If you can only read one book...

make it this one:

The Bridge at the Edge of the World: Capitalism, the Environment, and Crossing from Crisis to Sustainability

In just 320 pages you will get the whole package.  The book explores all of the key topics you need to understand the problems we face and the pathways toward solutions.

I think this review captures it well:

"In The Bridge at the Edge of the World, James Gustave Speth gives us new lenses with which to see what we have done to our environment and, more important, to see what we can do to restore it. He challenges us all to act not for ourselves, but for our children and grandchildren. In particular, he takes on the most powerful guardians of the status quo -- our mindsets. The bridge he hopes to construct has its bridgehead firmly based in today, because Speth asks us to think about it and then to use our creativity, imagination, and the power of common purpose to act to restore the environment and create a healthier world."

-Honourable Gordon Campbell, Premier, Province of British Columbia



This book might just change your life....and if we are lucky, your grandchildren's lives.