Filters Against Folly: How To Survive Despite Economists, Ecologists, and the Merely Eloquent

"For 20 years Garrett Hardin has been our most hardnosed thinker about ecological problems...Filters Against Folly makes provocative reading." -- Michael Crichton

The ecological problems facing our world present a forum for experts to offer slogans and solutions on all sides of the issue, but leave most of us confused and unsure of the future. In this bracing book, Garrett Hardin offers a plan for clear thinking about these dangers. He shows how the filters of literacy, understanding what words really mean; numeracy, being able to quantify and interpret information; and ecolacy, assessment of complex interactions over time, can allow anyone to make sensible judgments about ecological issues--even in the face of a barrage of confusing expertise.

"Filters Against Folly offers an antidote to some of the more perverse and dangerous irrationalities of our time: wishful self-delusion, educated incapacity, and foolhardy optimism...If ever this book were needed, it is needed today." -- Lynton K. Caldwell, School of Public Environmental Affairs, Indiana University

Garrett Hardin (1915-2003) was a renowned ecologist and philosopher who warned societies about both overpopulation and excessive consumption. His works include Filters Against Folly: How to Survive Despite Economists, Ecologists, and the Merely Eloquent and Living Within Limits: Ecology, Economics, and Population Taboos. He taught biology and environmental studies at the University of California at Santa Barbara.