The title of the book – Multiple Account Benefit-Cost Analysis: A practical Guide for the Systematic Evaluation of Project and Policy Alternatives – won’t have it jumping off the shelves in time for Christmas but activists should be asking for it in their stockings.

Shaffer is an academic and public policy researcher who regularly writes for this blog.  In 1993 he introduced the concept of multiple account benefit cost analysis to the BC government. 

Multiple account analyses goes beyond simple cost-benefit analysis.  Shaffer writes, it “is based on the premise that the role of benefit-cost analysis is to focus and inform, not resolve public policy debates…When the goal is to inform, the need for an overall bottom line disappears.  Indeed, it is often not even desirable.  A single summary measure of overall benefit can mask important information about the nature and distribution of benefits and costs.  More fundamentally, it can do a disservice by implying which alternative is best or what un-equivocally should be done.”

While some of the technical concepts in the book are a challenge for non-economists (like me), Shaffer illustrates them with case studies after each chapter that show how they are used.

Governments often use cost-benefit analysis to sell their particular ideas for projects.  Shaffer demonstrates that decisions around projects are rarely inevitable and most often they will depend on choices by the public and decision makers. His book helps arm activists with questions that need to be asked and issues we need to raise to challenge what we are told.

Shaffer’s book is available from University of Toronto Press or your local bookseller for $27.95.

The Story of Stuff by Annie Leonard

I watched the video along time ago, and even saw a live performance of it at the Oregon Country Fair a couple years ago. Now the book, which puts some much needed meat on the bones of those stick people. Which makes it a compelling popular primer on ecological economics, except while the latter tends to the abstract, Leonard tells the story of everyday Stuff, walking you through the processes of Extraction, Production, Distribution, Consumption and Disposal. She also makes a compelling case that our ecological woes – of which climate change is just one – are systemically rooted in a little thang we call capitalism. But she does not stick to environmental problems, either; she reveals the injustices for workers at all stages in wages, hours and unsafe working conditions so that we can buy a toxic bauble for a dollar.

The Geography of Hope by Chris Turner

I saw Chris Turner speak at a conference last year at Harrison Hot Springs, and even got to chat with him in the hot tub. He was a pretty funny speaker and I committed to picking up his book. But then I assumed I would see it on the shelves in my occasional bookstore browsing, but never saw it anywhere. Which is a shame because this type of book is what we need to shake ourselves out of our fossil fuel addiction. Turner is a fantastic writer, and as a journalist he is able to tell compelling stories from a round-the-world journey in search of real examples of a zero-carbon economy that represents a plausible future – if we can just break the addiction. Working on climate change takes you to some pretty dark places, and this type of book shines some of the light I need to keep going.

The Spirit Level: Why More Equal Societies Almost Always Do Better, by Richard Wilkinson and Kate Pickett

When I first heard the name The Spirit Level, it met with a roll of my eyes, kind of like when someone says Mother Earth during an environmental debate. But the book kept coming up from some sources I highly trust, and after picking it up I found it has little to do with the last known residence of Carlos Casteneda. In fact, it is the type of synthesis that is so rare these days, covering a wide range of empirical evidence, and weaving it together so nicely that at the end it just seems obvious. The sub-title gives it away: using cross-sectional international comparisons and states within the US (plus the occasional time series), the book makes its way through an undeniable link between higher inequality and adverse social and health outcomes. As someone who has spent a bit of time researching inequality, and advocating for policies to reduce it, I’ve noticed a tendency for researchers to sometimes fall into “statistical pornography”, or displaying data for its shock value (“just look at that growing gap”). What the Spirit Level does is provide the deep context for why that growing gap matters, linking it to real outcomes rather than ethical ideals, filling in the canvas with research on social determinants of health and life satisfaction. I’m pleased to say I got this one out of the library.

