Customer Reviews

One With Nineveh: Politics, Consumption, and the Human Future

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Most of us have a mixture of values that come from both sides of the fence. The concept of being a liberal or conservative lies largely in our imaginations. We cannot help but to identify with one side or the other mostly because it is human nature to form into self-righteous groups. You will notice a pattern if you look at the reviews on Amazon.com of this book and its antithesis "The Skeptical Environmentalist" by Bjorn Lomborg. Supporters write long, heart-felt reviews, denigrators write short, mean ones. In both cases, the short, mean reviews were written by people who have not actually read the book, but have sided with their given champions.

I have read both books. I recommend this one if you are willing to face unpleasant realities so that you can try to fix or prevent them (a typical bleeding heart liberal mindset). If you want to be told that everything is OK and always will be, then read the other book. I bought a copy of "One with Nineveh" a few weeks before it was officially released and had already read it by the time Ehrlich signed it for me while on a book tour in Seattle.

As the title suggests, localized, unsustainable over-consumption, (the phrase that is replacing the vague and unpopular term "overpopulation") has been plaguing us since the dawn of civilization. Nineveh, once a great city-state located in what is still called the Fertile Crescent, is now a pile of dirt located in the moonscape called Iraq. Human activity has turned the Fertile Crescent into a wasteland. A recent comparison of historical data and new images from NASA's Landsat satellites confirms that the Fertile Crescent is almost gone.

Lo and behold, when you look around the globe, from Mesoamerica to Asia, you will find thousands of examples of ecosystems that have been irreparably laid to waste by human activities. A good book to read on that topic is "Constant Battles-the myth of the peaceful, noble savage" by Steven LeBlanc. LeBlanc is an archaeologist who has seen first hand the evidence of local overpopulation and warfare in every ancient ruin he has studied.

At first, the title "One with Nineveh" did not sit well with me but after having read the book, I realize that it could not be more poignant as war continues to rage around Nineveh just as it always has.

Think of the Earth as a giant peach. One day, a small mold spot appears. Over time, another spot appears, then another. Eventually, the spots grow in size and number to consume the entire fruit. The point; overpopulation begins as a localized phenomenon, but given time, it becomes a global one.

The Ehrlichs point out that humanity is managing to stay housed and fed even in the face of our expanding population which is expected to increase an additional 50% in the next few decades. To me, the reason for this is obvious; exponential technology growth fueled by free enterprise has found ways to turn oil into food and housing. Personally, I believe that we will continue to make progress in feeding and housing ourselves at the expense of the other life forms on the planet right up until we run out of oil and maybe beyond if we find other sources of cheap energy.

The Ehrlichs recognize that the drive for prestige and its embodiment in status symbols is consuming the planet. The root of their solution is to reduce the consumptive patterns of wealthy people. I have a difficult time envisioning so many social changes being accepted when our country is split 49-51 in most presidential elections. Cut world consumption by 50%, increase our population 50%, and you have gotten nowhere. Status seeking appears to be part of our nature and there is no way to change that anymore than you can make us stop walking upright. Paul's own speaking engagements burn up a prodigious amount of aviation fuel and his books consume massive amounts of paper. The manufacture of which consumes a great deal of water, wood, and energy. If Dr. Ehrlich can rationalize that his own level of consumption is acceptable, how can he not expect the rest of humanity to do so? I suspect that he would be the first to admit this paradox (it is unlikely that I am the first to point it out).

The Ehrlichs want our governments to step in and force us to stop consuming so much, while at the same time, they acknowledge that communist economies don't work. It sounds contradictory to me. Telling people that they must limit their consumption is a dead end strategy. It goes against the grain of human nature. They won't do it.

The Ehrlichs also wisely realize the importance of limiting the concentration of power (wealth) by individuals, corporations, and other social institutions (a never ending situation in my opinion because such behavior is ingrained in our genes).

In conclusion, although the Ehrlichs have been unjustly vilified by some simply for warning us of the potential for an unpleasant future, the world truly owes them a debt of gratitude because those warnings have, to date, helped to keep that future from fully materializing. This book continues in that tradition.

