Current Events : The Environment

An Atlantic correspondent uncovers the true cost—in economic, political, and psychic terms—of our penchant for making and buying things as cheaply as possible. From the shuttered factories of the rust belt to the look-alike strip malls of the sun belt—and almost everywhere in between—America has been transformed by its relentless fixation on low price. This pervasive yet little examined obsession is arguably the most powerful and devastating market force of our time—the engine of globalization, outsourcing, planned obsolescence, and economic instability in an increasingly unsettled world. Low price is so alluring that we may have forgotten how thoroughly we once distrusted it. Ellen Ruppel Shell traces the birth of the bargain as we know it from the Industrial Revolution to the assembly line and beyond, homing in on a number of colorful characters, such as Gene Verkauf (his name is Yiddish for “to sell”), founder of E. J. Korvette, the discount chain that helped wean customers off traditional notions of value. The rise of the chain store in post–Depression America led to the extolling of convenience over quality, and big-box retailers completed the reeducation of the American consumer by making them prize low price in the way they once prized durability and craftsmanship. The effects of this insidious perceptual shift are vast: a blighted landscape, escalating debt (both personal and national), stagnating incomes, fraying communities, and a host of other socioeconomic ills. That’s a long list of charges, and it runs counter to orthodox economics which argues that low price powers productivity by stimulating a brisk free market. But Shell marshals evidence from a wide range of fields—history, sociology, marketing, psychology, even economics itself—to upend the conventional wisdom. Cheap also unveils the fascinating and unsettling illogic that underpins our bargain-hunting reflex and explains how our deep-rooted n more...

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Review of future climate change for life sciences and environmental science students, and policy-makers. more...

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An investigative journalist explores our world on the brink of running out of usable water. Less than .0008 percent of the total water on Earth is fit for human consumption, but global consumption of fresh water is doubling every twenty years. Water has become perhaps our most precious commodity-a life-sustaining but increasingly rare and privatized resource. A dramatic gap exists between those who have adequate water for survival and those who don't, and tensions over water in some areas of the world hover just below open war. From Europe to Asia to Africa to America, Jeffrey Rothfeder has visited the world's hot spots, those with the least amount of water, as well as places where there is so much of it that plans are in the works to sell the excess to the highest bidder. In this compelling narrative account of our world in turmoil over water, Rothfeder describes the issues and struggles of the people on all sides of the water crisis: from the scarred survivors of bizarre water-management practices, to those who are willing to die for water to sustain their families and crops, to the scientists and leaders who are trying to set things straight. Important, provocative, and immensely readable, Every Drop for Sale explores a fascinating critical dilemma: As we run out of it, is water a fundamental right of everybody on Earth or just a product humans need that can be bought and sold like any other commodity? more...

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'This is a bold thought-provoking and ultimately rewarding book well-researched full of ideas – and thus a good all-round primer on the state of the planet' BBC WILDLIFE   'An impressive tour of our current world: from sexual slavery to sailing ships from malaria to microcredits from nanotechnology to neopaganism all the horrors and promises of our troubled Zeitgeist seem to be reflected here' RESURGENCE   'Is this a book you can afford to ignore? ... only the foolhardy would surely dare leave it unread on the shelf' INTERNATIONAL AFFAIRS Has the future a future? Are we bringing history to an end? Observing any one of several individual but critical trends suggests that without rapid and positive action history may have only a very short way to run. Whether it is the growth of world population of greenhouse gas concentrations and the accelerating rate of climate change the running down of oil and natural gas reserves growing shortages of fresh water for agriculture industry and domestic use or the increasing difficulty in controlling epidemic diseases – we are facing a mounting global crisis that will peak in less than a generation around the year 2030. Taken together these trends point to a potentially apocalyptic period if not for the planet itself then certainly for human societies and for humankind. In this compelling book and update to The 2030 Spike Colin Mason explains in clear and irrefutable terms what is going on – largely below the surface of our daily or weekly news bulletins. The picture he paints is stark and yet it is not bleak. Being forewarned we are forearmed and he draws on his own extensive political experience to describe how much we can do as individuals and above all collectively not merely to avert crisis but to engineer thoroughgoing change that can usher in genuinely sustainable and valuable alternatives to the way we live now. more...

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Over the next half century, the human population, divided by culture and economics and armed with weapons of mass destruction, will expand to nearly 9 billion people. Abrupt climate change may throw the global system into chaos; China will emerge as a superpower; and Islamic terrorism and insurgency will threaten vital American interests. How can we understand these and other global challenges? Harm de Blij has a simple answer: by improving our understanding of the world's geography. De Blij demonstrates how geography's perspectives yield unique and penetrating insights into the interconnections that mark our shrinking world. Centuries ago a surge of climate change halted China's maritime plans; more recently, environmental calamity altered the course of geopolitical events in East Asia; today, terrorists look for failed and malfunctioning states to base their operations--and some of these are in our own hemisphere. Preparing for climate change, averting a cold war with China, defeating terrorism: all of this requires geographic knowledge. In Why Geography Matters, de Blij makes an urgent call to restore geography to America's educational curriculum. He shows how and why the U.S. has become the world's most geographically illiterate society of consequence--and demonstrates that this geographic illiteracy is a direct risk to America's national security. In this personal and engaging book, de Blij provides a geographer's perspective on the challenges of this new century. As he states, "We are crossing the threshold to a century that will witness massive environmental change, major population shifts, persistent civilizational conflicts [and] while geographic knowledge by itself cannot solve these problems, they will not be effectively approached without it." more...

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