Book description
This is a book about how we should address the great, and
interconnected, global challenges of the twenty-first century. Our
task, Sachs argues, is to achieve truly sustainable development,
by which he means finding a global course which enables the world
to benefit from the spread of prosperity while ensuring that we don't
destroy the eco-systems which keep us alive and our place in nature
which helps sustain our values. How do we move forward together,
benefitting from our increasing technological mastery, avoiding the
terrible dangers of climate change, mass famines, violent conflicts,
population explosions in some parts of the world and collapses in
others, and world-wide pandemic diseases?
In answering these questions, Sachs shows that there are different
ways of managing the world's technology, resources and politics from
those currently being followed, and that it should be possible to
adopt policies which reflect long-term and co-operative thinking
instead of, as currently, disregard for others and ever-increasing
barriers to solving the problems which we collectively face. It is a
book which appeals equally to both head and heart, and one which no
globally thinking person can ignore.
Jeffrey D. Sachs is Director of the Earth Institute at Columbia
University, the Quetelet Professor of Sustainable Development and the
global best-selling author of The End of Poverty. He is also the BBC's
Reith Lecturer for 2007 and is internationally renowned for his work as
an economic advisor to governments around the world.
