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Summary: A Call to Action
Review: "Last Hours of Ancient Sunlight" is the latest offering from best-selling author Thom Hartmann. It is one of the most intense and disturbing books I have ever read. Yes, the book is highly recommended and was selected from among many other worthy titles, along with "The Prophet's Way", as book of the month because of the potential for far reaching positive effects upon readers' lives. And as Thom Hartmann says in his introduction the "...book is ultimately about hope, and - once we understand how things are and how they got this way - offers concrete solutions for a brighter, and more meaningful future." It's true, the book provides, in the end, an optimistic message. I strongly urge you to read this book, but I'm not going to minimize its initial impact. The first two-thirds are tough going. There's no getting around it. Yet it is a journey of great Purpose, taking you, with your eyes and heart open, into the message of the final third of a book which may be the most important book you can read for our Now and our Future. The book begins with a striking look at the conditions of our world today. Some of this is going to be familiar reading because of the increasing frequency of published reports of impending ecological disasters and environmental collapse. Yet Thom Hartmann is not simply sounding the alarm or preaching to the choir of environmentalists. He truly gives us a fresh viewpoint of the current state of the planet, and how things got this way. "It all starts with sunlight". We, and everything else came from it, and all that sustains us is fueled by it. When we as a species were in harmony with nature and consumed our share of the sunlight without destroying and dominating the environment, our resources were renewable and our populations stable. We lived in a state of harmony and cooperation for hundreds of thousands of years. But, as we know, something went wrong in the Garden of Eden. Actually there were several things occurring over tens of ! thousands of years, and Thom Hartmann chronicles 4 pivotal events. First was the introduction of herding - approx 40,000 years ago - which was our initial departure from hunter-gatherers. Then about 10,000 years ago was the rise of agriculture, and following that the discovery of minerals, mining, and smelting metals. More food production, more energy, and thus more growth in population. This of course is widely known. But what has not been generally known, or at least discussed in depth offered by this book is the change in attitude that also occurred at that time. Thom Hartmann shows us that with so-called civilization and the rise of city/states came the idea that it is our destiny to rule the earth, that it is "...acceptable not just to compete with nature for our food supply, but to bend nature to our will, to destroy competing species and peoples, to dominate nature." The results of this have been the rise and fall of civilizations across the planet, each time collapsing when the sources of available sunlight became depleted or taken away by the next conquerors. Each collapse, each layer of history, left woundings in the earth, and in the human psyche. And this pattern (the occurrences and reasons for which are explored in depth in the book), continued again and again right up to the present. Still, as bad as they were, the overall planetary destructions of the past were minimal compared to what we have been seeing since the 4th pivotal moment in modern history. That "moment" was the discovery of sources of Ancient Sunlight that had been stored in the earth for millions of years. Around 900 years ago people began using coal for fuel. This allowed for more forestlands to be converted to croplands, and with the increase in food the world human population doubled (from 500 million to a billion) by 1800. The key is that here is "...when our ancestors started living off our planet's sunlight-savings". In the middle of the last century, the other great source of ancien! t sunlight - oil - began to be used. And since then we have discovered (just look around you) countless uses for this resource in the form of fuels, fabrics, and plastics. We were then, and are now more than ever, living well beyond the means of our daily sunlight income. Our supplies of Ancient Sunlight are vanishing. They may well be gone within our lifetimes, certainly within our children's. Yet rather than use the remaining fossil fuels to create new sources of energy and new ways of living, we just keep consuming, consuming , consuming. Thom Hartmann calls the people promoting/living in this way members of "Younger Cultures". They/we are called this not just because of their/our relatively recent appearance in history, but more importantly because of their/our immature, and dangerously irresponsible attitudes. Younger Cultures see themselves as separate from the world. Their "mission" is to dominate and conquer. They expend vast amounts of energy to establish ownership and control, and so the harming of others becomes an accepted part of the culture. Of course the lack of regard for others, and the separation from nature is echoed in the ever increasing destruction of the environment. Here in the West we, with all our comforts and shielded from the devastation growing at alarming rates in other parts of the planet (not to mention the poor and homeless living relatively close by), are generally living in survival by denial. We support a growing variety of addictions, from ingested substances to the much more devastating forms of energetic addictions such as television. And we have become adept at inventing ever more refined methods of treatment, as well as "fixes" for the environmental challenges. We need to be willing to look deeper into the root causes of these personal and planetary illnessess, into the abyss we call civilization, into the past unveiled for all it was/is in terms of the events and effects and even more importantly in terms