Where on Earth Are We Going? 1st Edition

by Maurice Strong (Author)

6 ratings

ISBN-13: 978-1587990922

ISBN-10: 158799092X

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World hunger, environmental disaster, global warming, massive shifts in weather systems, the re-emergence of diseases long thought controlled, and political turmoil in a world where a barrel of water is more expensive than a barrel of oil. So says the Report to Shareholders, Earth, Inc., dated January 1, 2031 that begins, Where on earth are we going? Maurice StrongÂ's apocalyptic prophesy for the future Â- unless weÂ're lucky or wise Â- is a call to action for all who care about the state of the earth in the near future. Strong, the executive coordinator of the reform effort at the UN and senior advisor to the President of the World Bank, has one goal: to shape a peaceful and equitable future for all humankind. Hard-headed, practical, impassioned, Where on Earth are We Going? is a call to action by a key business and environmental player at the beginning of the 21st century that can not be ignored and will be much debated.

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Editorial Reviews

Review

[T]he enigmatic Maurice Strong is preparing his legacy. -- The Toronto Star

About the Author

The New York Times hailed Maurice Strong as the "Custodian of the Planet." He is perpetually on the short list of candidates for Secretary General of the United Nations. Among the hats he currently wears are: Senior Advisor to UN Secretary General Kofi Annan; Senior Advisor to World Bank President James Wolfensohn; Chairman of the Earth Council; Chairman of the World Resources Institute; Co-Chairman of the Council of the World Economic Forum; member of Toyota's International Advisory Board. As advisor to Kofi Annan, he is overseeing the new UN reforms. Strong's most prominent and influential role to date was as Secretary General of the 1992 UN Conference on Environment and Development -- the so-called Earth Summit -- held in Rio de Janeiro, which gave a significant push to global economic and environmental regulation.

Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Texere; 1st edition (April 23, 2001)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 431 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 158799092X
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1587990922
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1.72 pounds
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 9.25 x 1.5 x 9.25 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #1,386,261 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #379 in Economic Theory (Books)
- #767 in Environmental Studies
- #1,178 in Political History (Books)

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T F

a total waste from ego maniac

Reviewed in the United States on January 2, 2021

Verified Purchase

ant American driviel from a globalist ,

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D. Lepley

Where on Earth are We Going?

Reviewed in the United States on September 19, 2001

I've seen both excited and disappointed reviews of Mr. Strong's book; I came down in the middle reaching toward both reactions. The book is the account of a life lived and answers sought with seemingly boundless verve, skill, and fairmindedness. Is is also a book that frequently frustrates the reader by never fully delivering on any of the goals it seems to set for itself. It is first and foremost an autobiography, but noone will completely understand Strong's life from it: most notably he is, to put it mildly, elliptical about the end of his first marriage. That is none of our business, of course, but it does leave a considerable gap in the story. By contrast, he gives copious detail about his many professional associates and their interactions, so that the book is also something of a social register. It is wearying to follow this cavalcade of characters, but it is clearly a measure of how much Strong enjoys his fellow beings, including those who have been difficult for him. It is also, I expect, his sincere effort to acknowledge and thank the many people who toil with great talent and commitment in business, government, and nonprofits who seldom get the public recognition that celebrities and elected leaders get. The book was also, for this reader, a foray into the life of business--a world I rarely investigate--and the account of Strong's rescue and reform of Ontario Hydro actually makes big business sound like fun--and ethical too. But this is one of Strong's great gifts: to straddle business, government, and environmental advocacy, standing lifelong for integrating them, as we all collectively must in the years ahead. So, the book is also a primer on management and organizational reform. By turns, it is also about philosophy--environmental, social, personal, spiritual, legal, economic--whatever is on Strong's horizon at any given point. As leader, facilitator, and exemplar, he has made important contributions to Earth-care and sustainability, and readers will find here many valuable ideas on these issues but no systematic and detailed exposition of them. One does find, however, such an exposition of the author's proposals for UN reform, for another of the many hats this book wears is that it is a partial history of the UN and an account of the issues and problems it confronts--that WE confront as we stumble, however resistantly, toward being a healthy world community. Strong's story takes on a special eloquence and intensity when he tells about the gift he received from a famine-stricken Sudanese woman--the book is worth reading just for this passage.
In sum, this book is a bit of a juggling act, but then juggling countless pursuits has been Strong's forte throughout his life, with the flair and genius of a real performer. If you don't expect a thorough, focussed treatment of one subject, you can surely find something of value in its abundance.
As a final note: the book would have benefitted from more proofreading than it got. There are numerous errors of syntax, punctuation, and the like--even a reversal of pages (346 & 347)--that should have been caught before publication.

