Product Description

At a time of increasingly rapid environmental deterioration, sustainability is one of the most important issues facing the world. Can we create a sustainable society? What would that mean? How should we set about doing it? How can we bring about such a profound change in the way things are organized? This text tackles these questions directly. It goes beyond rhetoric to explain the deeper issues of sustainable development in a way that seeks to be accessible and interesting to the non-specialist reader. It covers: historical development of the concept of sustainability; contemporary debates about how to achieve it; and obstacles and the prospects for overcoming them. The work should be useful to students, academics and activists concerned with sustainable development. It assumes no previous knowledge of the subject.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #336702 in Books
• Published on: 2002-10-03
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 224 pages

TIM JACKSON, Professor of Sustainable Development, University of Surrey
An entertaining, informative and sometimes downright irreverent
romp through the ragged peaks and swampy hinterland of sustainability.

NEW AGRICULTURIST ON-LINE
The readers who pick up this book... will find that they achieve a
better idea of the principles of sustainability.

Clean Slate
A great refresher course for those already somewhat familiar with
the ideas. It's very thorough.

Customer Reviews

A great primer
An ideal book for anyone wanting to understand the big issues in environmental policy and development, the green movement or indeed the developing world as a whole. The book is witty, clearly argued and gives a great overwiew of all the main issues and paradoxes (how can development be sustainable?), as well as their historical origins. Helpfully, it also clearly referenced and indexed.As someone who works in development i have found i keep returning to the book whenever i need material for a presentation or a seminar. Should be on the bookshelf of most of our policy-makers too....

A Witty Introduction to Sustainability
As a university student new to the economic theory behind sustainability I came across this book quite by chance.
I must say it is quite a witty primer and did set out the principles really well with more contemporary relevance than some of the dry text books I have recently been introduced to. There's a truly great quote from Joan Rivers in it too!