of the attitudes that m! ade them possible over and over again. The first two-thirds of "Last Hours of Ancient Sunlight" will provide that vision, that first step in personal and planetary healing. In the part 3 of the book, Thom Hartmann shows us what we can do, beginning now, to restore our planet by transforming ourselves and healing our relationships with each other and all other living things. The model for this can be found in the essence of the Older Cultures. We are blessed with the presence of a few remaining Older Culture peoples such as the San, Kogi, Kayapo, and many of the Native American tribes, and if we listen, really listen, they have much to tell us. In their view we are not separate from the world but part of it. It is not our destiny to dominate, but to cooperate. Their stories of the world, their descriptions of life, are very different from our Younger Culture ones. It's time to change the stories we tell each other and our children about what happens in life, and our reasons for being here. We can begin to reconnect simply by paying more attention, being more awake, to the here and now. Meditation is the first and most powerful way to do that. When we find our center, that "...quiet place within where *thinking* ends and *consciousness* begins" we then "...find the ability to transform others and ourselves in ways which can and will transform the world." As we transform ourselves, we can create intentional communities, grounded in a new vision of reality that supports all of life. We can take the best of what we have now, and use it in more positive ways for a healthier future. It took great courage to write this book. And it takes great courage to read it, move through it, and begin to take action. Yet the choices are clear. We can continue to allow the accelerating destruction of the planet while living in denial of our own complicity and fearing the outcome. Or we can choose each day to reconnect to the Sacred and reawaken to our Oneness drawing our strength and energy ! from a truly infinite and renewable source: Love. Bottom Line -- Consider "Last Hours of Ancient Sunlight" as essential as any book or manual you have ever read, and one of the greatest gifts you could give another. Read it, use it, share it and together we'll write a new story and create a healthy future for our beloved planet. --- Steve L
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Summary: Read this book in order to be prepared for the coming era.
Review: The Last Hours of Ancient Sunlight is a preview of our coming new era. Thom Hartmann outlines the method of a growndswell movement that we, as individuals, can use to transform the entire planet. Ancient knowledge once reserved only for shaman, healers, mystics, and selected ones from each generation. That same knowledge is now given to us by Hartmann in order that we may start our own songlines of mythic proportions. The songlines, as the aborigines call history of the planet, will be ingrained in the life of our planet for future generations. Wanda Richardson
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Summary: Essential reading in understanding the crisis we face.
Review: This is the type of book you want everyone to read. In the tradition of Ishmael, yet exceeding more analytical than literary. As the author accurately points out, the fate of the world is altered by a minority who focus, mostly because the majority is not focused. The author is a little repetitive, yet manages to consider most of the key issues both from a technical - geo political- economic perspective as well as a somewhat holistic - metaphysical - sociological persective. One might argue technicalities and statistics on one point or another perhaps, but at the end of the day, Hartmann rises above any particular doomsday prediction and slap bang nails the disturbing yet comforting truth of the 'big picture'. This is where he deserves the rating of '10'.
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Summary: Afterword by Neale Donald Walsch
Review: This is the Afterword -- written by Neale Donald Walsch, author of "Conversations With God" -- to Thom Hartmann's book "The Last Hours of Ancient Sunlight":
You have just read one of the most important books you will ever read in your life. And because you have gotten this far in this extraordinary book, you are one of the Crucial Ones. You are one of the people who will play a key role in co-creating our future on this planet. You may not have thought of yourself in that role, but if you've gotten this far in this book, you've been given it.
That's how Life works. That's how the Universe functions. That's how God converses with all of us. First we are confronted with data, information - a communication. Then we are invited, urged, or compelled to absorb the information, to receive the communication. Finally, we decide Who We Are in relationship to it.
That's what you're doing now. You're deciding Who You Really Are in relationship to the incredibly important information you've just absorbed. And now, no matter what you decide, you will play a key role in co-creating thefuture on Earth.
If you decide to ignore this information, you will co-create one kind of future. If you decide to act on it, you will co-create another.
You can't step out of your role now. You know too much.
When I first read this book I knew that I could never view my life in the same way again. I could see myself as part of the problem, or as part of the solution, but I could never again see myself as having nothing to do with either.
Somewhere in the middle of this book you may have been saying to yourself, "I see the problem. I get it! But what can I do?" Hopefully now, with you having completed the book, that question has been answered. But there is another question that must immediately follow for all thinking people: "Can it work?"
I'm here to tell you that it can. But much will d!epend - everything will depend - on whether you believe that it can, know that it can, intend that it will.
