Product Description

From one of the world's greatest economic minds, author of the New York Times bestseller The End of Poverty, a clear and vivid map of the road to sustainable and equitable global prosperity and an augury of the global economic collapse that lies ahead if we don't follow it.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #66073 in Books
• Published on: 2008-03-18
• Original language: English
• Dimensions: 1.48 pounds
• Binding: Hardcover
• 400 pages

From Publishers Weekly
In this sobering but optimistic manifesto, development economist Sachs (The End of Poverty) argues that the crises facing humanity are daunting—but solutions to them are readily at hand. Sachs focuses on four challenges for the coming decades: heading off global warming and environmental destruction; stabilizing the world's population; ending extreme poverty; and breaking the political logjams that hinder global cooperation on these issues. The author analyses economic data, demographic trends and climate science to create a lucid, accessible and suitably grim exposition of looming problems, but his forte is elaborating concrete, pragmatic, low-cost remedies complete with benchmarks and budgets. Sachs's entire agenda would cost less than 3% of the world's annual income, and he notes that a mere two days' worth of Pentagon spending would fund a comprehensive antimalaria program for Africa, saving countless lives. Forthright government action is the key to avoiding catastrophe, the author contends, not the unilateral, militarized approach to international problems that he claims is pursued by the Bush administration. Combining trenchant analysis with a resounding call to arms, Sachs's book is an important contribution to the debate over the world's future. (Mar.)
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From AudioFile
Sachs is an economist who sees overpopulation as the heart of the planet's problems. To solve those problems will require global cooperation. Nations must understand the need to go beyond parochial differences to avoid the destruction of our species. Malcolm Hillgartner is solid as narrator. He treats the material seriously, in the manner of a documentary narrator, but without the basso profundo voice that could quickly devolve into caricature. He varies his tone enough to keep the book interesting but not so much that it becomes distracting. The complexity of the book requires concentration on the part of the listener, so it's not for casual listening--but its message is worth the effort. R.C.G. © AudioFile 2008, Portland, Maine-- Copyright © AudioFile, Portland, Maine

Review
'This is an impressive exercise in presenting complex subject matter in plain English, and relating the practicalities of life- subsistence agriculture and water management, for example - to the biggest ideas of modern science' - Martin Vander Weyer, The Daily Telegraph 'His new book ! bursts with ideas and is suffused with what can only be described as irrepressible optimism' - Ed Pilkington, The Guardian