The Bridge at the Edge of the World; Capitalism, the Environment, and Crossing from Crisis to Sustainability

by James Gustave Speth

• ISBN13: 9780300136111
• ISBN10: 0300136110
• Format: Trade Book
• Copyright: 2008-03-28
• Publisher: Yale University Press

Summary

How serious are the threats to our environment? Here is one measure of the problem: if we continue to do exactly what we are doing, withnogrowth in the human population or the world economy, the world in the latter part of this century will be unfit to live in. Of course human activities are not holding at current levelsthey are accelerating, dramaticallyand so, too, is the pace of climate disruption, biotic impoverishment, and toxification. In this book Gus Speth, author ofRed Sky at Morningand a widely respected environmentalist, begins with the observation that the environmental community has grown in strength and sophistication, but the environment has continued to decline, to the point that we are now at the edge of catastrophe. Speth contends that this situation is a severe indictment of the economic and political system we call modern capitalism. Our vital task is now to change the operating instructions for today's destructive world economy before it is too late. The book is about how to do that.

Author Biography

James Gustave Speth, a distinguished leader and founder of environmental institutions over the past four decades, is dean of the School of Forestry and Environmental Studies at Yale University. He was awarded Japan’s Blue Planet Prize for “a lifetime of creative and visionary leadership in the search for science-based solutions to global environmental problems.” He lives in New Haven, CT.

Table of Contents

Preface	p. ix
Acknowledgments	p. xviii
Introduction: Between Two Worlds	p. 1
System Failure
Looking into the Abyss	p. 17
Modern Capitalism: Out of Control	p. 46
The Limits of Today's Environmentalism	p. 67
The Great Transformation
The Market: Making It Work for the Environment	p. 89
Economic Growth: Moving to a Post-Growth Society	p. 107
Real Growth: Promoting the Well-Being of People and Nature	p. 126
Consumption: Living with Enough, Not Always More	p. 147
The Corporation: Changing the Fundamental Dynamics	p. 165
Capitalism's Core: Advancing beyond Today's Capitalism	p. 183
Seedbeds of Transformation
A New Consciousness	p. 199
A New Politics	p. 217
The Bridge at the Edge of the World	p. 233
Notes	p. 239
Index	p. 281
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