A01=Ruth DeFries
Age Group_Uncategorized
Age Group_Uncategorized
Author_Ruth DeFries
automatic-update
Category=PD
Category=PSAJ
COP=United States
Delivery_Pre-order
eq_bestseller
eq_isMigrated=2
eq_nobargain
eq_non-fiction
eq_science
Format=BB
Format_Hardback
Language_Others
PA=Temporarily unavailable
Price_€20 to €50
PS=Active
softlaunch
Product details
- ISBN 9780465044979
- Format: Hardback
- Weight: 512g
- Dimensions: 165 x 242mm
- Publication Date: 09 Sep 2014
- Publisher: Basic Books
- Publication City/Country: US
- Product Form: Hardback
Secure
checkout
Fast Shipping
Easy returns
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.
