The Environment

A History of the Idea

De: Paul Warde, Libby Robin, Sverker Sorlin

Narrado por: Henrietta Meire

Is it possible for the economy to grow without the environment being destroyed? Will our lifestyles impoverish the planet for our children and grandchildren? Is the world sick? Can it be healed? Less than a lifetime ago, these questions would have made no sense. This was not because our ancestors had no impact on nature - nor because they were unaware of the serious damage they had done. What people lacked was an idea: a way of imagining the web of interconnection and consequence of which the natural world is made.

In this fascinating book, Paul Warde, Libby Robin, and Sverker Sörlin trace the emergence of the concept of the environment following World War II, a period characterized by both hope for a new global order and fear of humans' capacity for almost limitless destruction. It was at this moment that a new idea and a new narrative about the planet-wide impact of people's behavior emerged, closely allied to anxieties for the future.

With the rise of "the environment", the authors argue, came new expertise, making certain kinds of knowledge crucial to understanding the future of our planet. The untold history of how people came to conceive, to manage, and to dispute environmental crisis, The Environment is a must-listen book for anyone who wants to help protect the environment from the numerous threats it faces today.

©2018 Johns Hopkins University Press (P)2019 HighBridge, a division of Recorded Books

Overly complex organization plus so many acronyms!

I found this book difficult to tackle in audio form. The authors use a topical organization rather than a chronological one, with each chapter focused on the development of one thread that makes up our present concept of environment. For this reason the text kept returning to pivotal years and papers and conferences, essentially moving back and forth through time. This, along with the endless acronyms that are only explained the first time they are referenced, made it difficult to follow.