporate culture and the historical erosion of communal water rights. Using the international water trade and industrial activities such as damming, mining, and aquafarming as her lens, Shiva exposes the destruction of the earth and the disenfranchisement of the world's poor as they are stripped of rights to a precious common good.

In her passionate, feminist style, Shiva celebrates the spiritual and traditional role water has played in communities throughout history, and warns that water privatization threatens cultures and livelihoods worldwide. Shiva calls for a movement to preserve water access for all, and offers a blueprint for global resistance based on examples of successful campaigns.

Vandana Shiva is a world-renowned environmental leader and recipient of the 1993 Alternative Nobel Peace Prize (the Right Livelihood Award). She is author of several books, including Stolen Harvest: The Hijacking of the Global Food Supply (South End Press, 2000); Biopiracy: The Plunder of Nature and Knowledge (South End Press, 1997); and Staying Alive (St. Martin's Press, 1989). Shiva is a leader, along with Ralph Nader and Jeremy Rifkin, in the International Forum on Globalization. Before becoming an activist, Shiva was one of India's leading physicists.

Customer Reviews:

The Single Most Important Book You Can Read Today.......2007-02-28

the global water crisis is the biggest issue we will face in our lifetimes and not much is being done. This book puts things in a human light and makes solutions seem possible.
Stop Bottled Water Industries
Protect Global Commons
[...]

Don't waste your money.......2007-01-07

Written by a so called academic, this is a series of essays which never should have been published. Over -priced and over reviewed, whoever approved of publishing this travesty should be fired.

Brutal. Brutal brutal brutal........2006-04-03

In contrast to what others have written, this book is brutal. It isn't that Ms. Shiva doesn't have passion, she does. It isn't that she cannot write, she can. The book is brutal because it is painfully one-sided, seemingly written for no other reason than to pander to those that think as she does.

While the book highlights examples of water mismanagement, Ms. Shiva's ideology is so apparent one has to wonder what she has left out. For example, she repeatedly mentions the use of a small, electric motor to pump enormous amounts of water far more efficiently that human beings can. Eventually said motor pumps more water than the system can replace and does damage. Fine. While Ms. Shiva notes that the motor does damage, she seems unwilling to address the obvious: the farmer who turned the motor on could just as easily have turned the motor off, thereby avoiding the damage. Instead of working for hours to get water, the farmers could have used the motor to pump only what they needed, saving time and labor for other tasks. While she may have a personal preference to use humans for manual labor, blaming the little motor (and by extension, the modernization involved) is intellectually dishonest.

As another example, she mentions how the evil United States would not approve the Kyoto Treaty. She is right the U.S. has not. Yet she never notes that many people consider Kyoto to be fatally flawed--it exempts China, India, and others from emissions limits. One does not need to accept or deny Kyoto as an example of an efficient or effective solution to global warming, but given the partisan ideology presented in Water Wars, one can never be sure Ms. Shiva presented any information fairly or accurately.

Furthermore, Ms. Shiva continues with such platitudes as, "The corporation's selfish desire for profit causes all the problems; the WTO, World Bank and U.S. are run by corporations; only real democratic community control will solve these problems." The quote is representative of many social critics: argument by cliche--the discourse ends as quickly as it begins. Ms. Shiva often closes her argument in her topic sentences, for example on page 87, "Not only has the World Bank played a major role in the creation of water scarcity and pollution, it is now transforming that scarcity into a market opportunity for water companies." Or comments such as this on page xiii, "This forced apportion of resources from people is a form of terrorism--corporate terrorism." Comments like this suggest Ms. Shiva is unable to persuasively write for change, that she has no real arguments, just partisan ideology. Unfortunately, environmental thinkers like Ms. Shiva may be right. But with writing like this, they will never be heard except by those who already agree.

Sadly, Ms. Shiva also seems focused on spiritual matters at the expense of making her case. For example, she includes a multi-page appendix of the ONE HUNDRED AND EIGHT different names for the Ganges River. Frankly, who cares how many names there are? There could be 763 of them--not one of which would matter if the locals drain the river for crops or if Halliburton drains the river and sells it back to them.

As a former physicist, Ms. Shiva would have done her readers a favor and written a fascinating book if she had simply applied the intellectual rigor of her physics training to her thesis--whatever that was. For those that want their ideology reinforced, this book is wonderful. For those trying to learn about the problems concerning water and water usage, there are plenty of other sources that present information without overt ideology and bias. `Nuff said.

