by John Michael Greer (2009)
"As peak oil reshapes the terrain of our future, John Michael Greer offers an inspiring vision of cultural evolution rooted in environmental science. For anyone concerned about peak oil and the future of industrial society, this book is an essential guide to the deep patterns of change wracking the world today, and a practical toolkit for building a sustainable future."--Jacket.
Martin Rees
Bolstered by unassailable science and delivered in eloquent style, Our Final Hour's provocative argument that humanity has a mere 5050 chance of surviving the next century has struck a chord with readers, reviewers, and opinion-makers everywhere. Rees's vision of our immediate future is both a work of stunning scientific originality and a humanistic clarion call on behalf of the future of life. [Publisher's description]
James O'Connor
Economic growth since the Industrial Revolution has been achieved at great cost both to the natural environment and to the autonomy of human communities. What can a Marxist perspective contribute to understanding this disturbing legacy, and mitigating its impact on future generations? Renowned social theorist James O'Connor shows how the policies and imperatives of business and government influence - and are influenced by - environmental and social change. Probing the relationship between economy, nature, and society, O'Connor argues that environmental and social crises pose a growing threat to capitalism itself. These illuminating essays and case studies demonstrate the power of ecological Marxist analysis for understanding our diverse environmental and social history, for grounding economic behavior in the real world, and for formulating and evaluating new political strategies.
George M. Woodwell
A century of industrial development is the briefest of moments in the half billion years of the earth's evolution. And yet our current era has brought greater changes to the earth than any period in human history. The biosphere, the globe's life-giving envelope of air and climate, has been changed irreparably. In A World to Live In, the distinguished ecologist George Woodwell shows that the biosphere is now a global human protectorate and that its integrity of structure and function are tied closely to the human future. The earth is a living system, Woodwell explains, and its stability is threatened by human disruption. Industry dumps its waste globally and makes a profit from it, invading the global commons; corporate interests overpower weak or nonexistent governmental protection to plunder the planet. The fossil fuels industry offers the most dramatic example of environmental destruction, disseminating the heat-trapping gases that are now warming the earth and changing the climate forever. The assumption that we can continue to use fossil fuels and "adapt" to climate disruption, Woodwell argues, is a ticket to catastrophe. But Woodwell points the way toward a solution. We must respect the full range of life on earth -- not species alone, but their natural communities of plant and animal life that have built, and still maintain, the biosphere. We must recognize that the earth's living systems are our heritage and that the preservation of the integrity of a finite biosphere is a necessity and an inviolable human right. -- Provided by publisher.
John H. Bodley. --
"Can the earth satisfy, on a sustained basis, the basic needs of more than 6 billion people? How do the problems of exploitation, injustice, and environmental degradation relate to increases in the scale and complexity of societies, economies, and the concentration of wealth? What are the costs and benefits of a global commercial culture? The fourth edition of John H. Bodley's Anthropology and Contemporary Human Problems examines the fundamental problem of modern civilization--hunger, poverty, overconsumption, and conflict--from a holistic, anthropological viewpoint. The author makes clear and stimulating use of prehistoric and ethnographic research to explain the context of contemporary human concerns, and uses culture scale as a means for comparing solutions to these problems. Ultimately, the text challenges our assumptions about modern civilization and the superiority of complex societies, as it looks toward future possibilities for adaptation."--Back cover.