In particular, this book is a call to environmental activists, who should know better, but who, for the most part, don't. This has been a dark century, but the planet is wavering at the edge of even darker possibilities. Given the key role they are fated to play in the politics of an ever-shrinking world, it is past time for environmentalists to face their own history, in which they have too often stood not for justice and freedom, or even for realism, but merely for the comforts and aesthetics of affluent nature lovers. They have no choice. History will judge greens by whether they stand with the world's poor.
Capitalism is triumphant.
It cannot tolerate the indefinite growth of any human economy, least of all one as blindly dynamic as modern capitalism. His judgment, if correct, portends almost inconceivable suffering, and so far there are few data to dispute it. Most of the human and natural resources on earth today are locked in this inconceivable suffering, which underscores all the opulence radiated by car dealerships, suburban developments and massive shopping malls. The Ecology of Rich and Poor by Tom Athanasiou. The University of Georgia Press.