Description
Book SynopsisLike Jared Diamond''s Guns, Germs and Steel, Clive Ponting''s book studies the relationship between the environment and human history. It examines world civilisations from Sumeria to ancient Egypt, from Easter Island to the Roman Empire and it argues that human beings have repeatedly built societies that have grown and prospered by exploiting the Earth''s resources, only to expand to the point where those resources could no longer sustain the societies'' populations and cause subsequent collapse.
This new edition of Clive Ponting''s international bestseller has been revised, expanded and updated. It provides not only a compelling story of how we have damaged the environment for thousands of years but also an up-to-the-minute assessment of the crisis facing the world today - and the problems that have to be addressed in the search for solutions.
Trade ReviewIf there is a single book on the subject to engage the enthusiast, silence the cynic and enlighten the ignoramus, this is it * Observer *
Ponting's re-evaluation of history is an important antidote to mental troglodytism. It also makes a welcome change from the scatter-gun apocalypse-mongering which has become standard fare in green literature. With luck and foresight, and more books like this, we may yet learn our lesson * Independent on Sunday *
Pioneering...a book good enough to rival the best American products in the field... Clive Ponting has embraced a daunting task with commendable success * Times Literary Supplement *
An ambitious and thought-provoking attempt to rewrite history from an ecological standpoint * Independent *
Large, ambitious and often enthralling, it is a successful attempt to look at the unfolding of world history from an entirely new perspective * Literary Review *
