Divided Planet: The Ecology of Rich and Poor

Global warming. Soil loss. Freshwater scarcity. Extinction. Overconsumption. Toxic waste production. Habitat and biodiversity erosion. These are only a few of our most urgent ecological crises. There are others as well and, despite the popularity of good-news environmentalism, few of them are going away. In this wide-ranging, grimly entertaining commentary on the environmental debate, Tom Athanasiou finds that these problems are exacerbated, if not caused, by the planet's division into "warring camps of rich and poor."

Writing with passionate intelligence, Athanasiou proposes a simple yet radical solution--stop indulging easy, calming fantasies in which everything seems to change, but nothing important changes at all. Instead, do what needs to be done, now, while there is still time and goodwill. The bottom line, he concludes, is that there will be no sustainability without a large measure of justice. Without profound political and economic change, he argues, there can be no effective global environmental action, no real effort to save the planet.

"The single most accessible presentation of what is now known as 'social ecology' that has ever been written."--The Nation

Includes bibliographical references (p. [309]-370) and index.

Tom Athanasiou has been active in environmental and technology politics for more than two decades. He has written for the Nation, the Ecologist, and many other publications. He lives in Berkeley, California.