Product Description

Preoccupied with the war on terrorism, we have lost sight of a more dangerous enemy of social peace and progress ? the inability of the world's people to access the ecological goods and services they need to maintain and build their societies. By 2025, the combined demands of continued economic growth and the reduction of global poverty will require, annually, the ecological equivalent of three or four Earths. If history is our guide, the options for meeting these enormous 'provisioning' needs are extremely limited. Like the tribes, cities, and nations of earlier times, we can fight our neighbours for privileged access to declining ecosystem goods and services. This confrontation will inevitably pit the wealthy beneficiaries of the global economy against the billions of excluded, and lead to accelerated ecological collapse, the derailment of growth, and social chaos. The only alternative to this dismal prospect is to mobilize on a scale as if for war in order to meet this provisioning challenge on the battlefields of directed technological innovation.

In The Next World War, Roy Woodbridge argues that the international community must redirect present sustainable development and poverty reduction efforts in ways that place the provisioning of societies at the heart of political decision-making. To move this highly focused agenda forward, he calls on the United Nations to convene a World Forum on Global Provisioning to declare war on ecological decline and set the battle plans for the next world war ? the war to equitably provision continued growth.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1545338 in Books
• Published on: 2004-06-02
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 320 pages

Review
'In The Next World War, Roy Woodbridge presents a cogent and compelling argument to turn bio-centrism on its head. Woodbridge's innovative analysis suggests we re-focus the environmental agenda on the threat to all human societies from ecological decline. Having read his argument, I cannot but agree with him.'

About the Author
Roy Woodbridge is the president of Woodbridge & Associates, an environmental policy consulting firm in Vancouver.

Customer Reviews

NC_Dude
One of the most thought provoking books I read in the last few years. Full of breathtaking information and analysis, this book serves as a great knowledge base for the environmentally conscious person. I hope that more people will read it or at least be exposed to the ideas it is trying to promote. I certainly enjoyed it, thought I am much more worried about my future and the future of my children than I ever was.

Get prepared!
Wake up, North America! This book is available for several months already, and no one cares to comment? It seems we, people, are like that proverbial frog which does not bother to jump out until it is too late, and dies in the gradually heated water. The terrorist attacks make us worrying, but the dwindling supplies of drinkable water and breathable air, the dire conclusions of the ecological footprint studies do not. I have not read the book yet. However, based on the author's credentials, I would guess that for any one who is not yet fully aware of the gravity of environmental eventualities it is a must-read one. Maybe, the publisher needs to do a better job.

Sobering thought
Full disclosure, the author is my father.

The essence of this book is so relevant while war wages in Asia. The challenge is to shed the way we've waged war against each other and arm ourselves to fight ecological decline as one civilization. Do it and there may be time, don't do it and none of this will matter.