Product Description

Tackling the most pressing problem of our time - how capitalism, and business, can provide a future of wealth, equity and ecological integrity, this book is destined to be one of the most important business, economics and politics books of the year. Sir Jonathon Porritt, CBE, Co-Founder of Forum for the Future, is a leading influence on business and industry, the UK government's premier adviser on sustainable development and a top author, broadcaster and visionary. As our great economic machine grinds relentlessly forward into a future of declining fossil fuel supplies, climate change and ecosystem failure, humanity, by necessity, is beginning to question the very structure of the economy that has provided so much wealth, and inequity, across the world. In this fresh, politically charged analysis, Jonathon Porritt wades in on the most pressing question of the 21st century - can capitalism, as the only real economic game in town, be retooled to deliver a sustainable future? Porritt argues that indeed it can and it must as he lays out the framework for a new 'sustainable capitalism' that cuts across the political divide and promises a prosperous future of wealth, equity and ecosystem integrity.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #195885 in Books
• Published on: 2005-11-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 304 pages

Review
" 'One of the most prominent voices promoting green issues over the last 25 years' Prime Minister Tony Blair"

Lord May, President, The Royal Society
"This is a very thoughtful and timely book."

David Puttnam
"Here's a compelling book that should sound the trumpet for a whole new generation of engaged and optimistic young people."

Customer Reviews

A bold new vision for capitalism
Activist Jonathon Porritt offers the startling proposal that capitalism may provide the best solution to poverty and global environmental degradation, though his solution requires reshaping capitalism. Porritt is aware that conventional environmental activists, greens and political academics favor socialism more than capitalism. However, he takes them to task for ignoring the power and potential of such capitalist mechanisms as markets and property rights and for their naïveté in expecting voters or political leaders to embrace their dismal vision of environmental responsibility as asceticism. We find his book more suggestive than programmatic. It meanders like a river and is sometimes directionless. The author makes his passions apparent, including anti-Americanism and scathing criticism of certain forms of Christianity. Though Porritt does not offer a detailed description of his vision or the practical steps needed to realize it, he does suggest a path toward a utopian ideal; for that hope, he deserves appropriate attention.

A breath of fresh air
Capitalism: As if the world matters is a very topical and thought provoking read. Jonathan Porritt addresses many key environmental issues for our plant and also opens up a discussion concerning why it is important to attempt to work with the capitalist social structure in which our society operates within if we are serious about actually addressing and solving serious long term environmental problems rather than instead trying to work against the capitalist social structure. It felt like I was reading a book that I had been waiting for somebody to write. A very enjoyable book.

Can capitalism ever be truly sustainable?
In a consumer society slowly eating itself, there's no more pressing question than whether or not capitalism and sustainability can ever go together. Johnathon Porritt sets out here to prove that they can. On the one hand, "global capitalism as we know it today would appear to be inherently incompatible with the pursuit of either ecological sustainability or social justice." On the other hand, "capitalism is now the only economic game in town."

Capitalism has been effective in providing goods and services, in creating wealth and raising standards of living. It has also created gross inequality and laid waste to the planet. Business as usual will lead to ecological suicide, quite simply.

In its place, Porritt argues for better regulation, costings for externalities, better metrics than GNP alone. He questions our fixation with growth, and tests the limits of corporate responsibility.

Porritt has got in trouble with some environmentalists for working a little too closely with big business, and he explores some of these initiatives in some detail here - business excellence, business aimed at the poor, experimental corporate reporting. It's easy to see why he's been accused of selling out as he sings the praises of Dow Chemicals, but the corporation aren't going anywhere any time soon, so I applaud him for working alongside them to develop better business models.

For all its problems, capitalism is what we have to work with right now. Although it could do with an extra chapter after the events of summer 2008, this book is still a useful guidebook to the changes already underway, and a roadmap for more responsible capitalism.