Whole Earth Discipline: An Ecopragmatist Mainfesto (Unabridged)
-
-
5.0 • 4 Ratings
-
-
- $18.99
-
- $18.99
Publisher Description
An icon of the environmental movement outlines a provocative approach for reclaiming our planet. According to Stewart Brand, a lifelong environmentalist who sees everything in terms of solvable design problems, three profound transformations are under way on Earth right now. Climate change is real and is pushing us toward managing the planet as a whole. Urbanization - half the world's population now lives in cities, and 80 percent will by midcentury - is altering humanity's land impact and wealth. And biotechnology is becoming the world's dominant engineering tool.
In light of these changes, Brand suggests that environmentalists are going to have to reverse some longheld opinions and embrace tools that they have traditionally distrusted. Only a radical rethinking of traditional green pieties will allow us to forestall the cataclysmic deterioration of the earth's resources.
Whole Earth Discipline shatters a number of myths and presents counterintuitive observations on why cities are actually greener than countryside, how nuclear power is the future of energy, and why genetic engineering is the key to crop and land management. With a combination of scientific rigor and passionate advocacy, Brand shows us exactly where the sources of our dilemmas lie and offers a bold and inventive set of policies and solutions for creating a more sustainable society.In the end, says Brand, the environmental movement must become newly responsive to fast-moving science and take up the tools and discipline of engineering. We have to learn how to manage the planet's global-scale natural infrastructure with as light a touch as possible and as much intervention as necessary.
BONUS AUDIO: Includes an exclusive afterword written and read by author Stewart Brand.
Customer Reviews
A Pragmatic Environmentalist - A Very Rare Breed
While Stewart Brand's environmental credentials are impeccable, I doubt he'll be invited to speak at many meetings of environmentalists after this book.
Brand's book takes an unusual look at the environmental problems we face today from climate change to overpopulation to the energy crisis. His view is unusual because he uses a few things that seem in short supply these days--reason, logic, and science. Brand carefully analyzes the problems we face; looks at the history of how we got here; and then discusses potential, technically-sound solutions that can save us from ourselves.
Unfortunately, I fear many people will avoid this book. People on the right will deny we even face problems like global warming so why read the book. People on the left will continue to cling to their emotion-laden views of the evils surrounding things like nuclear energy and genetic engineering and, thus, will discount any facts that refute their faulty beliefs.
But for a thinking person who wants solid information before forming an opinion, the Whole Earth Discipline is an enlightening and exciting read.
Listeners Also Bought