We are now engaged in the process of what Barbara Marx Hubbard calls "conscious evolution." We are recreating ourselves anew on this planet, with every daily decision and choice we make in every Moment of Now, and we are doing so - perhaps for the first time in human history (and especially after reading this book) with full awareness of what we are creating, and how.
I am encouraging you with all my heart not to put this book down unresolved. Thom Hartmann has presented here a plan of action. He has given you tools you can use, beginning right here, right now, in helping to change the collective consciousness, and write a new "story" with which to fuel the engine of the human experience.
If you do not think that one person can do much - can do enough - to make a real difference, I urge you to read another of Thom's books, The Prophet's Way.
Get it now. Read it immediately. It will inspire and excite you. For it will show you in real life terms just what one person can do, and lift you to a place of new determination to play your rightful role in the Creation of Tomorrow.
As for this book, quote it everywhere. Buy ten copies and give them away. Don't let this call to action go unheard.
You may feel like a voice in the wilderness, but it is your voice we are waiting to hear. Yours is the crucial vote. You are the determining factor. We reach Critical Mass when we reach you - and you choose to reach others - with the simple message of this book: We are all One.
Let us act, at last, in the best interests of us all. Then the Sun will shine another day, and another still, and life will not merely go on, but achieve its highest expression, its grandest glory, its greatest joy. Can we give this gift to our children?
Please say yes.
-- Neale Donald Walsch
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Summary: The Last Hours of Ancient Sunlight is about danger and hope.
Review: We're facing a time of extraordinary transition on the planet, as our oil supply is about half exhausted, our population has gone from 1 billion in 1800 to nearly 6 billion today, and we're wiping out other species at an alarming rate. Yet how did this happen? Why us, and why now? And what will this knowledge tell us about what can be done about it? Is it possible to not only "save the world," but to even make it a better place both for humans and other life forms?
In this book, I explore these issues in depth. I welcome your feedback!
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Summary: Not pleasant news, but we'd better open our eyes. MUST read.
Review: There's good reason why in Neale Donald Walsch's latest "Conversations With God" book, the very short list of "must read" books includes Thom Hartmann's Last Hours of Ancient Sunlight. There's a good chance it will change everything about how you look at life. It's inexorable: more and more of the world's biomass is being converted to human flesh as our population booms and we eat other stuff. The richer people among us (including middle-class America) may not see it yet, may still believe that SOMETHING will rescue us (something always has, right??); but like the aristocracy safe inside medieval castle walls, the fact that we ourselves haven't yet been hit by this "plague" has no bearing on the inevitability of what lies ahead. Whether we like it or not, we live in a limited space (Earth) with a finite amount of matter. All our food and all our fuel is made up of that matter. This book has extensive documentation of how we're changing the balance between ourselves and the rest of the planet. There are more and more people, using up more fuel, eating more food, tearing down more trees (often to make 99c burgers). Can anyone seriously think this can go on forever? It's not pleasant news to realize, but it's inescapable. The more people we have, the more food we need, and the more fuel we need for heat and transportation. Worse, the developing world (which has the highest population growth) is on the early part of the fuel-using curve: their consumption is increasing, yet they can only afford less-efficient engines, increasing pollution even more than would be done by additional first-world cars, which are more efficient. I was raised in a scientific discipline, and I can't imagine why it's not more apparent to us: all the energy for all the planet's activities comes from sunlight, and we're burning through our reserves of stored sunlight (fossil fuel) at an astonishing rate. We keep finding more, so far, but let's wake up, folks: sooner or later we're going to run out, and all we'll have to live on then will be *recent* sunlight: today's sunlight, and wood (grown by energy in recent years' sunlight). And unfortunately, all our solar and wind technologies depend on petroleum-based compounds - when the oil is gone, those technologies can't help any more. We must, must, must change how we live. It takes time for people to adjust to the information in this book - we need to get started - buy this book and spread the word.
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Summary: Global civilization threatened by militaryindustrial complex
Review: Some individuals feel that they already know everything Thom puts into his book "The Last Hours of Ancient Sunlight". If so they should step forward and lead rather than complain from the peanut gallery. This book is in essence calling out for action in the most basic sense, for individuals to make a conscious effort to conserve and preserve that which makes life sustainable. I can appreciate the way Thom spells out the situation facing humanity, mainifested in massive pollution and wasted lives physically, but at root a spiritual malaise owed to "dominator culture" fallout. Reconnecting on a local level, to our history, ecology and local economy is the solution to the danger inherent in the centralized, wasteful, authoriatarian culture we have today. Wake up, winter2, will soon be upon us, as our oil based culture will begin to consume itself if a new fuel is not found. "The Last Hours of Ancient Sunlight" is actually pretty down to earth focused on real problems in simple and scientific terms. Developing strong, self-sufficient local communities is offered as the best survival strategy for the coming decades.
