The Wizard and the Prophet: Science and the Future of Our Planet

Description

An incisive portrait of the two little-known twentieth-century scientists, Norman Borlaug and William Vogt, whose diametrically opposed views shaped our ideas about the environment, laying the groundwork for how people in the twenty-first century will choose to live in tomorrow's world. In forty years, Earth's population will reach ten billion. Can our world support that? What kind of world will it be? Those answering these questions generally fall into two deeply divided groups - Wizards and Prophets, as Charles Mann calls them in this balanced, authoritative, nonpolemical new book. The Prophets, he explains, follow William Vogt, a founding environmentalist who believed that in using more than our planet has to give, our prosperity will lead us to ruin. Cut back! was his mantra. Otherwise everyone will lose! The Wizards are the heirs of Norman Borlaug, whose research, in effect, wrangled the world in service to our species to produce modern high-yield crops that then saved millions from starvation. Innovate! was Borlaug's cry. Only in that way can everyone win! Mann delves into these diverging viewpoints to assess the four great challenges humanity faces - food, water, energy, climate change - grounding each in historical context and weighing the options for the future. With our civilisation on the line, the author's insightful analysis is an essential addition to the urgent conversation about how our children will fare on an increasingly crowded Earth.

Charles C. Mann is a correspondent for The Atlantic Science, and Wired, and has written for Fortune, The New York Times, Smithsonian, Vanity Fair, and The Washington Post, and for HBO and Law & Order.

Mann's storytelling skills are unmatched . . . [He] provides detail enough, and simplicity enough, that anyone who is struggling with these puzzles will be enlightened and informed. And entertained, which, given the subject matter, is no small feat. * New York Times * Does the earth's finite carrying capacity mean economic growth has to stop? That momentous question is the subject of Charles Mann's brilliant book . . . A treasure house of knowledge . . . Indispensable. * Wall Street Journal * Prophets say we must reduce consumption, Wizards say we must find more efficient means of production. This intense and carefully-researched book presents a balanced, scholarly and calm exploration of society's most pressing problems. -- Ten Of The Best Books About Climate Change, Conservation And The Environment of 2018 * Forbes * Masterful . . . Mann's most spectacular accomplishment is to take no sides . . . An insightful, highly significant account that makes no predictions but lays out the critical environmental problems already us. * Kirkus starred review * This unique, encompassing, clarifying, engrossing, inquisitive, and caring work of multifaceted research, synthesis and analysis humanizes the challenges and contradictions of modern environmentalism and and our struggle towards a viable future. * Booklist starred review * Fascinating . . . Mann offers a sympathetic, nuanced way to understand one of the fundamental debates of our time: How will 10 billion humans live sustainably on Earth, when our demands for energy and food are growing? -- Annalee Newitz, editor, Ars Technica 11 Fantastic Science Books to Binge Over the Holidays. -- The Year in Review, 2018 * Wired *