Russ Finley, Author of "Poison Darts-Protecting the biodiversity of our world."

I'm a biologist, and I have long been aware of the basic problems that the Ehrlichs clearly summarize in "One with Nineveh". Nonetheless, I loved having the issues reviewed for me, bringing me up to date. I found the book compellingly written and full of interesting examples. I was grateful it made clear why we're fighting in Iraq (not the excuses our government has broadcast), and tied it our our patterns of overconsumption. And there was a lot that was new to me. For instance, the question of the reform of corporations has been one of my concerns, but I was not fully aware of the growing discussion of what can be done about it. The Ehrlichs not only summarize the arguments well, but also provide references that are now allowing me to pursue further my interest in what can be done to limit corporate misuse of power. Indeed, placing the environmental situation in a context of power abuse is the major service of the book. Scientists are aware of the deep trouble civilization is in, but the public and politicians are not. This is a book to buy, read, and recommend (or give) to friends and anyone running for public office. The stakes are high, and the Ehrlichs give us hope that even in these dismal times we may win through to a decent and stable society.

I am not giving this book an unfavorable review because I'm some reactionary anti-environmentalist. In fact I am definitely an environmentalist, or better yet a widely-read conservationist. This book is the equivalent of a big Chinese food dinner - there's a lot of it, but it does little to satisfy your hunger. The book may be useful to students or others who are beginning to build their familiarity and interest in environmental issues. But if you are at all knowledgeable about the current state of such matters in any way, you will learn absolutely nothing new in this book.

Approximately the first half of the book is merely a summary of current conservationist knowledge and complaints from the Ehrlichs about their social problems of choice. All the villains are here, and they keep appearing again and again and again - SUVs, overpopulation, social inequality, rampant consumerism, economic imperialism (also known as free trade and globalization), and the extreme anti-green politics of the Bush administration. How these issues lead to environmental problems is good to know, of course, but if you're involved in any level of conservationism then you know this stuff already. This weakness of the book is illustrated by the fact that it is extremely well cited - there are several hundred works referenced and more than a thousand footnotes. However, this book is so widely researched that it becomes merely a giant summary of existing knowledge borrowed from other writers, with little new analysis or insight from the Ehrlichs.

Meanwhile, the second half of the book deteriorates into social criticism that continues to repeat complaints about the basic problems mentioned above, with a disconcertingly know-it-all and condescending stance against modern culture and technology. The attempted solutions of the last few chapters are little more than utopian ideals that would require vast changes to current economic and political structures, indicating a very thin understanding of those two theoretical areas. The final statement made by the Ehrlichs in this book is "idealism can be realism," but I beg to differ. That's just an excuse for an absence of concrete ideas. Once again, if you're starting to learn about the political stances of the conservation movement, this book is a passable summary of current knowledge and opinions. But if you're looking for new ideas or analysis, all you'll find are complaints and idealism. [~doomsdayer520~]

The Ehrlichs and their scientific colleagues have been trying to alert humanity to its long-term perils for decades. Thirty years ago they were warning that unless steps were taken and nuclear powers lived up to the non-proliferation treaty, we'd face outlaw nations and possibly even terrorist groups with A-bombs. Welcome to 2004. In the 1968 "Population Bomb" Paul Ehrlich discussed the threat of novel diseases like AIDs, which have since materialized, and the failure to adequately feed all of humanity, which continues. He wrote of the perils of "using the atmosphere as a garbage dump. This book revisits such issues and focuses more strongly on the little-understood problems flowing from excessive consumption, a failed media, and the excessive concentration of wealth and power. But more than that, it contains many path-breaking suggestions for ways to change world views and institutions to steer society away from what the World Scientists' Warning to Humanity described as a "collision course" between humanity and the natural world. It puts the moral corruption of the Bush administration into the "big picture" of the human predicament, especially the administration's insane behavior in Iraq, its failure to deal appropriately with terrorism, its assault on the environment, and its distortion of science. As such, "One with Nineveh" is by far the most important current events book of 2004.

