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Editorial Reviews
From Publishers Weekly
The Ehrlichs' provocative and eminently readable look at current environmental trends takes its title from Rudyard Kipling's poem "Recessional," which contrasts the pomp of the 19th-century British empire to the faded glory of Nineveh, the ancient capital of the Assyrian empire. The Ehrlichs (Betrayal of Science and Reason), both members of Stanford's department of biological sciences, look at the global problems of overpopulation, overconsumption, and political and economic inequity that threaten to make the world into a new fallen Nineveh. Each of the book's nine chapters analyzes one area in detail (using current research in ecology, demographics, migration, economics, biodiversity, ethics, climate, politics and globalization) and then suggests measures "that might allow humanity in general, and the world's sole remaining superpower in particular, to alter course and work towards achieving a sustainable world." The prognosis is sometimes depressing: about three-fifths of all important oceanic fish stock has been seriously depleted since 1994; today's global population of six billion is about three times what Ehrlich considers to be the "optimal" number for the world; profligate consumption threatens to use up nonrenewable natural resources such as oil while governments inhibit the development of renewable sources such as solar power. The current Bush administration is the target of cogent criticism about how it has aided a culture "dominated by short-term greed," but Europe and various Third World countries receive their share of criticism as well. A concluding section embraces the philosophy of Martin Luther King Jr. to argue that idealism and individual action can still save the world from massive environmental disaster. Although wide-reaching in range, this is a direct and levelheaded presentation that should get, and deserves, wide readership.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
From Booklist
It's a simple enough equation: an escalating human population places ultimately unsustainable demands on the natural resources necessary for survival. Take the people of Nineveh, the capital of the ancient Assyrian Empire, for example, as the Ehrlichs suggest, a culture that seems to have eradicated itself through conspicuous consumption and raging hubris, dangerous habits we now practice globally. For years the Ehrlichs, equally respected and reviled, have been writing carefully documented and strikingly commonsensical books about potentially catastrophic environmental changes and the complex social, political, and economic circumstances that mask their full significance. Here they discuss the grave consequences of our precipitous spending of "natural capital" (farmlands, freshwater, forests) and instigation of "resource wars" (their coverage of the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq is most clarifying), the disproportionate power of corporations, the immense divide between "superconsumers" and the impoverished, and the urgent need for new systems of energy production. It's all nearly overwhelming, but the Ehrlichs manage to be both meticulous and witty as they suggest reforms and remind us that ours is an astoundingly adaptive species capable of making radical change once we're motivated. So they're doing their best to bestir us. Donna Seaman
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
See all Editorial Reviews
The Ehrlichs' provocative and eminently readable look at current environmental trends takes its title from Rudyard Kipling's poem "Recessional," which contrasts the pomp of the 19th-century British empire to the faded glory of Nineveh, the ancient capital of the Assyrian empire. The Ehrlichs (Betrayal of Science and Reason), both members of Stanford's department of biological sciences, look at the global problems of overpopulation, overconsumption, and political and economic inequity that threaten to make the world into a new fallen Nineveh. Each of the book's nine chapters analyzes one area in detail (using current research in ecology, demographics, migration, economics, biodiversity, ethics, climate, politics and globalization) and then suggests measures "that might allow humanity in general, and the world's sole remaining superpower in particular, to alter course and work towards achieving a sustainable world." The prognosis is sometimes depressing: about three-fifths of all important oceanic fish stock has been seriously depleted since 1994; today's global population of six billion is about three times what Ehrlich considers to be the "optimal" number for the world; profligate consumption threatens to use up nonrenewable natural resources such as oil while governments inhibit the development of renewable sources such as solar power. The current Bush administration is the target of cogent criticism about how it has aided a culture "dominated by short-term greed," but Europe and various Third World countries receive their share of criticism as well. A concluding section embraces the philosophy of Martin Luther King Jr. to argue that idealism and individual action can still save the world from massive environmental disaster. Although wide-reaching in range, this is a direct and levelheaded presentation that should get, and deserves, wide readership.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
From Booklist
It's a simple enough equation: an escalating human population places ultimately unsustainable demands on the natural resources necessary for survival. Take the people of Nineveh, the capital of the ancient Assyrian Empire, for example, as the Ehrlichs suggest, a culture that seems to have eradicated itself through conspicuous consumption and raging hubris, dangerous habits we now practice globally. For years the Ehrlichs, equally respected and reviled, have been writing carefully documented and strikingly commonsensical books about potentially catastrophic environmental changes and the complex social, political, and economic circumstances that mask their full significance. Here they discuss the grave consequences of our precipitous spending of "natural capital" (farmlands, freshwater, forests) and instigation of "resource wars" (their coverage of the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq is most clarifying), the disproportionate power of corporations, the immense divide between "superconsumers" and the impoverished, and the urgent need for new systems of energy production. It's all nearly overwhelming, but the Ehrlichs manage to be both meticulous and witty as they suggest reforms and remind us that ours is an astoundingly adaptive species capable of making radical change once we're motivated. So they're doing their best to bestir us. Donna Seaman
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
See all Editorial Reviews
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