Previous owner's inscription inside.

In this powerful, personal and very readable analysis of the world's dire ecological crisis, Herve Kempf deftly illuminates the links between global ecology and the global economy. Drawing on a career of more than twenty years as an environmental journalist, he describes how the unchecked privilege of the world's wealthiest classes is thwarting action on global warming and other ecological disasters. Herve Kempf highlights the alarming disparity between the millions of engaged citizens around the world who are trying to do right by the planet and those who continue to benefit by plundering the environment because they have access to 'lifeboats' that insulate them from the resulting catastrophes. He argues that our priority should be to redistribute global material consumption to ensure we consume less and avoid the continuing punishment of the poor. For this we require fresh political leadership - emerging from a new collective will - to deliver the major change that is required. In the face of this prognosis, Herve Kempf calls for measured optimism: 'Despite the scale of the challenges that await us, solutions are emerging and - faced with the sinister prospects the oligarchs promote - the desire to remake the world is being reborn'.