The Earth Only Endures – On Reconnecting with Nature and Our Place in It

Citation

(2009), "The Earth Only Endures – On Reconnecting with Nature and Our Place in It", International Journal of Climate Change Strategies and Management, Vol. 1 No. 4. https://doi.org/10.1108/ijccsm.2009.41401dae.002

The Earth Only Endures – On Reconnecting with Nature and Our Place in It

Article Type: Books and resources From: International Journal of Climate Change Strategies and Management, Volume 1, Issue 4

Jules Pretty,Earthscan,London,May 2009,288 pp.,ISBN 9781844076130,£60.00,

For most of human history, we have lived our daily lives in a close relationship with the land. Yet now, for the first time, more people are living in urban rather than rural areas, bringing about an estrangement. This book, by acclaimed author Jules Pretty, is fundamentally about our relationship with nature, animals, and places.

A series of interlinked essays leads readers on a voyage that weaves through the themes of connection and estrangement between humans and nature. The journey shows how our modern lifestyles and economies would need six or eight Earths if the entire world's population adopted our profligate ways. Pretty shows that we are rendering our own world inhospitable and so risk losing what it means to be human: unless we make substantial changes, Gaia threatens to become Grendel. Ultimately, however, the book offers glimpses of an optimistic future for humanity, in the very face of climate change and pending global environmental catastrophe.

IED Briefing “Against the tide: climate change and high-risk cities”

In the world's poorest and most vulnerable nations, most cities and towns face a distinct dual pressure: rapidly growing population and high vulnerability to the impacts of climate change. Drought, storms, flooding and sea-level rise are likely to hit hardest there. These climate change impacts in turn put water supplies, infrastructure, health, and livelihoods at risk in the very cities already struggling to provide or safeguard such key needs.

This briefing explores this dual pressure and suggests that an effective response will demand capable local and national government and support from strong international networks in building capacity to cope; resources currently lacking in most of the least developed countries. It is available at: www.iied.org/pubs/display.php?o =17042IIED.