Global Survival: The Challenge and its Implications for Thinking and Acting [Hardcover]

Ervin Laszlo (Editor), Peter Seidel (Editor)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 1590791045 | ISBN-13: 978-1590791042 | Publication Date: January 1, 2010

Global Survival: The Challenge and its Implications for Thinking and Acting is a book that is not necessarily ahead of its time. But, if we're lucky, it has come just in time.The threats we face as a species and a civilization are staggering, daunting, and all too real. The threat of war, or worse; environmental degradation; social, political, and economic woes; all of these are issues with worldwide implications both for us and future generations. Yet the solutions offered, when offered, are dangerously short-sighted and narrowly focused, often intensifying other, equally serious problems-or even creating new ones. To address this condition, a group of distinguished thought leaders came together and, in a 2003 edition of the journal World Futures, demonstrated how a broad array of human thought and activities interact to create and intensify the problems we face. This approach, here called Survival Research, could be the methodology that enables us to overcome obstacles to meaningful progress.

Editorial Reviews

Review

Finally we have a book that focuses on the need for communications among disciplines in assessing the human prospect. -- Lester Brown, President, Earth Policy Institute

GLOBAL SURVIVAL...unlocks a door and opens up a new way for seeing the world and dealing with it. -- Donald Mann, President, Negative Population Growth

I urge anybody interested in a workable future to pick up this inspiring invitation to survival research. -- Mathis Wackernagel, Ph.D., Executive Director, Global Footprint Network

From the Publisher

This volume is an updated re-issue of that edition of World Futures, edited by Professor Ervin Laszlo and Peter Seidel and including a new essay from Professor Laszlo and a revised Introduction by Mr. Seidel. Global Survival proposes a way to deal with our problems if we mean to resolve them effectively. Our current uncoordinated, narrowly-focused approaches to individual challenges only work in the very short term—when they work at all. The greater solution lies not exclusively in politics, economics, or sociology, but in a global, cohesive, unified method to understand our problems and resolve them.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 280 pages
• Publisher: Select Books (January 1, 2010)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1590791045
• ISBN-13: 978-1590791042
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.5 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,361,614 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Variety of viewpoints makes this a winner, June 4, 2006

By 

Yifang Wang (Ottawa, Ontario, Canada) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Global Survival: The Challenge and its Implications for Thinking and Acting (Hardcover)

We all agree that the environment is changing, and our planet is in danger. The global warming is no longer only a scientific term, but widely used in large populations' daily life. We live in a global family and need new ways of thinking and acting.

"Global Survival", one of books published in the CHANGE THE WORLD series, would convince you why and how to change in our daily life.

I rate this book at 5 stars and highly recommend anybody who cares this planet and wants their loved later generations enjoy the earth for long, should read this book. Variety of viewpoints makes this a winner among the other related books.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Global Survival is Highly Recommended, November 1, 2006

By 

maryF "mary argus" (Smoky Mts) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Global Survival: The Challenge and its Implications for Thinking and Acting (Hardcover)

While this book should be required reading for scientists, government officials, and policymakers, it will be of interest to anyone concerned about our global environmental predicament. These seventeen provocative essays, written by internationally respected scholars and "thinkers" from a variety of disciplines, are accessible to the educated lay person. Unlike a number of current books addressing this subject, Global Survival is not written like an environmental science textbook. Most importantly, it is not simply another vehicle for gloom and doom. The book goes far beyond outlining the vast array of ecological problems we now face as a species and a civilization. It proposes a methodology for addressing the crisis: a discipline referred to as "survival research," which would integrate knowledge from the natural sciences, the social sciences, and humanities. The concept of survival research was first set forth by eminent political scientist John Herz, whose original essay on the subject appears - updated and amplified - in this collection.

I am grateful that Peter Seidel conceived the idea of compiling Global Survival, and I congratulate him and his co-editor Ervin Laszlo on their fine job of editing the book. It is no mean task to assemble the writings of specialists from so many fields - anthropology, psychology, engineering, history, economics, philosophy, etc. - into a cohesive whole. Through the efforts of visionaries like Seidel, Laszlo, and Herz, we may some day arrive at solutions that are broad enough in scope to ensure the viability of life on this planet.

Five stars

- Mary F. Argus, co-editor of <a href="http://voices.datacorner.com">Voices from the Gathering Storm: The Web of Ecological-Societal Crisis </a>