Right Versus Left.......2005-10-26

Vandana is an entertaining writer. She is passionate about injustice. Shiva is a welcome antidote to the rantings of right wing ratbags from noisy think-tanks.

A chapter of Shiva contrasted with a chapter of anyone from the Cato Institue, makes for an entertaining exercise in contrasting views of how our world should work.

One does not have to agree with all she believes to enjoy her writing or to learn from it.

Earthy Wisdom About Water.......2004-10-06

Water rights and access to water are a commons. They inherently belong to all people collectively, from which to benefit and to be responsible for as stewards. Including being a guide to participating in popular resistance, this is a history of how the principle of water as a commons has evolved as part and parcel of the evolutionary rise of the human species. Also catalogued is the very recent advent of the concept of water as a privatized commodity.

Although Shiva doesn't say it in so many words, the book often reads as a direct indictment of the United States because many of the problems she enumerates trace back directly to the fossil fuel economy. The US is the most egregious and careless contributor to the degradation of the environment. Although the US stands to experience a large part of the devastation global warming is already wreaking, perhaps the loss of Florida, Alabama, Louisiana, and Texas to a potential 2 foot rise in sea levels, many poor and island nations will bear the disproportionate brunt of global warming's effects.

This book might easily be perceived as a treatise in Luddism. Shiva says almost every so-called advance in water management, as for example diverting and draining rivers, which is necessarily a move to centralize and privatize water management, results in catastrophic social and ecological consequences - especially natural disasters such as floods, supercyclones, and droughts. When water is managed locally and collectively by the indigenous as a commons, its use is equitable, ecologically sound, and sustainable - words of wisdom from mouth of justice. When water is treated as a commodity, and corporatized the unforeseen consequences, which are quite serious, include pollution and climate change.

Shiva documents many natural and man-made disasters that have resulted from this practical and ideological shift in water management. She draws a direct causal relationship between technological application in water management and ecological disruption and social conflict. The worst of these, a supercyclone that devastated the state of Orissa in India in 1999, "damaged 1.83 million houses and 1.8 million acres of paddy crops in 12 coastal districts. Eighty percent of the coconut trees were uprooted or broken in half, and all the banana and papaya plantations were wiped out. More than 300,000 cattle perished, more than 1,500 fisherman and fisherwomen lost their entire source of livelihood...local workers estimate the (human) toll to be about 20,000."

Shiva is well-studied in water management and its history. She draws from a rich array of sources, many obscure but important; a large number are cites of her own past voluminous work. Her arguments are intuitive more than deductive. Once you accept her premise of water resources as a commons, and she makes the argument gently, but unrelentingly, as if it is a self-evident truth, the rest of her conclusions unfold cogently, compellingly, and of their own accord.

The WTO and World Bank involvement in water management are ominous signs of water's commodification, self-destructive and suicidal, teaches Shiva. Small groups resisting these developments have won several victories. Arundhati Roy among other prominent Indians has enjoined the struggle against the Narmada Dam project, a mammoth project of corporatization in India.

Projects like Narmada, and there are many of them, are done under the rubric of capitalism and "free trade." These last two terms understood in practice, as should be obvious by now, as the socialization of risks and costs and the privatization of profits for the rich, and fiscal discipline and restraint for the poor. This corporate welfare takes the form of subsidies, give-aways, tax breaks, and displacement of the indigenous.

This is a very focused study of water rights, impressively researched and well-documented. Shiva presents the facts and lets you uncover the truth for yourself, like wiping a mirror clear of dust.

The historical shift of water as a commons to water as a commodity is almost the same as the history of colonialism. Shiva traces a richly researched history of British colonization of India synonymous there with this shift in water management. Her writing is sometimes dry but rich in fact and research. In wading deep into the minutiae of water management's history, and the consequences of its commodification, Shiva shows that much of the supposed progress in the administration and management of water rights have really been retrograde movements from policies and practicalities of fairness and equitability. She also warns ominously that the 21st Century will see wars and conflicts over this resource in much the same way the 20th did over oil.

