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One With Nineveh: Politics, Consumption, and the Human Future
Named a Notable Book for 2005 by the American Library Association, One with Nineveh is a fresh synthesis of the major issues of our time, now brought up to date with an afterword for the paperback edition. Through lucid explanations, telling anecdotes, and incisive analysis, the book spotlights the three elephants in our global living room-rising consumption, still-growing world population, and unchecked political and economic inequity-that together are increasingly shaping today's politics and humankind's future. One with Nineveh brilliantly puts today's political and environmental debates in a larger context and offers some bold proposals for improving our future prospect.
480 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2004
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113 people want to read
About the author
Paul R. Ehrlich
92 books93 followersPaul Ralph Ehrlich is an American biologist and educator who is the Bing Professor of Population Studies in the department of Biological Sciences at Stanford University and president of Stanford's Center for Conservation Biology. By training he is an entomologist specializing in Lepidoptera (butterflies), but he is better known as an ecologist and a demographer, specifically for his warnings about unchecked population growth and limited resources. Ehrlich became a household name after publication of his controversial 1968 book The Population Bomb.
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Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews
July 2, 2007
This book got really boring and also way too partisan. The book is about environmental issues, and the danger the planet is in, but mainly it just rehashed lots of the same things over and over and was not very in-depth. For someone who is not at all familiar with some of the issues it would maybe be a good one, but still, it's not engaging. The last part basically just turns into the authors talking about how they do not like the Bush administration; ok, obviously, fine, move on.
Just read "Collapse" by Jared Diamond instead, please.
Just read "Collapse" by Jared Diamond instead, please.
May 2, 2021
Personal review for memory jog....
neo-Malthusian: not that the world will run out of food for its population (Malthus) but that the world will run out of everything....this book is an evolution from the radical "Population Bomb" by Paul Ehrlich, and is less extreme, less radical, and tries to be more reasonable.
Central tenets:
1. Overpopulation (and growing) for finite resources of the planet
2. Over-consumption far exceeding needs
3. Large imbalances among the population in power, wealth, consumption, access
Some critical aspects:
- birth rates correlates to women's access to equity in education, birth control, wealth, power
- corporations given standing as individuals but permitted to put profit and shareholders first
- globalization and specialization are poor policies for maintaining the ecology of the planet
- pricing or taxation to include downstream effects of production of goods and services
It is relatively easy to find examples of excess in everything they examine, from the media0cracy invention of the banana and palm oil leading to deforestation, to the lies of the LBJ and Bush administrations in Vietnam, Iraq, to the fundamental economic observation that the many many poor work to make the small number of rich, richer. It is harder to find solutions.
In this area, Ehrlich's look to representative democracy as in the USA (the only superpower), and look to regulatory agencies within and internationally to put in place not just guidance and constraints, but directives that will result in lower carbon, lower inequity, lower birthrate, lower excesses in consumerism and consumption.
This was all written before Trump. The Ehrlich's even talk about kleptocracy, which is government by theft, but what they did not sound the alarm on, is that regulations entrenched in bureaucracy are double-edged swords....if they define what is not permissible, everything else is, and all the agencies can be diluted, distorted and corrupted, as we have seen, to other ends.
Their glimmer of hope was Martin Luther King's "I have a dream" speech, in that there are persons of vision and purpose. I think this is not sufficient.
The recent Nobel Summit on the Planet was populated by the power representatives of the environmental save the Earth within the existing systems - thus, HBC, Al Gore, any number of NGOs....but all I heard was "blah blah"..... lots of projects, grants, financing to create better situations in Latin America, sub-Sahara....
BUT, the major problems of corporate profit that does not include the ethics of global downstream effects;
the major problems of cultural drives (media, lobbying) to over-consume - cars, cosmetics, housing, tech toys, foods, wine collections, recreation, travel
the globalization of the good life as a single movie
the promotion of the individual with absolute rights rather than social contracts
these need to be in the consciousness of those who truly want to, and have the power to, reform where we are going so that we have some place to get to that is not hell....
neo-Malthusian: not that the world will run out of food for its population (Malthus) but that the world will run out of everything....this book is an evolution from the radical "Population Bomb" by Paul Ehrlich, and is less extreme, less radical, and tries to be more reasonable.
