Environmental Science - General & Miscellaneous, General & Miscellaneous Environmental Policies, Environmental Economics, Environmental Conservation & Protection Policy, Humanity - Relationship with Nature, Economic Development, Demography - General & Mis

The Third Revolution : Environment, Population and a Sustainable World

Name: The Third Revolution : Environment, Population and a Sustainable World
Author: Paul Harrison
ISBN: 9781850435013

by Paul Harrison

Write a review

Overview

Every European leaves a lifetime's waste one thousand times his or her bodyweight. For every person in the Third World, two thousand square metres of rainforest are destroyed each year. Our habits, and our numbers, are wrecking the planet. In his most challenging book to date, Paul Harrison, author of the classic bestseller, Inside the Third World, shows how population growth, rising consumption and damaging technologies combined to trigger the biggest environmental crisis in human history. Crisis spurred the agricultural and industrial revolutions. It may now speed the third revolution--the transition to sustainable development. The race is on between our power to damage, and our power to achieve balance with the environment. Can we act before circumstances force our hand? Hamlet had less than half an hour to live when he finally killed Claudius. Can we break the Hamlet syndrome? In a blend of authoritative analysis and powerful reporting from the world's most vulnerable places, Harrison shows what is wrong and why, and what we can do about it.

Reviews

There are no reviews yet. Log in to write one.

Editorials

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly

Harrison ( Inside the Third World ) addresses one of our major problems in this thoughtful and authoritative study, exploring the links between population growth and environmental degradation. The root cause of the latter, he maintains, is poverty, which leads to land degradation and deforestation. He points out that population growth is not a purely independent factor; it is high wherever health and education are poor. Harrison shows in grim detail conditions in Madagascar, Lesotho, Ivory Coast, Burkina Faso and Bangladesh. He discusses urbanization, solid waste disposal, air and water pollution and the consumption of goods. Harrison's proposed options for action include reorienting spending priorities, using low-cost appropriate technology, and undertaking sustainable management of forests and intensified agriculture on existing farmland. He also advocates the practice of agriforestry and biological methods of pest control. This is a challenging approach to the subject. (June)

Library Journal

Environmental issues are on local and global agendas, as attested by the presence of over 20,000 policy makers and grassroots activists at this month's UN conference in Brazil. Harrison, a journalist with extensive Third World experience, offers a stimulating review of the major forces affecting the quality and availability of land, water, and air. Population growth and extraordinary levels of poverty in the Third World and overconsumption and waste in industrial nations are the causes of the environmental problems, argues Harrison. These crises demand a ``Third Revolution'' (after the agricultural and industrial revolutions) for ecological sustainability. The book deals with the controversial issues in a convincing manner and is likely to stimulate further debate. Highly recommended for general and concerned readers. Previewed in ``Sources for Sustaining the Earth,'' LJ 5/15/92, p. 116-117.-- Bill Rau, Takoma Park, Md.