Ultimate Security: The Environmental Basis of Political Stability - Paperback

by Norman Myers (Author)

"I do not see how anyone can claim to be informed about what is probably humanity's single most important problem without having read Ultimate Security." -Robert Heilbroner, New School of Social Researc.

"In a provocative description of the new concept of environmental security, which he helped establish, the author offers much evidence that environmental factors-from deforestation and desertification to global warming and ozone depletion-will loom larger in world affairs. His book is chockablock with recent portents ... and [predictions of] loss of stability or out-and-out conflict over natural resource related issues." -Publishers Weekl.

"Myers, a widely published professional conservationist, brings together seven regional case studies and five global case studies to support his thesis that 'environmental problems will likely become predominant causses of conflict in the decades ahead.' Writing for the general public, Myers draws upon his field work in over 80 countries as well as his work with the World Commission on Environment and Development. ... [He] marshals compelling data about the environmental threat and sounds the alarm that political leadership is failing to respond. An interesting, lively book." -Library Journal

Back Jacket

As forty years of the impending possibility of nuclear war begins to fade away, it is being replaced by the threat of worldwide environmental ruin. In this insightful book, Norman Myers, one of the world's leading experts on the environment and the author of The Primary Source and The Long African Day, presents us with the dilemma which will surely dominate the next century: environmental breakdown. Ozone depletion, tropical forest destruction, topsoil erosion, cut-and-burn deforestation tactics, and farmland fertility decline are all having devastating effects on worldwide economies, health, and climate. These and a host of other environmental threats point us toward "ultimate security", for they tie in with associated problems such as overconsumption and wastefulness in the developed world. So great is the danger they pose that it has been described by many political leaders and military planners as, in fact, the greatest threat we face short of nuclear war. This unprecedented peril must be countered by unprecedented responses - responses altogether different from military measures. We cannot, writes Myers, dispatch battalions to turn back the deserts, we cannot launch a flotilla to resist the rising seas, we cannot send fighter planes to counter the greenhouse effect. Already wars have erupted and governments have toppled for primarily environmental reasons. The time has come when we can purchase more enduring all-around true security by safeguarding our environments than by engaging in military buildups. Environmental problems recognize no frontiers: winds carry no passports. Ultimate security will be security for us all or for none.