What Others Are Saying about Climate Change, Land Use and Monetary Policy: The New Trifecta:
Note to those still on the fence: For a "new and enlightened" look at climate change be sure to read an excerpt, then purchase, read and submit a review for Climate Change, Land Use and Monetary Policy - The New Trifecta.
The following is a collection of reviews and reader comments
*****
I very much enjoyed Climate Change, Land Use and Monetary Policy: The New Trifecta. Author Geraldine Perry has done a fantastic job in creating a book that is both educational and incredibly readable, certainly not always an easy feat. Readers will find themselves really pulled into this well researched book and will continue to turn the pages from the start all the way through the end, determined to learn more about how our society is heading in the wrong direction in terms of our attempts to remedy climate change. Any reader interested in the environment, climate change, the future of our planet, politics or just an intriguing and well-researched read should absolutely pick up this book. I highly recommend Climate Change, Land Use and Monetary Policy: The New Trifecta, and I look forward to reading more from the talented author, Geraldine Perry, in the very near future! -Tracy A. Fischer
*****
This is a wonderful, very well-written and highly informative book! I have read several books on social policy and our environment, and our world and future, sometimes I get the sense that most are just recycling old information. This book it seems like I read a lot of new ideas presented in a way that makes a great deal of sense, even if might be perceived as somewhat ‘controversial’. The content was mostly new to me and laid out in a coherent way that is easy to follow, but is meticulously researched and supported with solid evidence. Geraldine Perry uses facts and present day conditions as well as real-life examples to share her perspectives and her ideas for solutions. Fast paced, informative, and easy to read, I recommend this book, “Climate Change, Land Use and Monetary Policy” to everyone who wants a better future for our planet. Ms. Perry does a splendid job of stating her thesis and backing it up with clear, coherent arguments. Each chapter gives valuable information, examples and sound advice to the readers, and it has engaging narrative and well edited. -Karen Matthews
*****
Geraldine Perry has a great ability to take complex ideas, concepts and put them in the simplest terms for all to understand easily. She covers many different points of socio-economic and political policy, as well as current conditions and ideas on what could be done to make our world and how we do things better, instead of just repeating the same old ideas that don’t work. She gives straightforward, useful arguments that demand to be heard and studied further. Nicely laid out and I liked how it was formatted/broken down into individual chapters that focused on different elements. Made for easier reading and retention. Flawless editing and I walked away feeling like I really learned something from reading this book. -Leo Gregory
*****
"Fears over climate change have set into warp speed motion a mushrooming pileup of confusing and conflicting public policies, corporate goals and individual choices that rarely if ever deal head-on with land use as a major factor in climate change, much less address in any meaningful way the increasingly urgent environmental, economic, political and moral questions concerning land use." excerpt from Chapter 6
In this fact-filled guide for those perplexed by the current global argument about climate change, Geraldine Perry, a Certified Natural Health Consultant with a Masters Degree in Education, examines varying facets of the on-going debate, first noting that most climate change believers stress CO2 as the major villain, which has resulted in a "singular focus on reduction of C02 emissions." Perry points out that other elements such as nitrogen also have an effect and that land usage (agriculture) has always played a major role in climate disasters, as witnessed during the Dust Bowl. The political policies that followed the Dust Bowl, including the misnamed Green Revolution, brought about highly industrialized farming that is rapidly sucking the land dry and producing foods deficient in nutrients. The over-arching issue of land usage leads into international monetary policies that exploit ever-increasing debt as a way of keeping businesses and banks afloat. Connections between climate change (i.e. depletion of resources including land and nutrients), land use (i.e. the difference in value between "tree plantations" and old growth forests), and monetary policy (i.e. accumulation of ever-spiraling debt) form the nexus—the "new trifecta"—of this fascinating treatise.
Perry comes across as principled and forward-thinking. She proposes ameliorating the ravages of climate change through a combination of appropriate agricultural technologies, fair distribution of wealth, and the elimination of central banking. She speaks knowledgeably of the justifiable fears of Americas founding fathers, particularly Thomas Jefferson, the powerful banking interests would control public policy and thereby determine how and which wealth is extracted from our greatest shared resource, the Earth itself. By reading Climate Change, Land Use and Monetary Policy, a thoughtful seeker can discover a new way to look at these large and often confusing issues. --Barbara Bamberger Scott
*****
While there should no longer be a question about climate change, the debate as to its cause will rage for years ahead. Beyond the zealous polarization and outright ignorance regarding the issues, Perry intelligently examines the geopolitical history and monetary influences that have led civilization through environmental disasters, collapse, and present-day threats and kicks off the discussion of real environmental change. Our concept of actual wealth needs to be redefined, abandoning the prevalent concept of perceived wealth that is creating havoc on the planet as well as the monetary system itself. Nowhere is this insanity more demonstrated than in our agricultural model, where the true asset (i.e. the land) takes a backseat to the consumables it produces. The author introduces a new land-important agricultural model, examines its potential impact on society, and suggests appropriate monetary reform. The US Review of Books 2015 Eric Hoffer Awards.
