Des Casey’s book provides fresh insights for an active pathway through the environmental challenge we humans face – locally and globally.
14 Essays
A clarion call for change
“For anyone concerned about the future of our biosphere and how we take action, I urge you to read this book.”
Dr James Renwick
The First Essay
Introduces the central premises and orientation of the book: the bringing together of what we do in our occupational lives and what nature does.
The Second Essay
Discusses change, the processes involved in change, and a possible model to follow.
Essays 3 to 6
These four essays delve into political, economic and commercial life – society’s most powerful occupational arenas – and challenge the belief that solutions to the trajectory of environmental degradation can be turned around without systemic changes.
Essays 7 to 14
The last eight essays are a selection of specific occupations where participants and their leaders are invited to claim the ideas in the first two essays as their own.
“Des Casey is one of the seers who grasps the magnitude of the transformation in human behaviour needed to restore our unravelling ecosphere.”
Joanna Santa Barbara
Nature faces a crossroads
What will we, ourselves a part of nature, do? Opportunities still exist to activate and mobilise qualities of creativity, generosity, courage and wisdom. Hope and change reside in these attributes of the human spirit.
Several central premises are maintained throughout the book. They include a bringing together of our occupational lives – what we do at work – and nature’s needs. Closing this gap will be pivotal for nature’s future and for our own. Political, economic and commercial life is critiqued; society’s belief systems and priorities are challenged. A very different consciousness of what drives environmental deterioration is paramount. So too is strong and focused leadership. Practical essays review a selection of specific occupations as examples of the book’s central themes.
About The Author
I grew up on a small sheep and cropping farm in South Canterbury, New Zealand, close to the Pareora River and Kaumira, Mt Nimrod. The parental mantra during those first twelve years was “Go outside and play”. So I did. “Outside” was my after school schoolroom. I loved learning first-hand about the ways of nature and everything that lived there.
For the next twenty years nature received little attention from me; our connection was unsupported by a narrow education curriculum and subsequent training and vocational choices. Later, other worlds were to open; so too awareness of what was occurring in the natural world.
My working life included welding, driving trucks and operating a small crane in the construction industry. A move to freelance journalism was followed by a 40-year career in mental health (counsellor, family therapist, mediator, tutor, supervisor, workshop facilitator).
Eventually I found myself searching for renewed meaning and purpose beyond humanity’s personal and interpersonal issues and needs. Nature was also in trouble. I had a degree in sociology and had been active in social and political movements, yes, but there was an unanswered question: What should come next?
Extensive reading and a post-graduate diploma in environmental management followed. For the next decade I commuted between Auckland and Aotea Great Barrier Island, five years of which I worked for the Department of Conservation. Nature’s call had propelled me back into its orbit, answering my question and culminating in the book you see on this website.
What Others Say About The Book
Foreword and review extracts
Where to get the book
Nature’s Future Our Future is available in bookshops.
RRP – $45.00.
It is also available directly from the author – $40.00.
If posting is required – $45.00.
Speaking at your event
Des is available to speak to groups, to schools, to organisations and at events.
descasey29 [at] gmail.com
Events
Meet the Author
Schoolmaster’s House, Claris, Aotea Great Barrier Island
Saturday, 2 November, 11.00 am