The clash of water as a commons versus its degradation into a commodity was perhaps best illustrated in Cochambamba, Bolivia in 1999. In response to the sell off of a municipal resource to a foreign corporation, a coalition of militant peasant groups formed the Coalition in Defense of Water and Life. It organized to address skyrocketing water bills and poor service. Of all corporations, Bechtel, a huge military contractor to the Pentagon, "bought" water rights in Cochambamba. It wasn't without several serious skirmishes that the peasant groups prevailed and reasserted their sovereignty over water. Bechtel exited Bolivia, and the United States government took up its cause, suing Bolivia on behalf of Bechtel in the World Trade Court. That case is still pending.

Shiva makes an important contribution. As impressive as the book itself is the exposure to an activist with a wide knowledge and a rich oeuvre. She wraps up her study with a look at the sacredness of water in India. The Ganges River is traditionally one of the holiest sites in India. The multinational corporations would prefer to see this resource as an asset on their ledgers. Shiva never mentions specifically what she is doing activist-wise to join the struggle. But it's obvious from her energy and devotion to the issue that she is very actively involved. She makes it clear she is for justice for the great masses of people before the interests of those who would commodify water.

Average customer rating:

Great for entrepreneurs
Outstanding book for new to poultry folks as well as "old hats"
Beginner's Bible
Wonderful resource
Another Excellent Book.

Pastured Poultry Profits
Joel Salatin
Manufacturer: Polyface
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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Salad Bar Beef
You Can Farm: The Entrepreneur's Guide to Start & Succeed in a Farming Enterprise
Family Friendly Farming: A Multi-Generational Home-Based Business Testament
Chicken Tractor: The Permaculture Guide to Happy Hens and Healthy Soil
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ASIN: 0963810901

Book Description

A couple working six months per year for 50 hours per week on 20 acres can net $25,000-$30,000 per year with an investment equivalent to the price of one new medium-sized tractor. Seldom has agriculture held out such a plum. In a day when main-line farm experts predict the continued demise of the family farm, the pastured poultry opportunity shines like a beacon in the night, guiding the way to a brighter future.

Customer Reviews:

Great for entrepreneurs.......2007-09-17

Very detailed book for agricultural entrepreneurs. Gives specifics for everything from your first purchase of chicks and their housing to slaughter and marketing.

Outstanding book for new to poultry folks as well as "old hats".......2007-08-24

This book is essential for anyone considering poultry production as a business. Following this book will save time, stress, money and more. Nothing is smooth or perfect, but when using the experience the Salatin's have under their belt will greatly reduce the number of disasters. They took most of the oops's out of the equation.

This book covers in detail everything from why you should go this route, to what the "big hats" do and why that isnt the route to go. He explains in so much detail that I feel after reading this book you can safely gauge whether this business would work for you.

This book contains everything you need to begin today. It discusses the equipment, the government certification requirements, or more accurately what sort of operation doesn't have to deal with those restrictions. He discusses the chicken tractors, how to make them, how to not make them. Discusses seasonal processing, the actual nitty gritty about the processing and more, oh so much more.

I learned a great deal from this book, I was so impressed that I have his Salad Bar Beef on order. I believe this book represents a turn key business. A person purchases the rights to open a fast food chain, you spend 1 mil to have the right to use a clown to advertise your hamburger's and get to tap the experience of everyone that has opened that type of company... this book is no different. The purchase price of the book is a great value when you consider this is experience talking, this shows all of the details, this shows everything including the day to day life and how to find customers.

Sounds to me like the 1 million dollar turn key franchise. Except this is anything but a franchise, he points out family business and not empires are the way to go... and I have to agree with him. He shares this information because he would like to see a lot more operations like the one him and his family (and sometimes even customers) run. He notes that 100 operations in Virginia using the model he shares with us, would be about enough to support the state... yet he is the only one there (at the time of writing this book).

He would like to see these everywhere... people eating healthier, animals that are healthier, people being connected to where their food comes from. I can not say enough good about this book, personally I would like to go work for the author and his family for a couple weeks to learn hands on. I think this is a wealth of information and I await eagerly my Salad Bar Beef book hoping it opens my eyes to a better way to raise my beefalo.

Beginner's Bible.......2007-05-07

All in all, a completely comprehensive view of pasturing poultry from the man who in essence started it all, Joel Salatin. The only problem I have with it is that he needs to go through and update it, as it was written in the '90s and the birds have evolved, giving us a new set of nutritional challenges. WELL WORTH THE MONEY for the beginner interested in getting into the business!!!!!!!!!!

