René J. Dubos (1901–1982)

The only reason that this book gets four, rather than five, stars is my tardiness. If I had come across it nearer to its publication date, I should have been unhesitating in issuing a full set of stars. This must be one of the first works to look critically at the drive for industrial supremacy and, as such, has been superseded by later works. I am sure, however, that were one to question the writers of the next series of works upon the subject, they would have happily acknowledged their debt to this book.

When one remembers that this was written in 1973, it is amazing just how insightful the views, and scientific evidence, was: of course, it is also depressing to see how little has been achieved in forty years. The possibility of Global Warming - now Climate Change - had not been proved, but a few wise voices were expressing concerns. The hole in the ozone layer was still to be discovered and, I can imagine that this book was seen as the hight of cranky, left-wing literature: now, it is pretty restrained. i am not sure that there is too much to be learned from this work, but it is fascinating to put some history to the fight to save the planet. It is, also, interesting to see how little the opposition has moved - then and now, too many people bury their heads and hope that, by ignoring the problem, it will go away of its own accord.… (more)