OUR COUNTRY THE PLANET - Hardcover

Ramphal, Shridath

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0413455815 ISBN 13: 9780413455819

Publisher: Lime Tree, 1992

Synopsis

Our Country, The Planet is a wide-ranging discussion of the global environmental crisis that accounts for the positions and perceptions of both developed and developing nations. As president of the World Conservation Union and the only person to have served on all five independent international commissions on global issues, Shridath Ramphal brings to his study a unique perspective and deep understanding of both development and the environment.

About this title

About the Author

Sir Shridath Ramphal is a former minister of Guyana and was secretary-general of the fifty-nation Commonwealth 1975-1990. He was a member of all the major international commissions that reported in the 1980s, including the Brandt Commission on Environment and Development. Formally president of the World Conservation Union (IUCN) and chairman of a commission looking into the future of the West Indies, he brings to his writing the views of a lifelong internationalist informed by the perspectives of developing nations.

From Library Journal

This book addresses the question: "If the development of the quarter of the world's people who are now rich has brought us all so close to the limits of sustainable living on Earth, how is the development of the three-quarters who are poor to be accommodated?" For Ramphal, president of the World Conservation Union and a native of Guyana, that challenge is more than academic--it is a matter of ethics, of maintaining a decent quality of living for people in developed countries, of ensuring that people in developing countries have opportunities for economic growth. Among the topics he covers are global warming, ozone depletion, fossil fuel consumption, deforestation, water contamination, biodiversity, and disposal of nuclear materials. Ramphal incorporates scientific information from many sources to underscore a correlative theme, that developed countries must lower their own natural resource consumption levels while enabling developing countries to achieve higher growth levels. His explanations of the physical bases of current environmental problems are easily accessible to all readers. An excellent purchase for public libraries, especially in light of the recent Earth Summit. Previewed in "Sources for Sustaining the Earth," LJ 5/15/92, p. 116-17.--Ed.
- Ruth M. Mara, Agency for International Development, Washington,
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Edition details

• Publisher: Lime Tree
• Publication date: 1992
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0413455815
• ISBN 13: 9780413455819
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 288