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Summary: THE MOST IMPORTANT BOOK OF THE CENTURY!
Review: Thom Hartmann's "The Last Hours of Ancient Sunlight" is probably the most informative and important book of this century. If you have children, if you love any children, if you love anyone at all I implore you to read this book from beginning to end ... and then read it once more. It is of my humblest opinion that anyone who would give this book any sort of rude or negative review is a money groping, non-recycling pig. But pigs respect this planet, it's mankind and our ridiculous culture who doesn't. Thom Hartmann has brought this fact to all of our attention, including the people who don't want to hear it. Thom's book proposes the greatest question of all: When we die what do we leave behind besides what we've flushed down a toilet? Are we truly superior beings or only parasites infested like rats upon the earth? Some people want comfortable answers to this question. They want Thom to tell us to put our cans into a yellow bin and everything will be fine. Thom won't do that. Instead he has given us a guideline to a new way of life. A new beginning and a new respect for this world we live in. His propositions are realistic, rational and full of love. The Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, The Austin Chronicle and The Orlando Sentinel all boast that Daniel Quinn's novel, "Ishmael" offers a new hope and a new way of life for the residents of planet earth. Daniel Quinn's solution in "Ishmael" mirror's Thom Hartmann's solution. I agree with this solution and I believe you will too when you have finished the last pages of this shocking, fast paced, eye opener. His words race like rapids over a dangerous river unveiling truth after truth till we all stand naked with only one solution .... Change.
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Summary: Simply Awakening
Review: Simply a must read for all Earthlings! The book begins with the following paragraph, �In the 24 hours since this time yesterday over 200,000 acres of rainforest have been destroyed in our world. Fully 13 million tons of toxic chemicals have been released into our environment. Over 45,000 people have dies of starvation, 38,000 of them children. And more than 130 plant or animal species have been drive to extinction by the action of humans. (�) And all this just since yesterday.� A recommended read for environmentalist, and all those consumerist about to hit the mall this weekend. I would also make a plea that this is an absolute MUST read for each and every one of our children. This book provides well developed and presented information on the state of our environment. The breadth of information is presented in numerous ways including personal stories, analogies, newspaper articles, research papers, and is spotted with great humor, as well as alarming cold-hard facts. This book is a significant body of work to awaken our lost-sense of Earthliness and re-awaken within us the abandoned traditions of our ancestors. This work pushes you to the brink of emotional and spiritual collapse, and then guides you back gently with inspirational thoughts and self-motivating ideas. The book is divided in to three parts. Part 1 provides, very bluntly, undeniable and unambiguous information, facts, and support as to the nature of the irreparable damage that we humans, and specifically corporations, have inflicted upon the Earth. Part 2 provides a discussion on the anthropological aspects of various cultures and tribes, and how that particular view affected their attitude towards animals (including other �humans�) and the Earth itself. Part 3 is dedicated to discussing steps that each of us can take to impede the current trend of self-destruction and Earth-destruction. I did not grant a review rating of 5 due to my perceived weakness of Part 3. I did not find Part 3 as compelling, informative, or well-defined as the previous two parts, and was left with an uncertainty of direct and immediate actions I could partake in. With that said however, I would state that Part 1, and Part 2 make this a must read for all environmentalist and anyone doubting that Global Warming is not a serious threat to national, economic, and environmental security.
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Summary: cultural eugenics - the lifestyle
Review: I disagree with this author and my reasons are simple. I think that civilization is getting better and that we're generally becoming the culture of the people who spark with life. Civilization and Hierarchy is all about our culture and this is the culture that is right on!!!! because it provides the best of lifestyle. I'm so rich!!!!
I agree with the other fellow whom gave this book one star cause if we read the prophets way and see just how insane this dude is. He like does this stuff to help out the young peoples and stuff. Whatever mann (no pun intended, well yes it was intended and it was meant to be witty)! This is all a crock of shmarmles.
We are doing fine everyone let me assure you I know and this life has blesses me every step of the way. My mom and me are doing well. My mom is the only other person I know. So that's a 100% surivival rate..
Anyways, heed my warnings THom is critally flambozzled about the facts should stop spreading a message about things that are just wrong. the end
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