Small wonder the right wing hates it - it's amusing to see a review that claims the Ehrlich's ideas are supported by "junk economics." A jacket blurb contains strong praise from Sir Partha Dasgupta, past-President of the European Economic Association, and the acknowledgments thank other of the world's top economists (and other social and natural scientists) for reviewing and contributing to the manuscript, including Nobel Laureate in Economics Kenneth Arrow. If you want a very thoughtful, well-documented description of the state of the world, one written by leading scientists that is also a no-holds-barred good read, this is the book for you. If you think atomic bombs are "nucular" weapons, or are waiting for the rapture, you won't like it.

Skip the first paragraph if you like. But I must state at the outset that I actually read this book, cover to cover, and have no axe to grind. In fact, I haven't even yet decided whether I believe doomsday projections or not; on the other hand, I think we infest and alter our environment so thoroughly that I think the only sane and responsible approach is caution - after all, we need to think about the next generation(s), not merely the next beer. Years ago there was a cartoon in the New Yorker showing a well-to-do 40-something man saying to his friend, "I'm rather fortunate... I have no parents, so social security is not a problem, and I have no children, so the environment is no problem." He could have saved a step simply by not having a brain - then neither would be a problem.

Now for the review itself. The Ehrlichs have written a broad summary of the political and social aspects of the large problem of how we humans are going to be able to continue to live in this "space ship" earth. Clearly we have to consume at a rate and in a manner and mixture that the natural world can sustain. They offer a metaphor: in our grandparents' time we needed a cowboy mentality - go out and conquer the wilderness. In our time we need a spaceman mentality - every resource is finite and we can't afford to make mistakes. The daunting challenges to changing the way we humans consume resources are many, some of which I (roughly) list here: (1) the huge power of corporations in national and international life, combined with the the fact that they do not (and with current structures basically cannot) pay attention to much else besides profit. (2) the American consumer culture, which has been fine-tuned and optimized to a fare-thee-well: now that it's sucking up Earth's resources how are we going to STOP this monster. (3) The sudden development expansion in countries like China, whose people aspire to have what America has. (4)the likely difficulty in getting cooperation (in solving environmental issues) from people in other countries who would see a much richer America simply trying to hold them back (5) poverty in undeveloped countries, with huge numbers of desperate people deforesting their land for today's cooking, killing and eating their wildlife, etc. (6) the gross overconsumption (hyperconsumption) by Americans which sucks resources from all over the world at a unsustainable rate. and (7) a certain US administration which you'll have to read the book to figure out who.

The Ehrlichs are not at all trying to say we're all a bunch of evil or stupid people. They're merely saying this is our current culture, politics, economy, mentality and real-life world situation, and given this, it is going to be very difficult to change "in time". We can't merely buy eggs shot by free-range chickens or vote for an environmentalist and think we've done enough. We may have to do something quite intentional and drastic. By focusing on the hurdles that make the solution difficult, instead of focusing on the problem itself, the Ehrlichs have provided a sort of road map - a set of things that we all must be thinking about if we want to size the task and figure out what to do. This makes it an extremely useful book. After reading the book I am pessimistic - although the Ehrlichs remind us that Martin Luther King's efforts bore fruit a lot sooner than many of us thought they might.

This is a wonderful book - better than Clarke or Woodward for putting the insanity of the Bush administration into the bigger world context. It will tell you why, for example, Bush chose to attack Osama Bin Laden's enemy Saddam Hussein instead of paying attention to our security (short answer - oil). I especially like the discussion of the roots of terrorism and the contrasts between human triumphs and the severe perils those triumphs have created. The Paul and Anne Ehrlich also once again describe the growing threat of epidemics - something every parent should be concerned about and pressing our government to do more to counter. But this is not just another volume of warnings. The Ehrlichs make many suggestions for changing how we relate to one another and our overpopulated planet -- trying to get open discussions going that could save our hides. They have more faith in the Federal Reserve and the possibility of reforming the UN and corporations than I do, but they're right on target when they emphasize the great need to air important issues like the organization of our government in public forums. They also are a great antidote to vacuous media "pundits." Reading two pages of this book is a great cure for the headache caused by listening to, say, two minutes of Robert Novak's pompous idiocy.

