Too Smart for our Own Good: The Ecological Predicament of Humankind [Paperback]

Craig Dilworth (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 21, 2009 | ISBN-10: 052175769X | ISBN-13: 978-0521757690 | Edition: 1

We are destroying our natural environment at a constantly increasing pace, and in so doing undermining the preconditions of our own existence. Why is this so? This book reveals that our ecologically disruptive behavior is in fact rooted in our very nature as a species.
Drawing on evolution theory, biology, anthropology, archaeology, economics, environmental science and history, this book explains the ecological predicament of humankind by placing it in the context of the first scientific theory of our species' development, taking over where Darwin left off.
The theory presented is applied in detail to the whole of our seven-million-year history. Due to its comprehensiveness, and in part thanks to its extensive glossary and index, this book can function as a compact encyclopedia covering the whole development of Homo sapiens. It would also suit a variety of courses in the life and social sciences. Most importantly, Too Smart makes evident the very core of the paradigm to which our species must shift if it is to survive.
Anyone concerned about the future of humankind should read this ground-breaking work.

This book:
• Provides the first and only theory of humankind's development
• Explains that economic and political (military) power have their respective biological bases in individual vs. group territoriality
• Provides the first classification of human instincts: into the survival, sexual and social instincts
• Provides the most inclusive characterization of different kinds of population check yet presented
• Explains the importance of the anthropological, archaeological and economic findings of the past 50 years to understanding humankind's development
• Clarifies the preconditions for human life on earth
• Predicts what will happen to us in the near future

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Dilworth's book is very interesting, well written, and based on an incredible amount of research. It provides a thoroughly novel view of extremely important issues, one which will add considerably to the discussion concerning limits to growth." - Dennis Meadows, co-author of Limits to Growth

"[Dilworth's] economics discussions are on target. I congratulate him on his very comprehensive undertaking." - Herman Daly, author of Steady-State Economics

"An impressive volume--comprehensive and scholarly. The book's central ideas are of critical importance for humankind." Tony (AJ) McMichael, author of Human Frontiers, Environments and Disease (Cambridge University Press, 2001).

"[Dilworth] writes extremely well, is widely read, and has a unique wealth of knowledge. This book is unique in its coverage and presentation; and the examples it provides are excellent." - David Pimentel, Cornell University; editor of Food, Energy and Society

"... a very fine piece of work, and most welcome as we humans careen toward crisis and disaster. I hope the book gets widely discussed and perhaps even starts to change the extraordinarily ignorant, fantasy-driven media discussions of contemporary problems that seem to focus on aspects of ideology and belief to the neglect of the underlying processes that, I increasingly fear, are driving us to ruin. ... I like the book very much. It is a piece of first-rate scholarship written in a clear and engaging style. ... I would like to see this book widely read by a literate general audience. It could also serve as the basic text for upper division courses in human ecology in departments of anthropology, sociology, geography (and maybe even economics)." - Allen W. Johnson, co-author of The Evolution of Human Societies

"Dilworth's book is an exceptionally 'good read' and is a synthesis of many important components (ecological, social, and technological) that are commonly treated in isolation from each other. Information is provided in a systematic and orderly way, and the flow from one idea to the next is almost seamless. The book also has a wealth of useful references. ... [It] is well written and should be important to anyone interested in the future of civilization and Homo sapiens. Such breadth and depth in a single book are rare." - Environmental Conservation

"I would honestly have to say that this is one of the most important books I've ever read." - Ronnie Wright, World Change Café (www.aclimateforchange.org)

"Dilworth may yet prove to have the edge in prescience." - Population and Development Review, December 2010

"The text would undoubtedly be useful in stimulating debate, particularly in providing a comprehensive historical context... This is pertinent at a time when issues relating to population size and the carrying capacity of the Earth are taking a prominent part in the debate on climate change. In summary, this book offers a fascinating overview of human history and evolution from the point of view of a specific philosophical perspective." - Jane Robbins, AREA (Royal Geographical Society), August 2011

"..this is an important book, which effectively challenges the conventional view of the nature of human development." - Mick Common, review for Ecological Economics

Book Description

This 2009 book explains our ecological predicament by contextualising it against the first scientific theory of humankind's development, drawing on evolution theory, biology, anthropology, archaeology, economics, environmental science and history. It takes over where Darwin left off, revealing that our ecologically disruptive behaviour is rooted in our nature as a species.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 546 pages
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press; 1 edition (December 21, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 052175769X
• ISBN-13: 978-0521757690
• Product Dimensions: 6.8 x 1.1 x 9.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,127,341 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

18 of 19 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Multidisciplinary, systems thinking and courageous intellectual honesty June 10, 2011

By Cassandrus

Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase

This book calmly explains the ecological predicament of humankind without ranting, hand wringing or polemics. And unlike most books on our predicament, it includes all the elements - human overpopulation, the many kinds of depletion of renewable as well as non-renewable resources, toxic waste, and the overwhelming of the environment's capacity of absorb even non-toxic waste, e.g. CO2 (climate change) and nitrogen (dead zones in oceans, bays & other waterways).

