Accessible introduction to the connections between pressing global environmental and social issues.

In plain, direct language, Hossay explains the double bind in which humanity now finds itself - an environmental crisis escalating year on year, and a social crisis of poverty and inequality, also growing worse and worse. Aimed at a concerned, popular audience, including both budding social activists and young people studying the environment and international development, the author explains how these crises share the same historical roots. Combining a huge amount of up-to-date information, visual charts, and clear explanation, he shows step by step how an historical path of colonialism, capitalist development and industrial growth has got us into this mess.

CONTENTS
1. The Trouble We're In
Hotter for Some than Others
The Air We Breathe
Ecocide
Toxic Planet
It's Going to Get Worse
2. How Did We Get In This Mess?
An Unenlightened Enlightenment
Industrializing Nature
A Global System
US Dominance
American Affluence and Global Catastrophe
A Public-Private Empire
Corporate Globalization
3. Making the Rules
Banking on Poverty
Subsidizing Destruction
Free Trade Isn't Free
The World Trade Organization
4. There's Got To Be A Limit
Money is Everything
The Inefficiency of the Market
Pricing the Priceless
Modernization
Racing to the Bottom
Commodified Lives
5. Everything's For Sale
Food as a Commodity
Plants and Animals as Commodities
Water as a Commodity
6. Changing The Rules
Cleaning up Our Act
Clean Water and Air
Lowering Our Sights
Lots of Talk, Little Action
A Small Step in the Right Direction
A Model of Successful Resistance?
Kyoto
7. Conclusion: Resistance is Fertile
Buy a Hybrid Car, Save the World?
Challenging the Rules of the Game
Taking Back Democracy
The New Environmentalism
Talking About Power
Demanding the Unreasonable
You Say You Want a Revolution
Reason for Hope