One with Nineveh is a book for true conservatives, people who would like to see savings go up and runaway consumption go down; people who think we should not bury ourselves in debt and waste money in Iraq that could be much better spent trying to prevent nuclear weapons from being smuggled into the United States; people who think we shouldn't be creating plumes of toxic chemicals in precious groundwater supplies; people who think our government should take a long view of our species' situation on a shrinking planet. Enjoy Nineveh and give it to every high school and college student you know.

One with Nineveh presents more lucid and well documented analysis of the trends that most threaten our civilization, yet remain underappreciated and often ignored: waste of energy and natural resources, toxification of the environment, clearing of forests and fragmentation of habitats, overuse of fresh water, and -- yes -- expanding human populations. While updated treatment of these issues and the historical parallels between current trends and the fate of once-dominant civilizations like Nineveh are fascinating, the riveting elements of this book are those that document the pathetic state of political leadership, globally.

For open-minded readers who think that the neoconservative take on the environment -- that concern is overblown and things are getting better -- is a viable claim, this is a must read. The Ehrlichs provide new insight and summarize recent analyses that identify destructive trends and provide clear and practical remedies. While the Bush administration ignores the environment, its policies are exacerbating environmental problems worldwide, leading to the sort of social instability that undermines opportunities for a just and sustainable future. While these authors suffer unrelenting attacks from the radical right, their assessment is far from radical; everyone can learn from this accessible and authoritative book.

This is a remarkable book about the most pressing global issues: what the authors call the human predicament, which is the impact of overpopulation and overconsumption on the environmental, social, and economic fabric of our societies. After reading the book I have a much better understanding of the importance of these issues and what we all can do about it. There is no doubt that regardless of one's political inclinations, understanding the topics carefully described in the first nine chapters of the book is essential for our future well being and that of our children.

Among several noteworthy features of the book, I like to emphasize three.
First, the book is very well written and carefully documented with many relevant references. Although I am a biologist and I know much of the literature well, I found many references that I was unaware of. I was very impacted by the discussion, for example, of the depletion of major predator oceanic fishes in the last decade. Second, the breadth of the book, integrating biology, economics, and other social sciences is especially useful. The economic issues are thoroughly and accurately treated. This is particularly true for the relationship of consumption, purchasing power, and the depletion of the natural capital. It is hard to find texts that describe the complexities of the economic world and its relationship with the environment in such a clear way.

Finally, I found that one of the most remarkable features of the book, summarized in Chapters 11, "Healing the wounds", is the effort made by the authors to provide us with solutions. This is a very welcomed addition in this kind of book, which usually lack suggestion about solutions mainly because of the complexity and large scale of the problems. As a citizen of Mexico I was especially interested in the suggestion of creating a Millennium Assessment of Human Behavior. In today's world situation, nothing could be more important.

One with Nineveh is the most comprehensive examination of the relationship between humans and their environment ever published. Drawing on their vast experience in ecology, population biology and conservation, the Ehrlichs have written a tour de force that examines the interlocked issues of human population growth and material consumption, and the impact of these phenomena on the planet, from deep historical and modern economic points of view. The book does not whine and bemoan what we have lost so much as it provides a lucid and carefully reasoned clarion call to action. We are not, as a species, frozen in the headlights. Given sufficient governmental and institutional will, humans can be guided to regulate their populations and consume in a manner that will permit the planet to live and breathe and sustain us. Read it before it's too late.

This book should be required reading for anyone eligible to vote, and is even more of a "must read" for anyone in a policymaking position. Many of us are aware that there are serious environmental problems and that the Bush Administration is only exacerbating them, but the Ehrlichs lay out in chilling detail the many-fronted assault on the environment being perpetrated in the name of "progress." For that matter, they make it clear that if we don't make major changes to the structure of incentives across the board in our society, we will be leaving our grandchildren to deal with a nightmare. While some of the suggestions thrown out in the final chapters may be radical, thinking outside the box is long overdue. It is my hope that this book will stimulate a debate that will at long last lead to real change so that we can go forward to a sustainable society.