*****
Climate Change, Land Use and Monetary Policy by Geraldine Perry offers a fresh perspective on a complicated subject. Her unconventional but well thought out take on familiar topics offers an opportunity for both believers and skeptics of climate change to think anew.
Her heavily footnoted book quotes extensively from Irving Fisher, Henry George, Thomas Jefferson, John Taylor of Caroline, Stephan Zarlenga, Michael Hudson, Alexander Delmar, Michael Chossudovsky, Mason Gaffney and many others.
Examples of her work follows:
Geraldine Perry encourages us to think holistically. Fertilizer is oil based and is paid for by the increased yields on land, even when that land's topsoil is being diminished. Land is a natural resource that the farmer owns but is mortgaged to the bank, or rents from another owner. Oil or other natural resources are extracted with bank loans, labor and enterprise. Carbon sink plantations in the third world are a mechanism to get first world countries to pay their "carbon debt" so that international agribusiness can profit, pay their bonds and help to pay third world debt which is owed to the international banks. It is a cycle of rents, debt, banks, land, extractions and mitigations. All of these involve the exchange of money. The Mixt Money Case of 1604 decided that money was a public measure.
This extremely well written book knits together climate change, land use and monetary policy in a new and enlightened way. The author points out the circle of rent, debt, money, carbon and diminished topsoil and natural resources in a creative and eye-opening treatise.
Ms. Perry covers topics succinctly and suggests that we are not yet free from the bust and boom cycles that leave us in a financial depression/recession for years. She reminds us that Irving Fisher, Henry Simon and other leading economists of the 1930s sought to understand the causes of the Great Depression and to offer solutions. Their ultimate solution was called the Chicago Plan which has supporters today. You could say it's a combination of the Mixt Money Case ideas, debt free money creation and banking reform.
Ms. Perry quotes a friend and mentor who is a believer of climate change but is puzzled as to why it seems to end with a carbon tax as the solution: "I do not see any way to counteract this level of organized power (green groups, university grants, corporate influence in rent-seeking and carbon emissions trading, my examples) except to persuade people that trading carbon dioxide emission will have no effect on the climate."
I often wondered how having carbon trading billionaires, carbon exchanges, and paying carbon offsets would be good for the environment or aid the poor. The answer, thanks to Geraldine Perry, is now more apparent. - Gib Halverson, Board Member, Robert Schalkenbach Foundation.
*****
As a small farmer, member of Acres USA and monetary reform advocate, I always assumed that I knew the problems associated with modern agriculture and energy systems, including those labeled “green.” This book proved me wrong – the problems are actually much worse and interconnected in ways most of us never think about. The book explains very clearly how land use and our monetary system are at the very center of our multiple problems, which really do spring from how we use the land and choose to divvy up its bounty. Solutions such as those discussed in this book are all the more urgent today because of the sorry state of our soils, which will soon force us to come to terms with what the author calls Peak Soil, or the point at which the land will no longer be able to produce. I heartily recommend this book - Pennsylvania farmer.
*****
The economics of soil conservation has long been a subject near and dear to my heart, and this book does a thorough job of presenting this rather complex and difficult subject. This book's subject matter alone should stir up lots of interest. Certainly it deserves to be read, analyzed and digested by all who have an interest in our future. - Environmental economist, California.
*****
The perspective offered by this book is extremely valuable. Certainly it was important to me. - Environmental activist, New York.
*****
As a 25-year member of Acres USA, knowing and working with Charles Walters as a writer and researcher of healthy soil and water, I wholly endorse the themes and the kinds of systemic solutions discussed in this book. The unusual depth and integration of information presented on seemingly unrelated subjects requires readers to fully embrace the fact that closing our eyes or closing our mind to facts or concepts we do not understand or wish to believe will not make those facts or concepts disappear. If we are to survive as a species we must be willing to face the ever-changing present with an open, deeply inquisitive mind so that we can provide a livable future for all of us. I strongly suggest reading this book with that kind of approach in mind - Ken Fousek, Missouri
*****
Much to ponder here. Reminds me of Rachel Carson's Silent Spring. - Economic and environmental sustainability advocate, Virginia.
*****
Perry's examination and illumination of the connection between natural resource exploitation, including soil depletion, and our undemocratic monetary system is critical to understand and, once understood, work to profoundly change. Her work is a compelling call for protecting nature's reserves - both the produce of the earth and human labor - by eliminating our current unsustainable debt money system. - Greg Coleridge, Director, Northeast Ohio American Friends Service Committee
*****
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