Providing clear, accessible solutions to
the world’s greatest social, economic
and environmental problems.
Current Titles
The series has begun with the following titles:
*NEW*Building an Ark: 101 Solutions to Animal Suffering, by Ethan Smith with Guy Dauncey. New Society Publishers, Fall 2007.
Winner of a 2008 NAPRA Nautilus Award.
Ethan is author who lives on Pender Island, BC.
“Building an Ark is a book after my own heart: it is all about taking action to make the world a better place.”
- Dr. Jane Goodall
"Finally, a practical and engaging book of solutions for animals!"
- Zoe Weil, President, Institute for Humane Education
Stormy Weather: 101 Solutions
to Global Climate Change,
by Guy Dauncey with Patrick Mazza. New Society Publishers,
2001.
Winner of a NAPRA Nautilus Award, New York Book Expo, May 2002.
“A wonderful contribution that provides clear guidance on climate solutions.”
– David Suzuki
“A fabulous book - provides a sweeping vision of the issues, and comprehensive practical solutions."
- James Hansen, NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies
Cancer: 101 Solutions to a Preventable Epidemic, by Liz Armstrong,
Guy Dauncey, and Anne Wordsworth. New Society Publishers, Spring 2007.
Winner of a 2008 NAPRA Nautilus Award.
Liz is cofounder of the Women's Environmental Health Network and the Breast Cancer Prevention Coalition, and lead author of Everyday Carcinogens: Stopping Cancer Before It Starts, the background paper for the "Stop Cancer" conference held at McMaster University, Ontario, March 1999.
“A wonderful tool for enhancing your own health, and the health of our planetary home.”
- Dr. Warren Bell, MD
“A well researched analysis of today's cancer epidemic, that will surely inspire readers to action.”
- Ruth Grier, former Minister of Health, Ontario
Enough Blood Shed: 101 Solutions to Violence, Terror, & War,
by Dr. Mary-Wynne Ashford, MD with Guy Dauncey. New Society
Publishers, Spring 2006.
Mary-Wynne is past Co-President of International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War. Mary-Wynne is a palliative care physician who lives in Victoria, Canada. She is working with advisors from the Hague Appeal for Peace, Physicians for Global Survival, International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War, the Oxford Research Group, Canadian Pugwash, Voice of Women, the Carter Center, Physicians for Global Survival, and Peace Magazine.
“Must be in everyone’s quiver of inspiration and motivation so that we can leave this world a safer and saner place for our children and grandchildren.”
- Cora Weiss, President Hague Appeal for Peace and International Peace Bureau
Coming Soon
A Room Somewhere: 101 Solutions to Homelessness by Judy Graves and Stephen Legault with Guy Dauncey.
For the Love of Nature: 101 Solutions for the World's Biodiversity, by Briony Penn with Guy Dauncey.
Introduction
At the opening of the 21st century, we face an enormous,
multi-layered, global crisis that combines poverty, disease,
oppression and ignorance with overconsumption, waste and ecological
exhaustion, and also with frustration, anger, violence and war.
Many people feel overwhelmed at the cumulative nature of the
problems, and the apparent deficit of progressive, forward-looking
solutions. Others turn away and remain absorbed in their own
lives, thinking there is nothing they can do.
When you dig deeper, however, you discover that there are organizations,
businesses and governments all around the world that are already
implementing solutions to the many problems that beset us. Their
successes are scattered, however, and most people have little
awareness that we already possess practical solutions to many
of our problems.
The Solutions Project aims to address the world’s major
problems, one by one, informing people about solutions that are
already being practiced, and promoting their adoption. It seeks
to inspire people and governments with optimism about the achievability
of the solutions, and to shift the global attitude from one of
depression and despair to one of steadfast determination and
engagement.
Background
In July 2001, New Society Publishers released Stormy Weather:
101 Solutions to Global Climate Change, written by Guy
Dauncey with Patrick Mazza. The book provides comprehensive,
systematic solutions to the challenge of global climate change
for each sector of society:
10 Solutions for Individuals
10 Solutions for Schools, Colleges,
Churches & Action Groups
10 Solutions for Cities & Towns
10 Solutions for Businesses
15 Solutions for Power Utilities
5 Solutions for Auto Corporations
10 Solutions for State & Provincial
Governments
10 Solutions for National Governments
10 Solutions for Developing
Nations
10 Global Solutions
1 Solution for All of Us
Almost all of the solutions in Stormy Weather are drawn
from practices and policies that are already being implemented
around the world. After laying out the basics of climate change
and an overview of the solutions, the book features a comprehensive,
illustrated, 2-page illustrated layout for each solution, showing
where that solution is taking place and listing relevant websites.
