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Oxford University Press, USA
The Ostrich Factor: Our Population Myopia
The Ostrich Factor: Our Population Myopia
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Garrett Hardin, one of our leading thinkers on problems of human overpopulation, here assails the recklessness and basic ecological ignorance of economists and others who champion the idea of unbounded growth.
Hardin delivers an uncompromising critique of mainstream economic thinking. Science has long understood the limits of our environment, he notes, and yet economists consistently turn a blind eye to one feature we share with all of our planet's inhabitants--the potential for irreversible environmental damage through overcrowding. And as humankind draws ever closer to its goal of conquering our final natural enemy--disease--the fallacy of sustainable unchecked population growth becomes more and more dangerous. Moreover, Hardin argues, rampant growth will soon force us to face many issues that we will find quite unpalatable--most notably, that since volunteer population control will not work, we will have to turn to democratic coercion or mutual coercion, mutually agreed upon to limit growth, a policy that directly threatens long cherished personal rights. Challenging an array of powerful taboos, Hardin takes aim at sacred cows on both sides of the political fence--affirmative action, multiculturalism, current immigration policies, and the greed and excess of big business and growth intoxicated industrialists.
Hardin's forceful and cogent argument for the union of ecology and economics is a must for anyone concerned with the goal of a bountiful, yet sustainable world. Sure to spark controversy, this book underscores the urgency of our situation and reveals practical steps we must take to ensure the long term survival of humankind.
Author: Garrett Hardin
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
Published: 04/15/1999
Pages: 176
Binding Type: Hardcover
Weight: 0.75lbs
Size: 8.49h x 5.74w x 0.70d
ISBN: 9780195122749
Review Citation(s):
Publishers Weekly 01/18/1999 pg. 319
Booklist 02/01/1999 pg. 946
Library Journal 02/01/1999
Hardin delivers an uncompromising critique of mainstream economic thinking. Science has long understood the limits of our environment, he notes, and yet economists consistently turn a blind eye to one feature we share with all of our planet's inhabitants--the potential for irreversible environmental damage through overcrowding. And as humankind draws ever closer to its goal of conquering our final natural enemy--disease--the fallacy of sustainable unchecked population growth becomes more and more dangerous. Moreover, Hardin argues, rampant growth will soon force us to face many issues that we will find quite unpalatable--most notably, that since volunteer population control will not work, we will have to turn to democratic coercion or mutual coercion, mutually agreed upon to limit growth, a policy that directly threatens long cherished personal rights. Challenging an array of powerful taboos, Hardin takes aim at sacred cows on both sides of the political fence--affirmative action, multiculturalism, current immigration policies, and the greed and excess of big business and growth intoxicated industrialists.
Hardin's forceful and cogent argument for the union of ecology and economics is a must for anyone concerned with the goal of a bountiful, yet sustainable world. Sure to spark controversy, this book underscores the urgency of our situation and reveals practical steps we must take to ensure the long term survival of humankind.
Author: Garrett Hardin
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
Published: 04/15/1999
Pages: 176
Binding Type: Hardcover
Weight: 0.75lbs
Size: 8.49h x 5.74w x 0.70d
ISBN: 9780195122749
Review Citation(s):
Publishers Weekly 01/18/1999 pg. 319
Booklist 02/01/1999 pg. 946
Library Journal 02/01/1999
About the Author
Garrett Hardin is Professor Emeritus of Human Ecology at the University of California, Santa Barbara. The founder of the field of human ecology, he is the author of the seminal essay The Tragedy of the Commons, which has been reprinted in over 100 anthologies, and the book Living Within Limits (Oxford), which won the 1993 Award in Science from the Phi Beta Kappa Society. He lives in Santa Barbara.
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