We are at an environmental impasse. Many
blame our personal choices about the way we
live. This is only part of the problem. Different forms of social power -
political, economic and ideological - structure the choices we have
available. This book analyses how we make social and environmental
history and why we end up where we do. Case studies challenge conventional wisdoms about why gold is valuable,
why the internal combustion engine triumphed, and when and why suburbs
sprawled. The book shows how the power of individuals, the power of
classes, the power of the market and the power of the state were critical to setting us on a path to
environmental degradation. It also challenges conventional wisdom about
what we need to do now. Rather than reducing consumption and shrinking
from outcomes we don’t want, it proposes growing towards outcomes we do
want. We invested massive resources in creating our problems; it will
take equally large investments to fix them.
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