Three topics dominate discussions of the global environment: pollution; the consequences of the affluent running ever faster through finite resources; and the growing tensions between rich and poor as a third of humanity continues to live and die in desperate poverty. In this exceptional book Barbara Ward (co-author with Rene Dubos of the bestselling Only One Earth) refused to see these processes as inevitable. It describes new technologies for recycling waste, for energy, for ,getting more or less,, linking them to ordinary people's working lives. It also suggests a strategy for meeting the basic needs of the disadvantaged, and shows how the vast inequalities between countries can be reduced. This perceptive survey of policies outlines a planetary bargain between the world's nations that would guarantee individual freedom from poverty and keep our shared biosphere in good working order. Originally published in 1988

Introduction by David Satterthwaite, IIED
Foreword by Mostafa K. Tolba, Executive Director of the United Nations Environment Programme
Author's Note
Prologue
Part One: New Directions for the Industrial Order
1. Energy: How Big Is The Gap?
2. The Nuclear Option
3. Energy Alternatives
4. Saving Fuel
5. The Recycling Revolution
6. Industry: Rewards and Risks
7. A Role for the Citizen?
8. Waters and Wastes
9. Fuel for Food
10. Safer Diets, Wiser Means
11. Farming for Tomorrow
12. The Launching Pad
13. Back to Full Employment?
14. Toward 'Private Socialism'
15. Cities: Survival or Else?
Part Two: Priorities for Development
16. A Time for Choice?
17. 'The Land to the Tiller'
18. Fuel for Basic Needs
19. Water and Food Supplies
20. 'Walking on Two Legs'
21. Taming the Cities
Part Three: A Conserving Planet?
22. An Emerging World Community?
23. The Cost of Justice
24. How New an Order?
25. The Final Constraints
Appendices
A. Glossary
B. Aid and Development Statistics
Index