- Paperback: 256 pages
- Publisher: Anchor Canada (April 22 2008)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 0385663048
- ISBN-13: 978-0385663045
- Product Dimensions: 20.8 x 14 x 1.8 cm
- Shipping Weight: 340 g
- Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (1 customer review)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #142,235 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- See Complete Table of Contents
|
||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||
Product Details |
Product Description
Product Description
A new fusillade of provocative thinking from the author of the bestselling Heat.
With Heat, George Monbiot confirmed his standing as one of the most important voices in the war against global warming. But as Bring on the Apocalypse makes clear, Monbiot is far from being a one-issue thinker. In this collection of his journalism, none of which has been published in Canada before, he tackles a wide range of issues drawn from recent headlines, and does so with his familiar fierce intelligence and superb skills as a writer.
Grouped by theme into “Arguments with” science, political power, war, religion, economics, and culture, these pieces crackle with intellectual energy and frequently give off sparks of fury. Always, though, their power is rooted in profound knowledge, a solid set of principles, and palpable sincerity. The Globe and Mail said of Heat that it “contains more intellectual challenges by the page than the Canadian media does in a year.” For Bring on the Apocalypse, with its concise, intense broadsides against everything from climate change deniers, to the fundamentalist “Christian Taliban,” to the evils of teen magazines, and what continued interest in the Loch Ness monster says about our attitude to real ones, make that “by the paragraph.”
With Heat, George Monbiot confirmed his standing as one of the most important voices in the war against global warming. But as Bring on the Apocalypse makes clear, Monbiot is far from being a one-issue thinker. In this collection of his journalism, none of which has been published in Canada before, he tackles a wide range of issues drawn from recent headlines, and does so with his familiar fierce intelligence and superb skills as a writer.
Grouped by theme into “Arguments with” science, political power, war, religion, economics, and culture, these pieces crackle with intellectual energy and frequently give off sparks of fury. Always, though, their power is rooted in profound knowledge, a solid set of principles, and palpable sincerity. The Globe and Mail said of Heat that it “contains more intellectual challenges by the page than the Canadian media does in a year.” For Bring on the Apocalypse, with its concise, intense broadsides against everything from climate change deniers, to the fundamentalist “Christian Taliban,” to the evils of teen magazines, and what continued interest in the Loch Ness monster says about our attitude to real ones, make that “by the paragraph.”
About the Author
George Monbiot has been named by the UK’s Independent on Sunday as one of the forty international prophets of the twenty-first century. In 1995 Nelson Mandela presented him with a United Nations Global 500 Award for outstanding environmental achievement. He is visiting professor in the School of the Built Environment, Oxford Brookes University.
Inside This Book
(Learn More)
Tag this product(What's this?)Think of a tag as a keyword or label you consider is strongly related to this product.
Tags will help all customers organize and find favorite items. |
Customer Reviews
|
Share your thoughts with other customers:
|
||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Most helpful customer reviews
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
A Direct Challenge to Conventional Thinking,
By Ian Gordon Malcomson (Victoria, BC) - See all my reviews (HALL OF FAME) (TOP 10 REVIEWER) (REAL NAME)
This review is from: Bring on the Apocalypse: Collected Writing (Paperback)
Meet the modern version of the skeptical Voltaire, the radical Paine and the rational Diderot wrapped up in one in the person of British journalist, George Monbiot. In this latest critique of man's attempt to deal with mega-issues related to global warming, war, and human rights, Monbiat attacks the insincerity and luke-warmness of political and economic leaders to bring about real change in the world. In a collection of very articulate essays based on columns written for the Guardian, Monbiot impugns big government for not fully committing itself to clearly addressing the need to reduce carbon emissions, save wildlife and improve living conditions of the world's poor. Until now, the nations of the world have simply paid lip service to the need to protect the globe from these encroaching problems. Here are a number of ideas that he raises in this book that could expand the public debate on where our national leaders go from here to implement meaningful change:1)The European Union needs to significantly limit the annual catch of marine species; 2)Nations no longer depend on estimates of oil reserves to define what their future world will look like. There has to be a serious commitment in money and research to find alternative forms of energy if the problem of climate change is to be resolved; 3)The emission targets outlined in the Kyoto Protocol have to be strengthened because the earth's mean temperature, by all reports, is rising steadily; 4)Africa is gradually becoming the forgotten continent because multi-national corporate interests have moved elsewhere. World leaders have to step into fill this void if this continent is to survive the present economic meltdown; 5)Citizens of the world need to have their rights of access to nature reaffirmed; 6)Unchecked economic growth without greater international regulations will spell ultimate disaster for the planet; 7)Western nations cannot keep exporting their environmental problems to the poorer nations to care of. While I agree with most of Monbiot's views about where we've fallen down in our stewardship of the economy, the environment and society, I am not sure if being more radical is the answer to turning this grim state of affairs around. At present, humankind seems to be delusionally self-centered, where life is okay as long as nations can take care of their own business without too much interference from their neighbours. There is lots of food for thought packed into each of Monbiot's columns, even though most it is direct at the politicians and the corporate CEOs. I just don't how to advise the reader to use any of Monbiot's hard-hitting assessments to influence the world to become a healthier, more peaceful, and more tolerant place to live. Otherwise, a challenging and worthwhile read.
Share your thoughts with other customers: Create your own review
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta) Amazon.com:
1.0 out of 5 stars (1 customer review) 4 of 7 people found the following review helpful
1.0 out of 5 stars
Hits and misses a succession of easy targets,
By William Podmore - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: Bring on the Apocalypse: Collected Writing (Paperback)
This is a collection of George Monbiot's Guardian articles.On the environment, he notes that biofuels are a disaster: biodiesel from palm oil emits ten times as much carbon dioxide as ordinary diesel. But he blames President Bush for this, not the EU, when it is the EU, not the USA, that determines Britain's policy. Monbiot admits that some trials of GM food are "improving both yield and nutritional content ... [and] ... these could well be of benefit to small farmers in the developing world." So why does he oppose it? His articles on the current wars contain nothing new - that the US state sabotaged negotiations with both Iraq and Afghanistan, and that its forces torture POWs and use white phosphorus and napalm as anti-personnel weapons. He rightly, but unoriginally, notes that most British newspapers "were willing accomplices in the Pentagon's campaign of disinformation." He includes some good articles exposing the World Bank and the IMF and the Labour government's despicable role in these bodies, although we could do with more detail. But he calls Paul Wolfowitz's appointment as president of the World Bank `a good thing', because it "highlights the profoundly unfair and undemocratic nature of decision-making at the Bank" - the classic ultra-left fallacy of `the worse, the better'. He shows how the British state's foreign aid does more harm than good and exposes Clare Short's vile role in promoting privatisations abroad. Her Department for International Development gave £7.6 million to the Adam Smith Institute's maniacs to sponsor privatisation in South Africa, Zambia, India and Ghana. The Labour government allows the developing countries debt relief only if they `boost private sector development' and end `impediments to private investment, both domestic and foreign'. All too often, Monbiot argues against his opponents' weakest arguments, which gives him cheap victories, as when he tells, yet again, the story of David Bellamy's error about glaciers. Monbiot likes easy targets like Jeremy Clarkson, second home owners, tax cheats and the Daily Telegraph, and he avoids stronger opponents like Bjorn Lomborg and Marxists. |
|
Listmania!
Look for similar items by category
Look for similar items by subject
Feedback
Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
|
