Reading Bill McKibben's Deep Economy opens your eyes to the smallness of the world and the need to be more responsible in our global community.

While questioning whether money and material possessions help in our quest for happiness, he advocates returning to local economies and communities. The author argues for the need for communities to be more self-sufficient in a future world of energy and food crises as the populations of China and India grow.

It sort of reminds me of Thomas Jefferson advocating for the agricultural way of life. McKibben said a sense of connectedness to those around us would help us be more responsible in terms of energy efficiency, keeping the environment intact and even paying living wages to employees.

It may even solve the obesity problem, he says. If we eat locally and take the time to cherish and cook food from the local farmers' market, maybe we wouldn't consume so many empty calories. We would be filled with the satisfaction of belonging to something bigger than ourselves. He argues this would help with our happiness as well.

McKibben argues for a change in thinking about our consumer-driven economy. Less can be more.

While this manifesto seems a little idealistic, it discusses the issues that will affect our lives the most in the coming decades.