Optimistic book, interesting examples, complicated man

This time around I'd like you to consider the book we're reading at the moment. What do you make of the "Cradle to Cradle" vision spelled out by William McDonough and Michael Braungart? Are they on the right track? Or is their optimism misplaced?


I think the idea of asking ourselves "What will a sustaining global commerce look like ten- or even a hundred- years from no?" is a ludicrous exercise. Planning for 10 years in the future is doable and humans may actually be able to follow that plan, but predicting what human society will look like 100 years from now is fruitless beyond a few broad parameters.

I did enjoy the notion that nothing inside the Earth system "goes away," something I've been telling people for years - whether it be sewage, trash or greenhouse gases.

I think they maybe a little too optimistic, particularly on page 149 when he brings up an apocryphal Henry David Thoreau story and uses it in a way I doubt Thoreau would condone.

Cradle to Cradle was written 7 years ago, and a lot has happened since then, and some of it could be attributed to this book. A few months back I found a very scathing article about Bill McDonough, but I think it did bring up some valid points http://www.fastcompany.com/magazine/130/the-mortal-messiah.html