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Jack Harich

An insider's view of the birth of international environmentalism

Reviewed in the United States on May 23, 2007

This is two books in one: an autobiographical view of how one of the world's foremost environmentalists attempted to achieve his goals, and an insider's story of how international environmentalism grew up overnight, in a frenzy of some successes and too many failures.

The book is invaluable for its vivid portrayal of the details and complexities that those less well situated are unable to write about first hand, such as 99% of the world's writers. If you want to understand the nitty gritty of how global environmentalism works and why, "Where on Earth Are We Going?" will take you there.

It will also take you to where I wanted to go in the fall of 2001, when I read the book. That's the year I made the move to working on the sustainability problem full time. I had a lot of learning to do, and Maurice Strong filled in huge gaps in my education.

He also pointed out some of the phenomena that were beginning to attract my analysis. For example, looking over my notes on the book, Maurice explained how solving the poverty problem came to be linked to solving the environmental sustainability problem. To me this has been a historical error for two reasons: One is that the environment must have the highest priority, because if it becomes uninhabitable, then no other problem matters. The second is that Homo sapiens has had the poverty problem for a long, long time--it's that difficult. To attempt to suddenly solve it now by tacking it onto the shoulders of another problem only makes that problem a harder one to solve.

Maurice was the Secretary-General of the 1972 Stockholm conference, which gave him the ultimate insider's viewpoint. He wrote that "The biggest threat to the conference was the ambivalence, even apathy, that developing countries felt toward the whole issue of the environment. From the beginning, developing countries had regarded the West's concern with `the environment' as just another fad of the industrialized countries; in their view pollution and environmental contamination were diseases of the rich.... Most of them would gladly exchange a little pollution for the benefits of economic growth."

Seeing this undercurrent, Maurice "... knew the conference would fail if we couldn't persuade the developing countries to take part. ... The key concept called for a redefinition and expansion of environment to link it directly to the economic development process and the concerns of developing countries."

This was a fateful decision. The solution to the poverty problem of unindustrialized countries was assumed to be development, and the strategy was to "link" this development to solving the environmental sustainability problem. But these are really two very different and separate problems. By linking them together, into what was soon called "sustainable development," the world's problem solvers horse traded one historically intractable problem and one brand new difficult but probably solvable problem into guess what? One big Gordian Knot of an insolvable problem.

Once the offer was made, there was no turning back. Twisted logic became the new norm, such as "The key was to insist that the needs of developing countries would be best served by treating the environment as an integral dimension of development rather than an impediment." But if a country grows economically, and that causes the environment to suffer, then that effect should be treated as "an impediment," not success. Otherwise you have apparently forgotten about the original problem.

Soon, despite the fact that the industrialized countries were producing the lion's share of pollution, "...at the opening session Prime Minister [Indira] Gandhi made what was one of the most influential speeches of the entire conference, with its theme that `poverty is the greatest polluter of all.' "

This should give you a taste of what the book has to offer. If, like me, you are trying to wrap your arms around the whole of the sustainability problem, and you want original source material, then this is one fount to drink deeply from, and find out where on earth we are going, and why.

Jack Harich

2 people found this helpful

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Jeff Toth

Insightful, Interesting, but more like an autobiography.....

Reviewed in the United States on November 13, 2002

Well I must say, this was an interesting read to say the least. To be qiute honest this book was not what I expected from reading the backcover. Much of the book seemed like an autobiograghpy( which isn't too bad since he has lived an intersting live) and the rest was on three main issues, Globalization, the Enviroment, and Politics. Though some of the book was a little dry I found the opening and the final few chapters to be very well done. This was an enlightening book which opens doors and makes you think "Where on earth are we going?" I would give this book 3 stars but I gave the extra star for the extremely interesting facts. This book also gives you a good feeling of the structure of the U.N. I would recommend this book to anyone who is interested in international political science, the U.N. or interesting theories to prevent the earths head on collision with dooms day via pollution. Check it out!!

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