The importance the book gives to overpopulation is especially important to me, because in 1966 I began a career in what we could then call international "birth control" (now "family planning"). At that time, the world population was only a fraction over 3 billion (vs. 7 billion today). I abandoned the career after 10 years, because no nation was willing to try to stop its population growth. And ever since I have been looking for a book that explains humankind's recurrent problem of overpopulation, and why China appears still to be the only nation that is trying to stop its population growth as quickly as is humanely possible. After all these years, I have finally found the explanation I have been looking for. Dr. Dilworth has provided it in both a short and a long form.

The short form of the explanation is encapsulated in Dr. Dilworth's presentation of his elegantly simple but profound vicious circle principle. The long form consists of his multidisciplinary theory of the development of humankind, in which the principle is applied to the entire 200,000 years of Homo sapiens' existence. The book references work in such diverse fields as public health, geology, climatology, genetics, biology, archaeology, anthropology, sociology, psychology, evolution, economics, agronomy, engineering and the hard sciences. The long form of the explanation, of course, illustrates the vicious circle principle at work. The book explains not only humankind's failure to control the size of its population, but also its failure to limit its use of resources, and to limit, process or otherwise control its pollution and other waste.

Dr. Dilworth has done as much, I believe, as any one person can be expected to do in this kind of project, especially considering that he worked on it over a 15-year period without any funding or staff support. Moreover, it is possible that this invaluable kind of multidisciplinary, broad thinking can only be done by one person working alone, as was the case with Charles Darwin.

I invited Dr. Dilworth to come to the U.S. from Sweden, stay as my house guest, and let me help him find opportunities to speak about this book. I have never done this before for any author and probably will never again be so motivated to promote a book.

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars The first book that puts it ALL together. Makes An Inconvenient Truth practically irrelevant June 5, 2011

By Steve Bishakis

Format:Paperback

Craig Dilworth has written that rarest of non-fiction: important, exhaustive, meticulous, yet completely comprehendible. Through his invention of the VCP, or Vicious Circle Principle, Dilworth elegantly demonstrates how need leads to technology, which leads to population growth, which obviously takes us back to need again - which is where we are now - from every conceivable perspective. It is the author's mind-boggling mastery of many scholarly disciplines that makes his groundbreaking study of mankind's precarious status on earth so terrifying. Folks, this is the wake-up call, even if it's a century too late. At least we'll know what brought it all down.

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Real Insight into the Human Environmental Predicament June 12, 2011

By David Pimentel

Format:Hardcover

Craig Dilworth has written a most timely book focusing on the ecological, evolutionary, economic, and environmental aspects of the human species. Among other things, with reference to the pioneering principle, he explains that we humans are no different from other species in that, given a surplus of food and breeding sites, our population will grow. On the whole, this situation of surplus has been experienced by humankind ever since we first came into existence some 200,000 years ago, and our population has now grown to some seven billion. But, more importantly, were this surplus to be removed, there would be a population crash involving high mortality, just as there would be in the case of any other species. And, according to Dilworth, this is precisely what we are to expect for humankind in the near future. With humans now facing the end of oil availability in less than 40 years, we will no longer have the energy necessary to produce sufficient food. As a matter of fact, already more than 60% of the world's population is malnourished, and this is globally the prime cause of death, leading many investigators to call for us to reduce our numbers. One can wonder whether it is too late to escape this marked increase in mortality, as Dilworth suggests.

The key principle in the book, however, is Dilworth's vicious circle principle. According to it, the reason for the excessive growth of the human population, while the populations of other species tend to vacillate about a mean, lies ultimately in our ability to develop and apply new technology (thus making us "too smart for our own good"). The vicious circle principle, which applies only to humans, says: "Humankind's development consists in an accelerating movement from situations of scarcity, to technological innovation, to increased resource availability, to increased consumption, to population growth, to resource depletion, to scarcity once again, and so on." (p. 110). And with each turn of the circle, the human population increases in size.

This book should be of interest to anyone concerned about the future of our species.