Customer Reviews

It's a Matter of Survival

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The book proclaims that it is a call to action. Its message is simply that we all have to discard old ideas such as "nature is infinite" or that "science and technology will solve our problems". All human societies are enjoined to work together for the good of the planet communally and to chart a new course to save the planet from a certain destruction in fifty years' time.
The earliest chapters paint a stark picture of the life that our children and grandchildren will lead in the year 2040. The pattern of the remainder of the book is to dispose of six sacred truths of traditional thought which are seen to be about the planet's ability to cope with pollution, the problem of human population, the human species' domination of other species, the acceptance of industrialisation as the price of progress, the concept of continuing economic growth and the effects of pollution.
The authors of the book remain optimistic in spite of the horrific picture they have painted and in the last two chapters give a plan of action for preventing global calamity. That is the scenario: numerous books, magazines, radio and television programs provide similar information. I did not note any major new concepts which anyone who is at least half awake has not met many times before. The book is easy to read but in my view in badly written. The journalistic style is irritating with quotations from this or that source placed in snug, uniform word-processed paragraphs that are not fully connected or integrated with each other.
As an example, Chapter 7 introduces Herman Daly by name half a dozen times in different guises. On page 161 he is presented in the following terms: "World Bank senior economist Herman Daly holds a minority view when it comes to economic thinking." On page 169 he is introduced as co-author of "For the Common Good", whist on page 169/170 he is cited as the "maverick economist, Herman Daly". On page 170 again his views are described as "heretical". I have not personally heard of Herman Daly, so I looked in the well referenced section at the rear of the book on notes and sources which cite from Daly's total oeuvre, one article, one conference paper, one radio program and two personal communications. Daly may well have written in more erudite journals than those cited, but the book seems to prefer pseudo-academic respectability to real scholarship.
In other words, don't look to this book to give a balanced set of views on the subject. Comparatively minor authors and thinkers are quoted extensively to bolster their reputation where they express an environmental viewpoint. Those who disagree with this viewpoint get a brief quotation of their views that are demolished as "straw-men" over the next few pages.
Overall, this book is not particularly memorable, or well written and does not break much new ground, but its sincerity and conviction do in the end come through and the authors' worst case scenario is horrific enough to be worth consideration at some point in our crowded school curricula.
Originally written for "ENVIRONMENTAL EDUCATION AND INFORATION Volume 11, Number 2 (1992, p. 123"