Estill - Small stories, big changes: agents of change on the frontlines of sustainability

Praise for Small Stories, Big Changes

Small Stories, Big Changes left me dazed, inspired and awestruck. The amazing environmental activists featured in Estills latest book are simply remarkable in their breadth of experience, accomplishments and tenacious persistence in the face of harsh realities and obstacles. Their personal journeys left me with renewed faith that we can still conquer the most difficult and vexing ills that plague our planet.

Larry Shirley, Director of Operations and Planning for the Nicholas Institute for Environmental Policy Solutions at Duke University

In Small Stories, Big Changes, editor Lyle Estill introduces us to collection of well-known and unknown amazing people in the throes of doing the work that needs to be done in both small and big ways. Some are Estills biological family and others are what you could call his biofuel family but they all share the same DNA in their personal and inspiring stories to preserve the earth.

Paul Cuadros, author, A Home on the Field, How One Championship Team Inspires Hope for Small Town America

This book brings together diverse efforts toward renewal. Lyle has set aside his considerable voice and has conveyed new voices from the growing grassroots movement. Small Stories, Big Changes reveals the hard and rewarding work of rejuvenation.

Jeff Barney, philosopher, owner, Saxapahaw General Store

Lyle Estill is not only a delightfully, engaging writer but a daring maverick in the field of sustainability.

In his first book, Biodiesel Power, he made the world of bio-fuels fascinating even to those of us who had barely heard of the stuff.

Then in Small is Possible, Estill introduced us to a magical, yet real community where a marvelous menagerie of people had figured out how to make a living for one. People are still clambering to get their copy.

In his third book, Industrial Evolution, Estill laid out the yellow brick road to carbon neutrality, with tales of Local Food Fridays, Solar Double Cropping, and even being In Bed With Government.

For his newest book, Small Stories, Big Changes: Agents of Change on the Frontlines of Sustainability, Estill chooses to share the baton with a select group of sustainability pioneers and the result is not only compelling and heartwarming, but historic and revolutionary. We owe Estill a huge debt for bringing them to us so that their stories can inspire us all to take more action, NOW, to make the big changes we all have the innate potential to make.

Catching their stories in their own words, combined with his engaging commentary, is a stroke of genius.

For followers of Estills climb to the summit of the Green Energy Alps, that comes as no surprise.

Carol Hewitt, author, Financing Our Foodshed; Growing Local Food With Slow Money

Lyle Estill is a master spinner. His ability to evoke, provoke, delight and draw has long fascinated me. I eagerly read each of his earlier books, allowing his characteristically smart, free-flowing and conversational text to come into my own headspace like a favored party guest. And like that certain guest without whom your party would slip into the should have gone somewhere else category, Lyle has yet to disappoint.

I am delighted to find him in a new role with this latest work, as the designated driver, if you will, delivering the words and works of others in our wider community as celebrants, as the favored guests. Each chapter is another introduction, another individual whom we did not expect to find, but without whom we could not imagine the evening continuing.

We should all, in reading this excellent series of accounts, come away with a bit of a buzz, maybe even a headache the next day. These are the folks you simply have to meet. And as it is exceedingly unlikely they will all ever be in the same room at the same time, I have to thank Lyle for introducing us to them in this fashion. Great party. I cannot wait for the next one.

Geoffrey Neal, poet, spoken word activist

LYLE ESTILL

Copyright 2013 by Lyle Estill.

All rights reserved.

Cover design by Diane McIntosh.

Cover: iStock (maxphotography); inset: iStock (CribbVisuals)

eISBN: 978-1-55092-533-3

Inquiries regarding requests to reprint all or part of Small Stories Big Changes should be addressed to New Society Publishers at the address below.

To order directly from the publishers, please call toll-free

(North America) 1-800-567-6772, or order online at www.newsociety.com

Any other inquiries can be directed by mail to:

New Society Publishers

P.O. Box 189, Gabriola Island, BC V0R 1X0, Canada

(250) 247-9737

LIBRARY AND ARCHIVES CANADA CATALOGUING IN PUBLICATION

Small stories big changes : agents of change on the frontlines of sustainability / [edited by] Lyle Estill.

1. Environmental protection Citizen participation Case studies. 2. Environmentalism Case studies. 3. Sustainable living Case studies.

I. Estill, Lyle

TD171.7.S63 2013 363.7'0525 C2013-901726-7

New Society Publishers mission is to publish books that contribute in fundamental ways to building an ecologically sustainable and just society, and to do so with the least possible impact on the environment, in a manner that models this vision. We are committed to doing this not just through education, but through action. The interior pages of our bound books are printed on Forest Stewardship Council-registered acid-free paper that is 100% post-consumer recycled (100% old growth forest-free), processed chlorine free, and printed with vegetable-based, low-VOC inks, with covers produced using FSC-registered stock. New Society also works to reduce its carbon footprint, and purchases carbon offsets based on an annual audit to ensure a carbon neutral footprint. For further information, or to browse our full list of books and purchase securely, visit our website at: www.newsociety.com

Also by Lyle Estill

Biodiesel Power:

The Passion, the People and

the Politics of the Next Renewable Fuel

Small is Possible:

Life in a Local Economy

Industrial Evolution:

Local Solutions for a Low Carbon Future

To Ann and Don,

who raised me and my brothers

with permission to change the world.

By David W. Orr

The mighty oak tree begins its long life in the forest as an acorn. Mammals began their evolution as tiny creatures at the feet of the dinosaurs. The modern Civil Rights movement started in Rosa Parks refusal to move from her seat. And even you and I began life as the smallest of infinitesimally small possibilities. Mostly large things grow from the small, very fragile, and the very unlikely, the sort no smart gambler would bet on. But smart gamblers and long odds dont rule the world. Something else is going on.