Wonderful resource.......2007-05-07

This book is full of information on how to raise pastured poultry. I can hardly wait to try it on the 150 chicks we just ordered!!

Another Excellent Book........2007-02-02

Joel Salatin has once agian proven that there is demand for high quality natural foods. And that the possibiltys are infinite, as limitless as your imagination. This book shows how to market, what kind of feed he uses, how not to live on the land but to live with the land. The more I read these books of his, the more bright the future seems. I'm 18 and my broilers and bees can't keep up with demand. There has never been a better opportunity. YOU CAN FARM! I am.

Pet Sitting for Profit: A Complete Manual for Professional Success

Average customer rating:

Great tool to get you started!
pet sitting business
Pet Sitting for Profit
An okay guide -- but not the ONLY one to have in your arsenal
No longer the GURU of pet sitting - many others now.

Pet Sitting for Profit: A Complete Manual for Professional Success
Patti J. Moran
Manufacturer: Howell Book House
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Small Business & Entrepreneurship | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books

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The Reality of Professional Pet Sitting

ASIN: 0876057709

Book Description

Author and petsitter extraordinaire Patti Moran updates and expands the tremendously successful 1993 version for the growing field of pet sitting. Designed for people at all levels of experienceâfrom the person just starting out to the person who has established a business and wants to make it more successfulâthe book also focuses on how to make setting up a business as easy as possible, so people can operate on whatever scale they feel comfortable with. Pet sitting continues to grow at an extraordinary rate, and this book is for everyone who wants a chance to work with animals.

Download Description

The pet services market is the fastest growing segment of the industry, and the number of pet-sitting services is growing rapidly. In addition to the fundamentals of running a business successfully, this updated edition covers new topics such as screening for dangerous dogs, investigating expanded insurance options, and creating effective Internet marketing. Patti J. Moran (King, NC) is President and founder of Pet Sitters International.

Customer Reviews:

Great tool to get you started!.......2007-01-09

This book is a great rescource for anyone who is looking to start a professional pet sitting service. It's easy to read and has lot's of good information.

pet sitting business.......2006-11-04

I thought the book was excellent. I loved her style, not too dry, very humorous. It was a very quick easy read, and had great ideas for starting a new business. Lots of help and references. The best book I've read on the topic. I'm brand new in the business and I based my business planning on her book. I also had the opportunity to meet the author, and she is a great person, very helpful. I highly recommend it.

Pet Sitting for Profit.......2006-07-22

This is the Third Edition of an excellent book on the business aspects of pet sitting. Author Patti Moran is one of the pioneers in this field and she provides a wealth of useful information. Be aware that this information is primarily for business aspects of pet sitting - guiding you through everything from phone lines to forms. It does NOT provide information on pet care - assuming that you are already somewhat competent since you are itnerested in this field.
Filled with "real life" experience, Ms Moran covers office procedures, insurance, advertising and marketing.
The chapter on Getting Started will be extremely useful for someone starting up a pet sitting business with a work force of one - namely you :) Much of the rest of the book is geared for the pet sitting business that has expanded to multiple employees. Still, that is an area where many dog businesses fail - right when they expand.
This book is an excellent resource for anyone with a dog business. Much of the businees savvy advice could apply to any dog themed business.
This book is well worth its price for the budding entrepeneur

An okay guide -- but not the ONLY one to have in your arsenal.......2006-02-27

First, a full disclosure -- I run my own pet-sitting business and I'm a happy, paid member of Patti's organization, Pet Sitters Internaitonal (PSI). She's a good business woman who had the sense to get out of the industry and create alliances to help those in the industry. Second disclosure, I run an organization geared directly toward helping petsitters start and run a successful business so that they can enjoy their life, work with great clients and retire happy.

Now, onto the review. I bought this book about 6 months after I started sitting full-time. I had already bought, read and devoured Lori and Scott Mangold's book.

This book was a disappointment to me -- it had been touted for so long by so many that I know and respect as THE BIBLE of pet-sitting. So, I guess I was expecting fireworks and drumrolls. None of that is here.

It's basic. It's not quite a how-to and definitely not the Complete Manual for Professional Success. But then, a complete manual would need to be much larger and more expensive.

There are alot of ambiguities as noted by other reviewers and I really wish there was a more extensive Appendix listing places to get information regarding licensing, insurance, employees vs ICs etc. for each state.

