James Gustave Speth

I have identified a sub-genre of book to be found in non-fiction; warnings of the impending environmental, largely climate-driven, crisis written by men who have been involved in the green movement in an academic and/or activist capacity for at least thirty years. Such books seek to cover very wide ground, begin with alarming descriptions of disaster to come, then segue into the prospects of solutions. They tend to end on a cautiously optimistic note, on the grounds that fatalism gets you show more nowhere, placing hope on the younger generation.

I find such books very interesting and have been contemplating their differences. 'Whole Earth Discipline' by Stewart Brand is the strongest example of technological optimism. 'The Long Descent' by John Michael Greer displays a very different focus, on the personal responses needed. In his turn, James Gustave Speth emphasises the institutional solutions to environmental crisis, placing particular importance upon overcoming the political and cultural obsession with economic growth. Whilst reading each of these books, and others that are less memorable at the moment but cover similar ground, it is easy to agree with them. Some aspects of their ideas reinforce one another, in other ways their relative emphases are contradictory. I firmly believe that all three approaches, and any others I come across, are worth reading to get as full a view as possible. Apart from anything else, this is a good way to uncover the various fascinating paradoxes of humanity versus climate change.

The problem with doing so is that all of these books begin with very much the same description of the terrifying scale of climate change and environmental degradation. As a result, I am ashamed to admit that the first 80 pages or so of 'The Bridge at the Edge of the World' bored me. The prospect of civilisation as we know it collapsing has been described far more engagingly elsewhere. Nonetheless, once Speth moved onto his main theme of the pursuit of economic growth as antithetical to environmental sustainability of even the weakest sort, the book became a lot more interesting. I don't think that his critique is necessarily very original, but it is well-expressed and thoroughly referenced. (On this basis, I'm thinking of recommending it to the undergraduates that I teach.)

What strikes me as common to all books suggesting a systematic, successful response to climate change and other environmental problems is the necessity of cultural change. Every such book has mentioned this to some extent, yet it appears to remain an under-researched and mysterious area. Possibly because it doesn't fit comfortably with economics, current king of the social sciences? Even behavioural economics remains resolutely micro, concerned with individual decisions rather than collective behaviour.

Tangents aside, this book is a worthy addition to its canon. It may lack the easy style of some others (Stewart Brand for instance), but it summarises heterodox economics and the problematic elements of corporations very effectively. It is also very America-centric, as all such books seem to be. I posit that the forces arrayed against climate change campaigners in the US seem so intractable and depressing that the only rational response is to take a sabbatical and write a book. show less

Speth's summary of how the best parts of the South have been overrun and the worst parts exported to the rest of the country I found the most compelling.

He founded the NRDC with something like a $300,000 grant from the Ford Foundation (and MacArthur?). Today their annual budget is over $100 million. "An oak tree is just a nut that held its ground."

Speth makes the point that environmentalism has not kept up with its opponents. In 1970 when NRDC started the Clean Air Act, the Clean Water Act show more and the National Environmental Protection Act were all brand new. Corporate pollutes were caught flat footed. Enforcing the laws was like shooting fish in a barrel. Now they have more than caught up led by wealthy and powerful forces like the Koch brothers. The bad guys now control the narrative positioning conservation as anti people and anti jobs. They even routinely succeed at information campaigns based on falsehood, bigotry and greed.

There is much work to be done. show less

This book, from a leading US environmentalist, argues that the environmental situation is critical, not just in terms of global warming, but also in terms of the extent of species extinction taking place, and the destruction of many major ecosystems. It claims that capitalism as it currently works is the major cause of this, as growth is the prime purpose of companies and governments, but this necessarily comes at the expense of natural resources and the environment. It claims that our show more obsession with growth is misplaced anyway, since beyond a relatively modest salary, happiness doesn't increase. Instead, happiness is primarliy supported by social and communal ties, which modern capitalist habits erode. The book then goes on to suggest potential solutions, by changes on a personal, corporation and government level.

I think that Speth makes a convincing case for how dire the environmental crisis is, and for how destructive and misguided capitalism can be. However, the book is very largely about the US, which frustrated me enormously, firstly because many of the problems are (hopefully) specific to the Bush administration, and secondly as this is a world crisis and many different countries are facing these problems in different ways. When it comes to the solutions, Speth comes across as a teenage idealist in many ways: naive and vague. There is no detailed economic discussion of what kind of system could replace capitalism and yet stabilise wealth, no detailed blueprint for how government can stabilise carbon emissions, or what role the individual can play. Although at times Speth recognises the complexities of the situation, he makes no attempt to provide pragmatic analyses of these complexities, in order to provide some guidance. This over-general approach to providing a "bridge" over the abyss ended up making me feel more pessimistic rather than less, and I found the book keenly frustrating overall, particularly since the style is rather repetitive and wildly overburdened by quotations. I'd say worth reading for the first half, and aggressively skimming for the second.

((I read this book on the recommendation of a series of articles in the New Scientist (see Opinion Section from 16 October 2008), and actually found those articles considerably better and more succinct.)) show less

What an absolutely miserable book. It starts with Speth bragging that he and his wife had been arrested for protesting the Keystone XL pipeline. It doesn't get any better.

Evil corporations are destroying the world. Global warming is killing the planet. All the usual left-wing things that we read.

Nothing in this book convinced me that he is right. It might reinforce the wayward beliefs on a person who already believes this.

I can not recommend this book as good reading for any time. NO stars.