Founder and director of The Wege Foundation, Peter M. Wege, celebrated his 90th birthday in remarkable fashion by finishing work on his second book! At his birthday party on February 20, 2010, Peter distributed the first copies hot off the press as favors to his family and friends.

The birthday party was held in the Grand Rapids Art Museum, or GRAM, the first newly built LEED-certified art museum in the world, which is most appropriate for distributing a book on the environment. It should also be said that the man responsible for the GRAM is also the same Peter M. Wege, author of ECONOMICOLOGY II.

ECONOMICOLOGY II continues and updates the mission of Wege’s first book published in 1998, ECONOMICOLOGY: The Eleventh Commandment. In both books, Peter has drawn upon environmental experts who have most influenced his thinking and affirmed his philosophy of economicology. Peter coined the word two decades ago to summarize his belief that we must strike a balance between our economy and our ecology.

In his book, Peter reviews writers such as his old friend and environmental hero, the late John Gardner, Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., and best selling-journalist Thomas Friedman, all of whom support the argument that in order to promote our economy, we must take care of our natural resources.

As with his first book on economicology, Peter M. Wege hopes the excerpts he shares in his new book will entice readers to read these environmental experts’ books. The bibliography at the back of ECONOMICOLOGY II lists the writers he quotes as well as other authors who have contributed to Wege’s philosophy.

When Peter M. Wege started The Wege Foundation, he posed the hypothetical question, “Is the planet worth saving?” This book, like his philanthropy, answers that question with power and with hope but, like the experts in his book, urges the public to act now.