from Lester, R. Brown, Denis Trierweiler (Translator)
Language: French Publisher: Seuil (September 5, 2003) Collection: Économie humaine Format: Paperback - 437 pages

If the Chinese were to consume as much paper and automobiles as the Americans, China alone would use more wood and oil than the world can produce. We know that the generalization of our growth model is materially impossible. But today, more than an inevitable shortage of natural resources, specialists fear above all that we are still able to consume enough to make the planet unlivable. Can we escape the ecological impasse into which a mode of development based on accumulation and material consumption leads us?

Radical environmentalists argue that the only way out is to get down as quickly as possible on the path of “degrowth”. Do we really have to give up international transport, department stores, refrigerators and cellphones to survive? This is in fact the vital question of the twenty-first century. Although without concession on the dead ends of our mode of development, this book opens an alternative to degrowth and delivers a breath of credible optimism.

If we accept the mental revolution which consists in rethinking the economy according to the environment, and not the other way around, we already have the technical means necessary for sustainable development. New technologies, renewable and non-polluting energies, city policies, reforestation, among others, are all avenues that are now known, experienced and mastered which outline the road towards an eco-economy, an ecological and sustainable economy. . This book maps and how to use such a route

Econology comments
Lester R. Brown is one of the globally recognized pioneers in sustainable development research. He founded and chaired the famous World Watch Institute, which publishes The State of the Planet every year, published in more than 30 languages. He is now president of the Earth Policy Institute.