Its purpose is to eliminate forever the belief that we do not
know how to solve the problems of global climate change, and
to give people the tools they need to become engaged.
Stormy Weather received critical acclaim both for its contents
and for the way it is organized, and it won a Nautilus Award
at the New York Book Expo in May 2002. The public has responded
very positively to the book’s organization and overall
approach, which has inspired the formation of the Solutions Project.
Description
Adopting the same organizational approach used for Stormy
Weather, and in partnership with New Society Publishers,
the Solutions Project will undertake three key initiatives:
Organize the publication of a complete set of 25 titles
Form partnerships to assist with the development and promotion
of each title
Establish a "Solutions for Leaders" initiative
for each title.
25 Titles
In partnership with New Society Publishers, the Solutions Project
will organize the publication of 25 titles over the next few
years, laying out proven solutions to the world’s biggest
problems. Each book will be written by a leading author or authors
in the field, and will have a global reach, with a view to translation
and co-publication in other countries.
Each of these books is like a triathlon in its complexity, detail
and scope. Having completed the first two books, however, and
with two more underway, it is clear that the task can be achieved.
Taken together, the solutions will create a cohesive body of
practical experience that will foster a comprehensive approach
to social, economic and environmental problem-solving, combining
individual action, community action, ethical consuming, socially
responsible business and investment, environmentally sensitive
technologies, appropriate government policies, and global initiatives.
The solutions described in each book will be rooted in values
of individual fulfillment, community wellbeing, socially responsible
business, social justice, respect for human rights, cultural
diversity, democratic strength, ecological sustainability, and
economic development that embraces the need for a triple bottom
line, representing economic, environmental, and social performance.
Each book will recognize the obstacles that are placed in the
way of positive solutions by vested interests, such as the disruptive
tactics used by the coal, oil and auto companies to slow and
obstruct progress on global climate change, and will include
strategies to overcome the obstacles among the solutions.
The series aims to capture the public’s imagination by
concentrating on what works. The style is personal and journalistic,
but with no loss of scientific rigor or attention to detail.
The books are designed to appeal to the widest possible readership
- whoever is motivated to try to build a better world - with
a special effort to reach out to young people, who are our future.
Partnerships
New Society Publishers, based on Gabriola Island, BC, Canada,
is lead partner in the Solutions Project. It is their commitment
to publish books that contribute in fundamental ways to building
an ecologically sustainable and just society that makes the Solutions
Project possible.
Like any publisher, however, their attentions are occupied with
the 20 – 25 books that they publish annually. It is not
easy for books about social and environmental change to win major
attention in the media, where they fight for attention among
the several thousand books that are published every week.
It has been the Project founder’s experience that a new
title that deals with social and environmental change requires
considerable partnership building and community outreach among
supportive NGOs if it is to maximize its reach and penetration.
Also, the wider the net is cast to seek input while preparing
the title, the easier it is for the book to succeed in its purpose
when it is published.
The intention behind the Solutions Project is that we can turn
the mindset of the world from despair to hope, from negativity
to engagement. For each problem that the Project will address,
hundreds of NGOs, governments and businesses are already working
on the solutions. It is their stories that the Solutions Project
will tell, and their involvement that it seeks to engage.
To succeed in its task, the Solutions Project will reach out
to like-minded individuals and organizations around the world,
seeking Project Advisors, Title Advisors, Partner Organizations,
and Members.
Project Advisors
The project needs Advisors who will help it become a success,
and advise on:
The most appropriate titles to publish next
Possible authors with the experience, values and skills
Likely sources of funding
Other partnership possibilities
The design and delivery of the Solutions Project.