But, there's still a good overview of the business here. So it's worth having in your library -- I just wouldn't depend on this as my sole guide to starting and running a successful pet-care business.

No longer the GURU of pet sitting - many others now........2005-09-10

I get the impression that Patti wrote her book and her information after being in business for many years. She is knowledgeable about the business. But her materials are often based on the premise that you have lots of start-up funds (and plan to afford an accountant, web site designers, trademarking, S-Corp designation, etc) and LOTS of employees. The fact is most pet sitters just don't use these things in the beginning, and having a reasonable budget is important the first year. And for those of us in the business now, computers are a HUGE factor in streamlining our business. She doesn't say much about these in the copy I have.

The average sitters doesn't start up with a trademark or employees, and most start as sole proprioterships (much less paperwork). Her Pet Sitting For Profit book does mention that most of these things are optional so that's good.

Other info can be rather ambiguous. For example, under "Business Licenses" it says "check to see if you need a business license". It would be nice if she could specify why and the details (some states require you to be licensed for particular industries, and others don't. Others require registration of your busines name by city, or state. Others require you to get a sales tax #. All this is important, and you should understand it in detail) and more info on where to go.

Other debateable topics (like magnets on your cars or advertising on t-shirts) aren't listed as something you need to think about in depth (for instance, magnets on your cars can be a deterrent to some clients who don't want it highlighted that they may not be home). I couldn't find discussions on the big questions, like should I collect payment before or after the sit (maybe I just missed it??? Have it in front of my but still can't find anything about payments?).

So if you are looking for a book that will help you get thinking about the right topics and you plan to have lots of employees, maybe start here. The book is very affordable.

And you have to kind of breeze past all her advertisements for her other availabe items. General consensus from us sitters already in the biz is that they are overpriced.

I recommend "The Professional Pet Sitter" by Lori & Scott Mangold. It's geared more towards beginners, and I really like the organization much better. Their form samples are limited, but can get you thinking in the right direction.

Then check out forms and other info available on Ebay for "Pet Sitting". You can find great, complete form packs as low as $5, and full startup kits for under $40. Try searching Google also - some great stuff out there that can be VERY helpful. Always see a sample of forms before you buy - and check out feedback to be sure you are getting something good.

Edited 2006 to add: The version of this book that I have is fairly old. There is a new version coming out 5/2006 that will hopefully be more current. (?)

Pigeons for Pleasure and Profit: A Complete Guide to Pigeon Raising

Average customer rating:

a good manual,good for beginers and has good information

Pigeons for Pleasure and Profit: A Complete Guide to Pigeon Raising
Charles Foy , and Clair Hetland
Manufacturer: Swanson Publishing Company
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Birdwatching | Outdoors & Nature | Subjects | Books
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Customer Reviews:

a good manual,good for beginers and has good information.......1998-10-18

this is a very good book for begineers and might help a middle leval pigeon fancier. has a lot on feed,sicknesses,and care.well worth the money.I'm a beginer and it helped me.has a good list of books and has very good photos of Foy's Pigeon Farms. a good all around book. espiecilly for me(a 11 year old)sice I don't have ton's of money to spend. done by Daniel A. Jacobs age 11

Earthworms for Ecology and Profit: Earthworms and the Ecology

Average customer rating:

Earthworms for Ecology and Profit: Earthworms and the Ecology
Ronald E. Gaddie
Manufacturer: Bookworm Pub Co
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

Reference | Outdoors & Nature | Subjects | Books
ASIN: 0916302008

Nature's Keepers: The Remarkable Story Of How the Nature Conservancy Became the Largest Environmental Group in the World

Average customer rating:

Interesting, but lacking in certain ways.
A decent (selective) history but a disappointing analysis of strategy
An insightful Book
Great Book for NGO Management
Nature's Keepers

Nature's Keepers: The Remarkable Story Of How the Nature Conservancy Became the Largest Environmental Group in the World
Bill Birchard
Manufacturer: John Wiley & Sons
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0787971588

Book Description

With more than $3.7 billion in assets and annual revenue of $800 million, the Nature Conservancy has generated staggering growth that would be the envy of any business.

Incorporated in 1951 by a small circle of concerned ecologists, the Conservancy has grown financially into the world's largest environmental organization. It has one million members--up from 500,000 in 1990--and 3,500 employees operating in 50 states and 28 countries across the world.

