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New Book: DIVIDED PLANET: THE ECOLOGY OF RICH AND POOR
Sanetters -- FYI
>
>From: Tom Athanasiou <toma@igc.apc.org>
>Subject: New Book: DIVIDED PLANET: THE ECOLOGY OF RICH AND POOR
>
>DIVIDED PLANET: THE ECOLOGY OF RICH AND POOR, Tom Athanasiou
>
> (New York: Little Brown, $24.95, April 1996)
>
>
>Most people in America today see themselves as environmen-
>talists. They recycle their trash, drive a bit less, and
>shop for energy efficient products. They think they're mak-
>ing a big difference, but they're wrong.
>
>The real threats to our environment, according to DIVIDED
>PLANET: THE ECOLOGY OF RICH AND POOR -- can't be halted or
>even appreciably slowed by the feel-good environmentalism of
>the industrialized world. Global warming, soil loss, over-
>consumption, ozone depletion, overpopulation, and habitat
>and biodiversity losses are a simmering catastrophe that
>will engulf the world all too soon. And though it may be a
>terrifying and inconvenient prospect, only radical social
>and economic changes can possibly forestall disaster.
>
>"History," says Athanasiou, "will judge the greens by
>whether they stand with the world's poor." It is a simple
>claim, yet as he demonstrates with both power and elegance,
>its implications promise to redefine the environmental move-
>ment. DIVIDED PLANET reveals, with rare clarity, the
>economic factors at play in the ongoing destruction of the
>planet. In this election year, in which worldwide issues
>like trade agreements and the future of the post Cold War
>world can no longer be ignored, and yet both mainstream par-
>ties seek to do just that, such an approach is as compelling
>as it is overdue.
>
>DIVIDED PLANET takes up where other environmental and polit-
>ical books have stopped short.
>
>***
>
> "DIVIDED PLANET asks the hard questions and challenges
> the easy answers. With original style and analysis,
> Athanasiou calls on environmentalists to question the
> social and economic priorities of the New World Order
> with it's ever-widening gap between rich and poor,
> North and South. From "free trade" to the World Bank
> to the cowboy capitalism of the former Soviet bloc,
> Athanasiou exposes how unequal power relations underlie
> ecological crisis. This is an honest book which offers
> no false hopes -- it is an urgent call for action."
>
> -- Betsy Hartmann, Committee on Women, Population
> and the Environment, author of REPRODUCTIVE
> RIGHTS AND WRONGS
>
>
> Divided Planet is like a dream version of the Clean Air
> Act. It clears away the fuzzy-minded haze that has
> enveloped environmentalism, and allows us an unobscured
> view of the social and economic conditions--past,
> present, and future--of the ecological crises.
>
> -- Andrew Ross, Director, Graduate Program in
> American Studies, New York University. Author
> of STRANGE WEATHER: CULTURE, SCIENCE, AND
> TECHNOLOGY IN THE AGE OF LIMITS
>
>
> "DIVIDED PLANET is a challenging and sophisticated
> analysis of the environmental movement and the global
> issues it addresses. It takes us far beyond the
> fashionable sort of 'feel good' commentary on the state
> of the planet that swamped Earth Day's 25th anniver-
> sary."
>
> -- Barbara Dudley, Executive Director, GREENPEACE
> USA
>
>
>
>
> "Athanasiou says 'History will judge the greens by
> whether they stand with the world's poor,' and then
> shows us that we can't have sustainability without jus-
> tice. DIVIDED PLANET is an articulate, researched
> letter from the barricades."
>
> -- Carl Anthony, Executive Director, Urban Habitat
> Program, Earth Island Institute
>
>
> In one of the most important books to be written this
> decade, Tom Athanasiou carefully explodes some of the
> environmental movement's most cherished myths. Want to
> imagine a new and better green politics? This is a
> good place to start.
>
> -- Mike Roselle, co-founder of Earth First!,
> grassroots forest campaigner.
>
>***
>
>Tom Athanasiou has been active in environmental and technol-
>ogy politics for over two decades. He has written for THE
>NATION, TECHNOLOGY REVIEW, WORLDWATCH MAGAZINE, THE SAN
>FRANCISCO CHRONICLE, and scores of other publications. As
>his day job he is a member of the technical staff of Sun
>Microsystems. He lives in San Francisco, California.
>
>
>
*****************************************
Elizabeth Ann R. Bird, Ph.D.
Organization and Development Director
Consortium for Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education
c/o Center for Integrated Agricultural Systems
1450 Linden Drive, Room 146
University of Wisconsin-Madison
Madison, WI 53706
608-265-6483
FAX 608-265-3020
eabird@facstaff.wisc.edu