Fleeing Vesuvius

This multi-author book was put together in the aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis and articulates that we are at a turning point in human history where economies may shrink rather than grow due to the fact that the natural resources we need for growth cannot be extracted at the same rate. The main sections cover energy availability, innovation in business, money and finance, new ways of using the land, dealing with climate change, changing the way we live and think, and ideas for action in the form of an emergency plan. Many of our greatest challenges stemming from the overuse of fossil fuels and our economic structure means that we have to continue economic growth in order to avoid collapse. Unfortunately, this is unsustainable, so we should be working out how we can reach a steady state position while at the same time considering how we can implement a more equal sharing of resources – this is the idea behind the policy of contraction and convergence. Readers will be familiar with the need for a new mind-set, which is set out in an essay by Patrick Andrews. The final chapter advises on action at a number of different levels - individual, collective, national and international - drawing together many of the strands in the book. Because the emergency is a long one, as James Kunstler puts it, we tend not to be immediately galvanised to take action. Books like this can bring us up to speed on many pressing issues.