Divided Planet: The Ecology of Rich and Poor

Tom Athanasiou, a journalist and businessman, has produced an important, 385-page essay on the state of global environmentalism that is both hopeful and dire. He points to the 1992 Earth Summit Rio de Janeiro as "a doorway opening to ... more humane economics ... and greater concern for the vulnerability of Mother Earth." However, he also warns of the consequences of the economic inequalities of the southern and northern hemispheres and the potential ecological disasters of encouraging poorer countries to pursue the purely market-based path of richer countries.