The Bridge at the Edge of the World: Capitalism, the Environment, and Crossing from Crisis to Sustainability | 
| Author: James Gustave Speth
Publisher: Yale University Press
Category: Book
List Price: $28.00
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Avg. Customer Rating:  6 reviews
Sales Rank: 5450
Media: Hardcover
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 320
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.1
Dimensions (in): 8.4 x 5.5 x 1.2
ISBN: 0300136110
Dewey Decimal Number: 333.7
EAN: 9780300136111
ASIN: 0300136110
Publication Date: March 28, 2008
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Product Description
How serious are the threats to our environment? Here is one measure of the problem: if we continue to do exactly what we are doing, with no growth in the human population or the world economy, the world in the latter part of this century will be unfit to live in. Of course human activities are not holding at current levels—they are accelerating, dramatically—and so, too, is the pace of climate disruption, biotic impoverishment, and toxification. In this book Gus Speth, author of Red Sky at Morning and a widely respected environmentalist, begins with the observation that the environmental community has grown in strength and sophistication, but the environment has continued to decline, to the point that we are now at the edge of catastrophe. Speth contends that this situation is a severe indictment of the economic and political system we call modern capitalism. Our vital task is now to change the operating instructions for today’s destructive world economy before it is too late. The book is about how to do that.
Book Description
The author of Red Sky at Morning would be the first to agree that we are in deep environmental trouble, but he offers hope that there is still time to avert global catastrophe. Gus Speth explores a wide variety of promising and even radical ideas for transforming modern capitalism so as to protect and restore the natural world.
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The Bridge at the End of the World June 21, 2008
Bridge End World A superb book that covers areas not addressed by other similar books.The author has vast experience in the subject area.Speth is aware of the magnitude of the problem but is persuaded it can be resolved.A good read ! John Cairns,Jr.
A bridge too far...or still within reach? May 6, 2008
9 out of 9 found this review helpful
As do other current writers such as Thomas Homer-Dixon and David Korten, James Speth sees us heading for catastrophe in the way we're over-using and over-polluting the earth, but holds out hope that we may yet turn back from the brink of destruction. He attributes our predicament to an economic system based on little more than constant growth, which in turns requires ever more extraction from the earth; weak or nonexistent government leadership; and an environmental movement that has been less "movement" and more an insider operation that down deep believes a) the government can and will eventually do the right thing and b) there won't be need for drastic redirection of our economic and political systems or serious change in our way of living.
Speth calls for a rediscovery of the true meaning of life (relationships, service, enjoyment of leisure, etc.)--and orienting our economic pursuits around this; a new form of participatory democracy that takes back our country from the corporate-led government we currently "enjoy"; ending over $850 billion in annual global subsidies for "perverse" practices such as overfishing the seas; developing an economic model that incorporates environmental care, human rights and worker well-being at its core; and international treaties with "teeth" to enforce environmental protection of critical habitats and endangered species and ecosystems.
This is a depressing book in that it clearly lays out the challenges facing us; it is hopeful in that it does provide a "bridge" to get us from this world to the next. It's up to us to build it and then be ready to walk over it.
Telling quote: "When the crisis occurs, the actions taken depend on the ideas that are lying around. That, I believe, is our basic function: to develop alternatives to existing policies, and to keep them alive and available until the politically impossible becomes the politically inevitable."
The Bridge at the Edge of the World YOUTUBE VIDEO April 22, 2008
18 out of 18 found this review helpful
Watch Video Here: http://www.amazon.com/review/R227HOY1RAP1LO This is a quick introduction to the book. The video is on YouTube at [...]. Enjoy!
Is It Too Late? April 17, 2008
2 out of 3 found this review helpful
I hope that "The Bridge at the Edge of the World" has been written soon enough that it is not too late.
Conservatives will not appreciate his thoughts on capitalism as it relates to climate change, but they would do well to read them.
This book is a gem written with authority and principle. One of his conclusions is that today's environmentalism has not been successful. I wish that he were wrong, but know that he is right.
Author of Mr. NewHeart (New Heart): Heart Attack to Transplant and Beyond
Google "david hollar the face of war" to preview my next book about my year in Vietnam as an infantry officer.
A Book That Must Be Heeded April 1, 2008
12 out of 13 found this review helpful
This is a book that must be heeded. It is about the most crucial, portentous issue of our time: the rapid destruction of the natural world by human activity and human institutions. Other issues that now dominate the news and with which we are preoccupied--the war in Iraq, the presidential campaign, the faltering economy, the health care debacle--are from a broad perspective merely transient. They will pass. But The Bridge at the Edge of the World makes us look unflinchingly at a crisis that will not pass--the eroding ability of our planet to support life. Global warming is only one of the megaproblems that threaten our future. Others include the toxification of the environment, the loss of biological diversity, dwindling per capital supplies of water and arable land, too many people consuming too many resources and producing too much waste. Dean Speth is most trenchent in pointing to the underlying causes of our environmental failure: market capitalism that does not value the environment, human health or the future of life; corporations whose only duty is to profit; government that fails to protect us from corporate misdeeds and, of late, has abetted those misdeeds. We are standing before the abyss. Speth warns. But he offers a bridge across that fatal chasm. A better economics that reflects the realities of what is happening to the world. A new politics that recognizes and addresses the real crises facing humanity. And a new consciousness by all of us to end our indifference and lethargy and demand that we do what is needed to protect the future for our children and grandchildren. This is a quiet, beautifully written book, but what it contains is explosive enough to wake us all up.
Philip Shabecoff
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