Treading Softly: Paths to Ecological Order

We are living beyond our means, running up debts both economic and ecological,consuming the planet's resources at rates not remotely sustainable. But it's hard to imagine adifferent way. How can we live without cheap goods and easy credit? How can we consume withoutconsuming the systems that support life? How can we live well and live within our means? InTreading Softly, Thomas Princen helps us imagine an alternative. We need, hesays, a new normal, an ecological order that is actually economical with resources, that embraceslimits, that sees sustainable living not as a "lifestyle" but as a long-term connection tofresh, free-flowing water, fertile soil, and healthy food.

The goal would be tolive well by living well within the capacities of our resources. Princen doesn't offer a quick fix-- there's no list of easy ways to save the planet to hang on the refrigerator. He gives us insteada positive, realistic sense of the possible, with an abundance of examples, concepts, and tools forimagining, then realizing, how to live within our biophysical means.

Thomas Princen is Associate Professor of Natural Resources and Environmental Policy at the University of Michigan's School of Natural Resources and Environment. He is the author of The Logic of Sufficiency (2005) and the coeditor of Confronting Consumption (2002), both published by the MIT Press and both winners of the Harold and Margaret Sprout Award for best book on international environmental affairs.