In Defense of Food: An Eater’s Manifesto by Michael Pollan

Pollan’s follow up to The Omnivore’s Dilemma revisits some of the critique of the industrialized food system covered in that book, but focuses on our evolving understanding of nutrition. Pollan is a wry writer, and he deftly and humourously argues that the science of “nutritionism” has led us astray because of its reductionist tendencies that miss the big picture of healthy eating in practice, thus leading societies down one food fad after another, plus a lexicon of food-speak that few can relate to. The major lessons seem to be about avoiding the products of the industrial food system, fast foods but also most of the processed foods, especially ones that have health claims emblazoned on the package. Simply put, eat your fruits and veggies, ideally as locally produced as possible, and not too much meat. And slow down, dammit, and enjoy that meal with friends and family.

Regular readers of Policy Note are probably familiar with some of the political and environmental issues plaguing North Delta, like the South Fraser Perimeter Road and the degradation of Burns Bog. But otherwise, most of us don’t know much about North Delta, which, like many (most?) suburbs, seems to have little to recommend it. Or, as the teenaged Bach and her friends would say,

North Delta is the kind of place that has a lot of potential for those who belong. For people who liked having yards and cars and patio furniture and plastic basketball hoops in their driveways and affordable mortgages and access to amenities, it was a perfectly legitimate community. For us, it was hell.

Bach shares stories of her Danish immigrant family struggling to assimilate into North Delta culture — her mother tries to find happiness and fulfillment in her new life as a housewife with a two-door garage and a wrap-around yard; Bach and her father escape invitations to play weird team sports like softball with the neighbourhood kids by going fishing on Deas Island. She tells us about her friend Elaine’s family, who ran Henry’s Canadian and Chinese Restaurant for decades until the land was bought up by developers and the restaurant demolished. We also learn more about the history of North Delta, which, it turns out, is fascinating — farming, canneries, black bears in the street — and who knew that at one point Disney was planning to buy and develop Burns Bog?

There are lots more juicy tidbits like this in Bach’s book, framed by her compelling argument that as time goes on and development continues, more and more specificity is erased from North Delta and suburbs like it. Behind the blandness that drove Bach and her teenage friends crazy, North Delta has a unique history and flavour, which, like Burns Bog, is threatened by new roads and environmental destruction.

Definitely a fitting book for the Policy Note Summer Reading series!

Anyway, as always, I try to pick up something that I’ve read a review on or something that just jumps out at me.  And there is was, in all its blue/green authority, Ecoholic Home by Adria Vasil.  “The greenest, cleanest and most energy-efficient information under one (Canadian) roof” was its cover’s claim.  I could not resist.

Settling into my most uncomfortable chair in the airport waiting room I started to glance through the book’s fresh pages, careful not to break the spine.  I noted that it was efficiently organized into sections and sub-sections.  It had graphics and text boxes and had the opposite appearance to an academic tome, so I started in. 

By the time they called me for my flight I was well past Cleaning and onto Cooking.  As I tucked myself into my seat I came across some information that took my breath away and cemented my affection for this book.  The Quick Tip for stainless steel cookware:  “If you’re allergic to nickel, look for the nickel-free variety, since most stainless steel is cut with the stuff.”  Holy smokes!  Could this explain the eczema explosion my daughter experienced since training and working as a chef?  Further research confirmed this, but that’s another story.

We are quite often confronted with the notion that just one person can’t make a difference.  Clearly Vasil does not subscribe to that thinking.  She has clearly outlined hundreds of easy things that we can do or change that will add up to a lot.  As Canadians we have to do more, we have the highest energy use of any citizen on the planet.  She informs us that our households are responsible for 46% of our country’s emissions. 

Just as many drops fill a glass, the many small things that we can do will add up to a lot.  Most of us are already changing light bulbs and using our cars less but there are hundreds of other small things that we can do.  Vasil’s book is not just another list of what to do and not do.  It is the most comprehensive reference on having a green, safe and money-saving home available today.   It covers cleaning, energy, decorating, gardening and more.  For folks with asthma or other lung issues the section called Breathing includes sensible advice on creating the type of breathing environment that is required for a long and healthy life.  For starters, ditch all those ridiculous sprays and plug-ins.  They are bad for the environment and bad for you.