Nature's Keepers offers readers an inspirational leadership tale and management chronicle, as it goes behind the scenes and details the inner workings of the Nature Conservancy. Highlighting the efforts of nine extraordinary leaders, Nature's Keepers examines the organization's culture and management, strategy and decisions, and courageous and ingenious individuals who have dedicated their lives to conservation.

Author Bill Birchard reveals how the Conservancy's sometimes controversial business practices--entrepreneurial approaches to preserving ecosystems while meeting human needs--have earned the praise of management gurus such as Peter Drucker. The Conservancy's way of operating, though not free of failings, is both widely emulated in the nonprofit community and greatly respected by business scholars and CEOs nationwide.

Download Description

With more than $3.7 billion in assets and annual revenue of $800 million, the Nature Conservancy has generated staggering growth that would be the envy of any business. Incorporated in 1951 by a small circle of concerned ecologists, the Conservancy has grown financially into the world’s largest environmental organization. It has one million members–up from 500,000 in 1990–and 3,500 employees operating in 50 states and 28 countries across the world. Nature’s Keepers offers readers an inspirational leadership tale and management chronicle, as it goes behind the scenes and details the inner workings of the Nature Conservancy. Highlighting the efforts of nine extraordinary leaders, Nature’s Keepers examines the organization’s culture and management, strategy and decisions, and courageous and ingenious individuals who have dedicated their lives to conservation. Author Bill Birchard reveals how the Conservancy’s sometimes controversial business practices ¾ entrepreneurial approaches to preserving ecosystems while meeting human needs¾have earned the praise of management gurus such as Peter Drucker. The Conservancy’s way of operating, though not free of failings, is both widely emulated in the nonprofit community and greatly respected by business scholars and CEOs nationwide.

Customer Reviews:

Interesting, but lacking in certain ways........2007-07-29

I was not familiar with the Nature Conservancy and its international scope so the book was enlightening. It has a slow beginning but picks up after the first couple of chapters. The biggest fault, and this is major, is a lack of pictures of the players. Some bigger than life characters are described, and it always makes a biography type book much more interesting to have a photos of the characters described. Worth while reading.

A decent (selective) history but a disappointing analysis of strategy.......2006-01-28

This is a book about business strategy in a non-profit corporation, The Nature Conservancy (TNC). The book begins and ends with a scandal, a series of articles by the Washington Post that uncovered failures of governance in this non-profit organization. These revelations came after a series of scandals concerning corporate governance in companies such as Enron, and the Nature Conservancy very much needed to keep its image distinct from those kinds of businesses.

When evaluating this book, it's important to keep in mind what Berchard intends it to be (a book about strategy) as well as what it might have been (a history of the Nature Conservancy). In light of some of the other reviews, I think it's also important to remember whether we like the book or not is a separate question from whether we like the Nature Conservancy or not.

Berchard does not intend this book to be a history of the Nature Conservancy, and it isn't. However, it presents selected strategic challenges of the organization in chronological order, so it looks as if it might be a history. There is much left out, in particular, the events between strategic challenges. These make up most of the growth of the organization. I wish Berchard had given us more of that history, since the supposed success of TNC's leadership must be evident in that growth - the proof of the pudding is in the eating, after all. Even so, Berchard has done enough research into TNC's files, and conducted enough interviews, so that this book would be a useful source for someone else who wanted to write a history of the organization.

Berchard *does* intend this book to be about business strategy, even if the business is a non-profit. The structure of each chapter is similar: TNC faces some challenge that reveals the limits of its previous way of doing things. A leader either changes what s/he is doing to meet the challenge, or a new leader comes along who finds a way to meet the challenge.

In other words, the book gives a series of descriptions of successful changes in an organization. But the book is remarkably short of analysis. What were the choices available, and why was this particular response chosen? Would other choices have worked better? Why or why not? Why weren't the changes made earlier? What were the constraints on the leadership that kept it from addressing these challenges earlier than it did?

All in all, the story is remarkably voluntaristic, conveying the sense that any leader can change any organization if he or she has a good strategy. Maybe that's true for some organizations, but it sure isn't true of the one where I work. It also begs the question of why other leaders did not succeed in addressing these challenges. Adding a case study of failure would help round out the book considerably.

