Publisher Description
It’s time to stop just worrying about climate change, says Paul
Gilding. We need instead to brace for impact because global crisis is no longer avoidable. This Great Disruption started in 2008, with spiking food and oil prices and dramatic ecological changes, such as the melting ice caps. It is not simply about fossil fuels and carbon footprints. We have come to the end of Economic Growth, Version 1.0, a world economy based on consumption and waste, where we lived beyond the means of our
planet’s ecosystems and sources.
The Great Disruption offers a stark and unflinching look at the challenge humanity faces—yet
also a deeply optimistic message. The coming decades will see loss,
suffering, and conflict as our planetary overdraft is paid; however, they will also bring out the best humanity can offer: compassion, innovation, resilience, and adaptability. Gilding tells us how to fight—and in—what he calls the One Degree War to prevent catastrophic warming of the earth, and how to start today.
The crisis represents a rare chance to replace our addiction to growth with an ethic of sustainability, and it’s already happening. It’s also an
unmatched business opportunity: Old industries will collapse while new companies will literally reshape our economy. In the aftermath of the Great Disruption, we will measure “growth” in a new way. It will mean not quantity of stuff but quality and happiness of life. Yes, there is life after shopping.
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“We have much more than climate change to worry about. The unraveling of the global economy due to limits on growth which the environment is placing on the system (peak oil, overfishing, lack of irrigation water for food crops, etc) is the other Big Problem which we are beginning to face. Paul Gilding thinks that things will get much worse before we finally “get it” and get to work on facing these predicaments. He assumes that once the majority finally sees the problems they will pressure governments to act and that a WWII-style focus (on steroids) will reconfigure the world we live in. I have my doubts but it is good to see some hope.”
—
David (4 out of 5 stars)