Decorating, a section required due to Canadians’ continued renovation craze, is most useful.  Who knew that you could get FSC-certified Canadian maple and oak flooring?  And recycling your old carpet?  Yes, it’s true.  She tells us how to do it. Low VOC paint?  Almost all lines of paint are jumping on the bandwagon.

One of the most important aspects of this wonderful book is her advice on “greenwashing.”  In every section there are helpful warnings on what to watch out for.  Just because it says green on the label doesn’t mean that it is a product that is safe, environmentally friendly or even useful.

Although it is a bit late for this year’s spring cleaning, Ecoholic Home should be on your summer reading list.  Funny, helpful, approachable, this book has it all.

More at http://www.ecoholic.ca/

I spend a lot of my time reading and writing about public private partnerships and privatization, mainly in British Columbia.  Dexter Whitfield has spent a lot more time thinking about these issues than I have.  Whitfield is the founder and Director of the European Services Strategy Unit, an organization that studies the provision of quality public services by democratically accountable governments. 

Whitfield’s latest book, published this year, is Global Auction of Public Assets: Public Sector Alternatives to the Infrastructure Market & Public Private Partnerships.  The book is a massive collection of data on privatization of public services around the world.  Whitfield ties privatization to globalization and looks at infrastructure as a new wealth machine for international corporations.  He outlines how things that used to be considered essential public services are becoming just one more chip in the international investment casino.  He also outlines many of the projects that have failed dramatically and been bailed out publicly.

The book I haven’t read is Public Service, Private Profits: The Political Economy of Public Private Partnerships in Canadaby John and Salim Loxley.  I recommend the book on the basis of John Loxley’s previous work looking at P3s in Canada.  It is a long awaited and much anticipated bringing together of a decade of work on the topic by the authors.  Loxley was one of the speakers at an early forum on P3s in Vancouver and his comments can be found here.

So far I have not succeeded in getting my hands on Loxley’s book and that is one of the problems with my recommendations.

Whitfield’s book is not even available in Canada but it is worth the effort to get it.  You will need to order it directly from Spokesman Books in the UK through their website.

Loxley’s book can be ordered from Fernwood Publishing through local bookstores but Indigo tells me it takes five weeks.  It would probably be faster to buy it directly from the publisher here.

I have just finished reading Donald Gutstein’s Not a Conspiracy Theory: How Business Propaganda Hijacks Democracy (Key Porter Books, $22.95). 

Gutstein outlines how an interlocking web of major corporations, right-wing foundations, business friendly newspapers and organizations like the Fraser Institute have worked together for 40 years to dominate the political discourse in Canada and the United States.  Literally billions of dollars have been spent preaching market fundamentalism and attacking the role of government.

Foundations and corporations fund academics and right-wing think tanks to provide legitimacy to their ideas.  These ideas in turn are widely covered in an increasingly concentrated media.  Fraser Institute veterans go directly to work for major newspapers where their roots are rarely if ever acknowledged.

Gutstein presents many cases of how these links work.  He reports on the correspondence between the Fraser Institute and big tobacco asking for money to counter “risk activists and their misleading and misguided propaganda.”  Most interesting today, for obvious reasons, is how energy companies have funded the climate denial industry in an attempt to face down a virtual unanimity among climate scientists. 

Gutstein argues the right has been very successful in its efforts to undermine public confidence in public institutions – an argument that’s hard to ignore in the face of a voter turnout of less than 50%.

But the good news is that the system doesn’t always work.  Most people still believe there is a climate crisis and that something needs to be done about it.  Despite two decades of attacks most Canadians are still proud of our public health care system.

Conservative ideas have plenty of money behind them.   Progressive ideas could use more support.  So maybe I will offer another gift suggestion.  What about a membership in the CCPA for your friends? 

So that being said, what’s your idea for a book I could give Seth Klein this year?  Don’t tell him I asked.