Each time history repeats itself, so it’s said, the price goes up. The twentieth century was a time of runaway growth in human numbers, consumption, and technology, placing a colossal load on all natural systems, especially earth, air, and water – the very elements of life. The great question of the twenty-first century is how, or whether, this can go on. In “A Short History of Progress” Ronald Wright shows how our modern predicament is as old as civilization, a 10,OOO-year experiment we unleashed but have seldom controlled. Only by understanding the patterns of progress and disaster that humanity has repeated around the world since the Stone Age can we rec_ognize the experiment’s inherent dangers, and, with luck and wisdom, shape its outcome. If you must read only one book, – or plan to be lost in a remote island – take this one!
• from: Ronald Wright • in detail XlnkS6D6 XlnkC193B