These failures to analyze strategy more deeply made for a pretty disappointing book in terms of its own objectives. As a first draft of a history of TNC, it does a decent job.

An insightful Book.......2005-11-14

This is a book that succeeds in many levels. It's an important leadership book for entrepreneurs and insightful for those who are interested in nonprofits/environmental organizations.

I was amazed at how quickly the Nature Conservancy grew, and at its many successful ventures. At the same time I grew more and more disappointed. There is no reason why the CEO of a non-profit organization should earn three quarters of a million dollars. There is also no reason why a charity should lend the same CEO a million and a half dollars to buy a house. When people donate money they are intending for the money to go to the cause that the charity promotes. Had the salary being $200 000 it would have been understandable, since being CEO of such a large organization entailed an amazing amount of responsibility. This huge wage discrepancy should have been obvious without needing a major newspaper writing an article on it.

But even with some errors like the one mentioned above, the Nature Conservancy innovates and is constantly pursuing new ways of saving land and ecosystems. They began by initially purchasing land for conservation purposes, but are now involved in many more ventures. Overall the Nature Conservancy has done an amazing amount of good. The characters profiled in this book are committed and always ready to improve.

The book itself is well written and I give credit to the author for the enormous amount of research this book would have taken.

Great Book for NGO Management.......2005-09-06

"Nature's Keepers" is an important and well crafted book. For a young person in the non-profit community, the book has been extremely valuable, as I watch, contemplate, and participate in my own organization's thinking on strategy, management, and governance. I have recommended it to many of my colleagues.

Nature's Keepers.......2005-07-25

A wonderful story of a remarkable organization and how it's various leaders at the state, national and international level dealt with the constant changes and conflicts that are inevitable in a group that has had such an impact throughout the world. What is refreshing is that the conflicts are not hidden but highlighted so that we may know how the organization dealt with them to make the Nature Conservancy stronger.

An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations: Volume 1

Average customer rating:

basis of the economic principal thought and exercise

An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations: Volume 1
Adam Smith
Manufacturer: Adamant Media Corporation
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Economic History | Economics | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books

All Amazon Upgrade | Amazon Upgrade | Stores | Books

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Naked Economics: Undressing the Dismal Science

ASIN: 0543947963
Release Date: 2000-10-04

Product Description

This Elibron Classics book is a facsimile reprint of a 1786 edition published in London.

Customer Reviews:

basis of the economic principal thought and exercise.......2007-08-06

In order to understand any economic study as a whole,one should read these volumes to excecute decision making flawnessly by knowing exactely the morel consequences and economic effects this may have on those involved by it for the well being of all.
Therefore,one can not look or exercise the difficult art of business decision making in the future without knowing the historical past of the
economic foundations on which the modern art of guiding any type of decision making is based.

Christiaan Winkel

An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations: Volume 2

Average customer rating:

An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations: Volume 2
Adam Smith
Manufacturer: Adamant Media Corporation
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Economic History | Economics | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books

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Average customer rating:

Organizing Outdoor Volunteers
Roger L. Moore , Vicki Lafarge , and Charles L. Tracy
Manufacturer: Appalachian Mountain Club
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Binding: Paperback

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Average customer rating:

offensive
Tastes like chicken!!
this is an outrage

Rabbits for Food and Profit

Manufacturer: Farmers Digest
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Binding: Paperback

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Storey's Guide to Raising Rabbits: Breeds, Care, Facilities

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Book Description

Here's the best available book to help you or your kids decide if you want to raise these fast-growing critters. Offers complete how-to information as well as breed selection, breeding, equipment, recipes and management ideas. 100 photos and drawings.

Customer Reviews:

offensive.......2003-01-03

My nine year old neutered rabbit gives this book a "paws down" and asks people not to raise domestic rabbit for dinner in the USA.
Remember to neuter your pets.

Tastes like chicken!!.......2002-01-04

My kids had the hardest time finding information on raising meat rabbits for a project,and we found this book at the library. We are buying it because it has the best descriptions and directions for raising meat rabbits from cage to pot. Last week was the first time our family tasted rabbit, and it was great!!

this is an outrage.......2001-02-01

the perpetrators of this book should be ashamed of themselves! there is no creature on earth as loveable and inoffensive as the bunny rabbit. why not a book on cooking the family dog? outrageous indeed!

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