 Many of the books reviewed here can now be purchased over the internet from amazon.co.uk. There is a search facility at the end of the page. |
In print
The revenge of Gaia
By James Lovelock
Published by Allen Lane
Website: www.penguin.com
2006, 189pp, ISBN 0713999144 (Hb), £16.99
A master of metaphor, Lovelock likens human civilisation's current situation to passengers on a pleasure boat cruising above Niagara Falls, unaware that their engine is about to fail. We are in extreme danger. Global warming and rising carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere are threatening the natural systems that our planet uses to maintain conditions for life. We may, unknowingly, have already passed a tipping point; the polar ice-caps, which have acted as a giant sun reflector, are being replaced with heat absorbing sea. And if we are to have any chance of limiting the damage, counsels Lovelock, we will have to put the interests of the Earth before our own.
Unfortunately, many of the current prescriptions to heal our ailing world may be counterproductive. Continued economic growth, even through 'sustainable development' is hopeless. Nor should we put our faith in renewable energies, such as biofuels. We would need the land area of several planets to grow enough biofuel for our transport needs alone, and cultivating energy crops destroys more of the natural ecosystems that the Earth needs to maintain its health. Other sources, such as wind power, could be important in the future but are currently too expensive and too inefficient. Our civilisation depends on electricity, and to obtain it without adding more carbon dioxide to our atmosphere, we need to use nuclear power.
Lovelock is passionate about science, and the need to redirect our technical skills to the interests of our planet, rather than ourselves. He reports, without cynicism, on some technological fixes to reduce temperature at a global level, including a giant sun-screen erected in space, and a system to create clouds over the world's oceans. He frequently challenges our basic assumptions, advocating for example, that sulphur should be reintroduced to aircraft fuel, so that jet aircraft can help to build a light-reflecting haze in the atmosphere. In the context of nuclear power, he offers to store a year's worth of high level waste from one power station in his own garden, so negligible a risk does he think it would pose.
His ideas about how our future civilisation might look are equally radical. On our present path we are heading for a post-apocalyptic world ruled by tribal warlords whose people scratch a living in the few hospitable areas that remain. A better alternative is for a much reduced population, living in well-designed urban areas and eating synthesised food. Can civilisation be saved? In his final chapter, Lovelock notes that in military circles, quality of generalship is measured by the ability to carry out a successful retreat. Humankind needs to organise just such a retreat while we still have the time and energy. But it will depend not just on good leadership, but personal sacrifice at a global level. Radical, memorable, eccentric, The revenge of Gaia may enrage or depress you, but it will certainly make you think.
Livestock
and wealth creation: Improving the husbandry of animals kept by resource-
poor people in developing countries
Edited by E Owen et al.
Published by Nottingham University Press
Website: www.nup.com
2005, 613pp, ISBN 1 904761 32 1(Pb), £40
The principle that livestock offer a pathway out of poverty has been common currency for some years, not least in the context of the increasing consumption of animal products, known as the 'livestock revolution'. But, say the editors of this new text book, in academic circles there is still the need for a dramatic change of mindset when it comes to livestock and the poor. Drawing on the experience of over 100 contributors from developed and developing countries, this comprehensive text book examines the role of livestock-keeping in the lives of poor communities. As such, it takes care to emphasise that livestock development among the poor demands a holistic approach; changes in husbandry must be considered in the context of the wider system in which livestock exist.
The first half of the book examines a number of cross-cutting issues that determine patterns and practices of livestock-keeping. These include the relationships between livestock and the environment, feeding practices, the value of livestock products and the role of marketing. The second half focuses on particular species – from bees to yaks - setting out current production methods in different parts of the developing world, and opportunities for improvement. The chapter on poultry, for example, draws on a research project in Zimbabwe, where use of a sunflower-residue feed had a marked effect on productivity in village chickens. Another poultry study in Indonesia showed how provision of night housing, vaccination against Newcastle disease and some supplementary feeding dramatically decreased mortality and increased egg production.
Plan B 2.0: Rescuing a planet under stress and a civilisation in trouble
By Lester R Brown
Published by WW Norton
Website: www.earth-policy.org
2006, 352pp, ISBN 0393328317 (Pb), £10.99
While the capitalist market is a highly efficient system for allocating resources and balancing supply and demand it is, according to Brown, fundamentally flawed, and as a result is driving our civilisation to the point of collapse. The market fails in not incorporating indirect, environmental costs into the price of goods and services and not respecting the sustainable-yield threshold of natural systems. It also tends to be short term, showing little concern for future generations. And, with humankind's sevenfold economic expansion since the 1950s, failure to address these shortcomings is likely to be disastrous. Moreover, the growing recognition that China's economic growth, if based on the western economic model, would be unsustainable, increases the urgency of finding an alternative, a Plan B.
Well-travelled, well-read and well connected, Brown is a highly readable guide to our planet's ills – and the solutions. He first sets out the evidence for a civilisation in trouble, from rising temperatures and environmental degradation to a post oil peak energy crisis. He describes the 'food bubble economy' that he believes characterises agriculture in some of the world's most populous countries, including China, India, Mexico and Pakistan. Here, productivity is being achieved only by unsustainable use of water resources, particularly groundwater. But while Brown is dogged in his depiction of a world in trouble, he is not a doom merchant. All the technologies and strategies we need to put the economy on a healthy environmental path are, he argues, already known and in many cases are already being applied. He cites environmental tax shifts in Germany and Sweden, and major breakthroughs in animal protein production in India and China, in dairying and fish farming. For those unfamiliar with Brown's work, this second edition of Plan B is strongly recommended as a challenging, thought-provoking and inspiring read.
Domesticating
forests: How farmers manage forest resources
Sowing
Autonomy: Gender and seed politics in semi-arid India
