THE BIG RATCHET: How Humanity Thrives in the Face of Natural Crisis: A Biography of an Ingenious Species.

DeFries, Ruth

ISBN 10: 0465044972 / ISBN 13: 9780465044979

Published by Basic Books / Perseus, New York, 2014

About this Item

First printing. A provocative look at the forces that have enabled man to move from being just another mammal to the dominant force on earth by this MacArthur award winning environmental biologist. The change has been rapid - "In 1950, there were 2.5 billion of us, only 30 percent of which lived in cities. Today there are nearly 7 billion of us, and more than 50 percent of us live in cities. By 2050, there will be 9 billion humans, with 70 percent of us in cities. Yet humanity's footprint on the planet has expanded exponentially in the last century. Each manipulation of nature increased the amount of food our species could produce. The result is the Big Ratchet of the twentieth century, and today's explosion of mouths to feed, meat-laden diets, overcrowded cities, and the irony of overweight populations with too much food in some countries, while others starve." Illustrated with small drawings and graphs. Notes, references, index. xii, 273 pp. Fine in fine dust jacket (a new copy.).

Seller Inventory # 72719

Bibliographic Details

• Title: THE BIG RATCHET: How Humanity Thrives in the Face of Natural Crisis: A Biography of an Ingenious Species.
• Publisher: Basic Books / Perseus, New York
• Publication Date: 2014
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0465044972
• ISBN 13: 9780465044979
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition: 1st Edition
• Condition: FINE
• Dust Jacket Condition: Dust Jacket Included
• Seller catalogs:
  • Nature and the Environment

About this title

Synopsis

How an ordinary mammal manipulated nature to become technologically sophisticated city-dwellers -- and why our history points to an optimistic future in the face of environmental crisis

Our species long lived on the edge of starvation. Now we produce enough food for all 7 billion of us to eat nearly 3,000 calories every day. This is such an astonishing thing in the history of life as to verge on the miraculous. The Big Ratchet is the story of how it happened, of the ratchets -- the technologies and innovations, big and small -- that propelled our species from hunters and gatherers on the savannahs of Africa to shoppers in the aisles of the supermarket.

The Big Ratchet itself came in the twentieth century, when a range of technologies -- from fossil fuels to scientific plant breeding to nitrogen fertilizers -- combined to nearly quadruple our population in a century, and to grow our food supply even faster. To some, these technologies are a sign of our greatness; to others, of our hubris. MacArthur fellow and Columbia University professor Ruth DeFries argues that the debate is the wrong one to have. Limits do exist, but every limit that has confronted us, we have surpassed. That cycle of crisis and growth is the story of our history; indeed, it is the essence of The Big Ratchet. Understanding it will reveal not just how we reached this point in our history, but how we might survive it.

About the Author

Ruth DeFries is Denning Family Professor of Sustainable Development and Chair of the Department of Ecology, Evolution and Environmental Biology at Columbia University. A recipient of the MacArthur Genius" Fellowship, she lives in New York City.