Three revolutions that shaped our planet -- A Scottish janitor and a Serbian mathematician discover Earth's hair trigger -- A "wise man" arrives -- The Goldilocks epoch -- Three scientific insights have changed how we view Earth -- Planetary boundaries -- Hothouse Earth -- Emergency on planet Earth -- Planetary stewardship -- The energy transition -- Feeding 10 billion people wihtin planetary boundaries -- Inequality is destabilizing Earth -- Building tomorrow's cities -- The population bomb defused -- Taming the technosphere -- A global economy within planetary boundaries -- Earthshot politics and policies -- The roaring 2020s: Four tipping points are converging -- Wise Earth.
The Anthropocene -- the Human Age -- provides Diane Ackerman with the subject for her 24th and most ambitious book. Ackerman has established herself over the past quarter of a century as one of our most adventurous, charismatic and engrossing public science writers. Since her 1990 breakout title, "A Natural History of the Senses, "she has demonstrated a rare versatility, a contagious curiosity and a gift for painting quick, memorable tableaus drawn from research across a panoply of disciplines. "The Human Age" displays all these alluring qualities, as Ackerman delves into fields as diverse as evolutionary robotics, urban design, nanotechnology, 3-D printing and biomimicry. The book simultaneously raises unanswered questions about the politics and ethics of the Anthropocene idea.--New York Times
"This book seeks to answer two fundamental questions: Why do we keep destroying nature when science makes it clear that in doing so we risk our own destruction? How can we stop doing so and regain the unity of humans and nature? First, the book shows that the inability of modern society to modify its relationship with nature has its roots in the collective fictions that have gradually shaped it since the Neolithic revolution. The collective fictions that underpin modernity include, in particular, the subject-object duality, the matter-mind duality, the primacy of rationality, and the superiority of the human species over all other living beings. These deeply ingrained fictions prevent us from acting in the word in agreement with the needs and knowledge that we have. Second, the book argues that humans have a nature that defines them as a unique species beyond their cultural differences, and this nature is not made only of flesh and bones, but also of a set of fundamental needs. Fundamental needs connect humans with nature spontaneously because they are the manifestation of life in them. They also make it possible to re-establish the unity of body and mind and of the different forms of knowledge and to give the economy a new direction, focused on the development of the human being and of its living environment. Challenging our collective fictions and reconnecting with our deepest nature is essential if we are to overcome the current ecological crisis and allow life on Earth to flourish"--
