How The Rich Are Destroying the Earth (Foreword by Greg Palast)

By Hervé Kempf

Book Overview

A best seller in France, and already translated into Spanish, Italian, Greek, and Korean, Herv? Kempf's How the Rich Are Destroying the Earth now appears in its first English edition. Bringing to bear... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1603580352
• ISBN13: 9781603580359
• Release Date: September 2008
• Publisher: Chelsea Green Publishing
• Length: 140 Pages
• Weight: 0.44 lbs.
• Dimensions: 8.4" x 0.5" x 5.4"

Customer Reviews

Old Environmental Issues Updated

Amazingly accurate assessment of an old subject brought back to the forefront by this author. We don't have to search far and long to see that the examples of the ongoing environmental catastrophes given are happening now, right under our noses and presented in plain sight for all to see. It is similar to the industrial revolution after the civil war, then on to the overgrowth and wealth accumulation at the beginning of the 20th century. There is a problem...the planet was at least able to weather the ecological devestations somewhat...now at the current rate the earth along with its people can't keep up nor can it clean itself sufficiently to contain the onslaught. Old problems coming back to haunt activists on the sidelines are....the greedy gluttons known as the hyper rich reaping billions off the earths pillage, followed by the second tier rich wannabees .... increased poverty and inequality in the first, second, third and fourth world countries....possible shakeups of the global economic system... In an effort to protect itself , the hyper rich have instituted such safeguards as, blocking journalistic reporting of a perfected nuclear bomb, the B61-11, criminalizing protests of the anti GMO reapers, development of RFID'S, increased usage of prison, and then CONTROL OF THE MEDIA, And this ones for all the Africans Americans who accuse unjustifiably those activist as being whiners.....There are, data bank catalogs of genetic signatures mainly of blacks, 11.9 % of prisoners of African descent 25-29 years are captured behind bars, state of the emergency testing programs such as those practiced during Katrina and the ghetto riots in France. And anyone at anytime can be on the payroll...(V. Jordan) and (A. Young). Great comeback, great update and hope that it spurs interests then global action...

a powerful indictment of the super-rich

No question, this is a very significant book, one that needs to be read by anyone who is concerned about what our children and grandchildren's future will look like. Herve Kempf, the environmental editor at Le Monde for many years, draws attention in this book to the issues the economists have fundamentally ignored, ie, that a sustainable future is predicated upon social transformation, which must precede any return to ecological balance on this earth. Solving the social and environmental crises can only happen by disrupting the power of the global oligarchs, the hyper-rich along with their political lackeys. The greatest obstacle to any sustainable future is the uncontrolled pursuit of redundant wealth by the oligarchs. By diffusing this ideology of waste via the imitation of their lifestyles by the middle classes, our social systems cannot change trajectories. According to Kempf, the 3 preconceived notions that are blocking transformation are: a) the belief in growth as the best way for resolving social problems; b) that technological progress will resolve environmental problems; c) that chronic unemployment is an inevitability. He maintains that these all-powerful oligarchs want to delete the democratic process - the War on Terrorism has duly shown how this is being achieved. In other words, Capitalism no longer needs Democracy. Mr. Kempf believes the global oligarchy could become divided by the power of the system itself (if the socially conscious part of this oligarchy and the middle class take the side for public freedom and the common good); and also if the mass media reorients towards freedom and "the left" becomes "reborn". This vague but hopeful optimism, that the grave social inequities and ecological degradations of our time will reverse through transformations of awareness, is based upon the never-seen-before phase of human history we are now traversing. Because of this awareness, solutions can and are emerging, and "the desire to remake the world is being reborn". For our sakes, and for those coming up behind, let us hope that Mr. Kempf's optimistic and forceful words will prevail. Highly recommended reading. The Cloud Reckoner Extracts: A Field Guide for Iconoclasts

"Consume less, share better."

As Greg Palast points out in his introduction to the English translation (by Leslie Thatcher) of French journalist Herve Kempf's How the Rich Are Destroying the Earth (Chelsea Green Publishing, 2008): "In the USA, we continue to pretend that destroying our planet is somehow the result of working-class vices, like driving to work or not recycling our juice bottles. Saving the planet, we are told, is the work of our enlightened rulers. After all, British Petroleum has painted all its gas stations green." So, don't be duped into filling your house and wardrobe with building materials, clothes and furnishings made from recycled plastic bottles -- breathing those bisphenols is as bad as drinking from them. The point is to stop DuPont etc. from continuing to make the stuff. Why aren't the manufacturers responsible for recycling? Why is it left to consumers -- who have little choice, really, since nearly everything is at least partly made from or packaged in toxic plastic these days? Because those who make it have the money, and money = political power and social clout. It's rather sad, reading this and knowing that those who would most benefit from its message are the least likely to peruse its pages. That is to say, I fear that Kempf's is is a sermon that won't reach much further than the usual choir of left-of-Democrat voices. And that is a shame.

Predatory Oligarchy is the Main Agent of the Global Crisis

First of all, this is not a book about envy and "sour grapes." That is not it at all. The global ruling class is the essential factor in the environmental crisis because: 1) it establishes a horrible model of conspicuous consumption that lower classes in their own country and around the world feel compelled to imitate, and 2) because they directly control the levers of economic and political power that allow them to maintain this inequality. You could also argue that their horrible moral and ethical standards rot the entire society, but that would be another book... I feel fortunate that I found this book. The strident title almost made me dismiss it as a probably poorly reasoned (and poorly written) sidewalk leftist polemic. Instead, I found perhaps the most comprehensive and best reasoned summation of the current world crisis that I have yet seen. The only works that I have read that come close to this level are by Noam Chomsky, but this one goes even further. The way that the author shows all the interconnections of the major ecological crises , then does the same with the economic sphere, and then goes on to show the relationship between the two is a marvel of synthesis. It is so well reasoned and researched that I repeatly found myself saying to myself, "I wish that I had written this!" One reason that I compare this work with Chomsky's is that it makes me just as mad (at neoliberalism and the oligarchy) as does his. At moments I indeed felt physically ill. Unless you are totally cynically numb and soul-dead it would have to. And while the author gives reasons for possible optomism I just can't buy into it. The oligarchy is too entrenched, the ecological situation is too close to tipping over into collapse. The only optimism that I could generate was a sense of satisfaction that the rich and their lackies will not be able to insulated themselves forever from the hell and holocaust they have created. Forgive me for sounding pessimistic, but a lifetime in the working class has taught me that even if the oligarchs at the top are liquidated there is an infinate number of the ambitious and sociopathic at the bottom to take their places... This is the case of an entire civilization that has become cancer and who may very well kill off the host planet that they feed upon- in this coming century. Do not delude yourself into thinking that this is just one more period of crisis like all those in the past. Never before have we exceeded the planet's carrying capacity- this is not business as usual. "If there is no justice, what are kingdoms, if not vast hold-ups?" -- Saint Augustine What indeed, what indeed...

Should be required reading

Herve Kempf tells us in no uncertain terms just what is going on with the environment and our world. How and why, what we can do, and how we can help stop this madness. As people question the fate of our world this book gives you the truth about economic growth, the destruction of our planet and environment, and how many of our population doesn't think anything about global warming. They are intent on being selfish and living their lives as they want with no regard for the future, our children's future and the future of mankind.