Central tenets:
1. Overpopulation (and growing) for finite resources of the planet
2. Over-consumption far exceeding needs
3. Large imbalances among the population in power, wealth, consumption, access
Some critical aspects:
- birth rates correlates to women's access to equity in education, birth control, wealth, power
- corporations given standing as individuals but permitted to put profit and shareholders first
- globalization and specialization are poor policies for maintaining the ecology of the planet
- pricing or taxation to include downstream effects of production of goods and services
It is relatively easy to find examples of excess in everything they examine, from the media0cracy invention of the banana and palm oil leading to deforestation, to the lies of the LBJ and Bush administrations in Vietnam, Iraq, to the fundamental economic observation that the many many poor work to make the small number of rich, richer. It is harder to find solutions.
In this area, Ehrlich's look to representative democracy as in the USA (the only superpower), and look to regulatory agencies within and internationally to put in place not just guidance and constraints, but directives that will result in lower carbon, lower inequity, lower birthrate, lower excesses in consumerism and consumption.
This was all written before Trump. The Ehrlich's even talk about kleptocracy, which is government by theft, but what they did not sound the alarm on, is that regulations entrenched in bureaucracy are double-edged swords....if they define what is not permissible, everything else is, and all the agencies can be diluted, distorted and corrupted, as we have seen, to other ends.
Their glimmer of hope was Martin Luther King's "I have a dream" speech, in that there are persons of vision and purpose. I think this is not sufficient.
The recent Nobel Summit on the Planet was populated by the power representatives of the environmental save the Earth within the existing systems - thus, HBC, Al Gore, any number of NGOs....but all I heard was "blah blah"..... lots of projects, grants, financing to create better situations in Latin America, sub-Sahara....
BUT, the major problems of corporate profit that does not include the ethics of global downstream effects;
the major problems of cultural drives (media, lobbying) to over-consume - cars, cosmetics, housing, tech toys, foods, wine collections, recreation, travel
the globalization of the good life as a single movie
the promotion of the individual with absolute rights rather than social contracts
these need to be in the consciousness of those who truly want to, and have the power to, reform where we are going so that we have some place to get to that is not hell....
April 29, 2021
What a fantastic book! One with Nineveh covers a wide range of topics all related to how prevent a collision with nature, the end of civilization and many horrid things. Each section tackles a big issue by explaining what is happening in the eWorld the problems with it and what can be done. There are many great insights into human nature, good and bad, reasons for optimism and humor. Some things were completely new to me while others helped deepen the knowledge I already had, I greatly enjoyed the book.
The worst part of the book is that it is 10 years old and most of it still holds true! I think everyone should read this. Make sure to give yourself time to read it. It is dense with information, but not nearly as convoluted as a textbook. Haha . The authors did a fantastic job writing and researching this book. I intend to read Dr. erhlich's other works.
The worst part of the book is that it is 10 years old and most of it still holds true! I think everyone should read this. Make sure to give yourself time to read it. It is dense with information, but not nearly as convoluted as a textbook. Haha . The authors did a fantastic job writing and researching this book. I intend to read Dr. erhlich's other works.
June 14, 2020
Veramente interessante e ricco di spunti di riflessione, nonostante sia un testo del 2000. Complimenti alla casa editrice per la scelta coraggiosa di portare in Italia un testo così particolare. Sarebbe bello se si leggesse più saggistica come questa per capire il mondo che ci circonda e in che direzione stiamo andando.
March 12, 2022
A must read for anyone interested in the 'green' debate - in the historical context for our actions (or inactions) and looking to find out what can be done.
December 29, 2013
This was a decent book. However, I follow the topics covered in this book pretty closely, and there wasn't much new for me - mostly a rehash of stuff I've read elsewhere. That doesn't mean to be a put-down - for others who aren't as familiar as I am with this stuff, it probably offers a good summary. Ehrlich's books are always well-reasoned, coherent, comprehensive, etc., though he does tend to be a little wordy.
my-wishlist
March 2, 2011"Dealing with population, consumption, and power will not be easy. But each day that we do nothing forecloses options for creating a better future, for avoiding Nineveh-like ecological suicide in our time. We see no choice but to attempt the possible rather than accept the un-acceptable." (Page 15)
July 25, 2011
A good overview of all the likely insurmountable problems facing humanity today, however latter part tries to offer strategies that are overly general, idealistic n frankly unrealistic - expected I suppose since there's prbly no easy fix anyway.
July 27, 2008
standard, comprehensive guide to the nightmares we're headed for. The prose is (at best) utilitarian
August 6, 2008
The title says it all. A good writer and a great thinker.
February 24, 2011
This was one of the 2005 RUSA Notable Books winners. For the complete list, go to http://www.ala.org/ala/mgrps/divs/rus...
Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews