Priorities for Survival (The Reference Shelf, Vol. 44, No. 6) - Hardcover

Inhaltsangabe

“I believe,” said William Faulkner in his speech accepting the Nobel Prize for Literature, “that man will not only endure - he will prevail.” However lofty the sentiment, such buoyant optimism seems strangely out of place in our time, when a growing number of our leading analysts appear convinced that the cataclysm is imminent. With sudden power breakdowns threatening our larger cities; with man-made wastes poisoning our lakes, rivers, oceans, and the very air we breathe; with the earth’s known supply of natural resources rapidly shrinking while humanity’s own numbers go on steadily and unrestrainedly expanding - with such troubles besetting us even now, the future for our overcrowded, overexploited planet and all the creatures upon it looks bleak indeed. Can man survive the wonders of his own creation? Have all his mighty works been pointing to oblivion? The theme is being seriously argued by eminent and respected scholars. And quite suddenly the entire foundation of our national dialogue seems to have undergone a radical shift. The old fears that once preoccupied us - of nuclear annihilation or massive unemployment - have succumbed to a more insidious portent: We may be choking on our own concept of progress. A new set of priorities is now taking shape before our eyes. The struggle to save the environment is no longer the particular concern of an embattled and little-heard fringe of society. As California’s Democratic leader Jesse Unruh once put it, “Ecology has become the political substitute for the word 'mother.'" Such issues are at the heart of the new dialogue and form the main concerns around which this compilation is built. The book's five sections are titled: Challenge to Man’s Survival ~ In Defense of Progress and Technology ~ The Debate on Growth ~ Of Costs and Priorities ~ The Way Ahead: Some Proffered Solutions.

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