Title Advisors
Each title needs Advisors who will:
Advise on the title’s organizational method, and the
solutions being proposed
Review sections of the manuscript
Offer contacts, advice and ideas
Open doors for interviews, book reviews, magazine articles,
and publication in other countries
Promote the title to colleges, NGOs, businesses, and government
leaders
Help with Internet promotion, using the project’s website
Advise in the quest to generate associated NPR and CBC Radio
programs, and a TV film.
Partner Organizations
The project also needs NGOs and other organizations who will:
Offer advice on titles where they have expertise
Assist with promotion and outreach as the titles are published
Invite their members to join the "Solutions for Leaders" initiative
on a title-by-title basis.
Members
The Solutions Project also needs individuals around the world
who will:
Share the vision of the project
Use their skills and resources to offer advice, ideas and
connections
Tell their friends and networks about the books as they come
out
Support the Solutions for Leaders initiative.
Solutions for Leaders
For each title, The Solutions Project will develop a "Solutions
for Leaders" initiative to reach out to local, national
and global leaders, so that they become aware of the solutions
to the problems they face, and are encouraged to implement them.
The Project will work with members and partners to promote the
solutions featured to government, business and community leaders,
and encourage them to adopt similar legislation and practices.
This initiative will work through two programs:
Gifts for Leaders. Members of the Solutions Project
will be able to purchase copies of the titles below cost to
donate to local, civic, business, national and global leaders.
75 copies of the first title, Stormy Weather: 101 Solutions
to Global Climate Change, have been donated to leaders
in Canada and US, including 21 to Canadian government cabinet
ministers, 40 to Washington State legislators, and several
to leaders in Washington DC, including Al Gore.
Policies for Leaders. Members and partner organizations
will encourage leaders to introduce the legislation and other
solutions featured in the books into city halls, legislatures,
parliaments, senates and congresses.
People
Guy Dauncey is an author, activist and consultant who works
to develop a positive vision of a sustainable future, and translate
that vision into action. He is author of Stormy Weather: 101
Solutions to Global Climate Change and other titles, and
publisher of EcoNews, a monthly newsletter serving the
vision of a sustainable Vancouver Island. He is co-founder of
the Victoria Car-Share Cooperative, President of the BC Sustainable
Energy Association (www.bcsea.org),
and Co-Chair of Prevent Cancer Now (www.preventcancernow.ca).
He lives in Victoria, BC, Canada, where he also works as a consultant
in sustainable ecovillage and green building development.
Project Advisors:
Sarah van Gelder, Editor, YES! Magazine, Bainbridge
Island, USA
Fran Korten, Positive Futures Network, Bainbridge Island,
USA
Bob Freling, Executive Director, Solar Electric Light
Fund, Washington DC, USA
John Todd, Biologist, author, co-founder of Living Technologies,
Inc, USA.
Nancy Jack Todd, Vice-president, Ocean Arks International,
USA.
Chris Plant, New Society Publishers, Gabriola Island,
Canada
Judith Plant, New Society Publishers, Gabriola Island,
Canada
Elizabeth May, Executive Director, Sierra Club, Ottawa,
Canada
Jakob von Uexkull, Founder, Right Livelihood Foundation,
UK/Sweden
Peter Russell, author of The White Hole in Time and Science
and God. San Francisco, CA, USA
Future Title Themes
There is no set method for choosing an author for a new title.
They come from a mix of chance, serendipity, and personal invitations.
Social and Economic Change
101 Solutions to Poverty in the North *
101 Solutions to
Corporate Globalization *
101 Solutions for Our Cities *
101 Solutions to Crime *
101 Solutions for Democracy *
101 Solutions to Poverty in the
South
101 Solutions for Health Care
101 Solutions to AIDS
101 Solutions to Racism
101 Solutions to Homelessness
101 Solutions for Affordable Housing
101 Solutions for Schools
101 Solutions for Handicapped People
101 Solutions for Rural Communities
101 Solutions for a Green
Economy
101 Solutions for Businesses
Environmental Change
101 Solutions for Farms *
101 Solutions to the Global Water
Crisis *
101 Solutions to the Loss of Nature *
101 Solutions to the Loss
of the World’s Forests
101 Solutions to World’s Ocean
Crisis
101 Solutions for the World’s Transport Future
Personal and Family Change
101 Solutions to Grief, Anger, and Hurt
101 Solutions for
Marriage
101 Solutions for Children
