Ecological Futures: What History Can Teach Us

(Paperback)

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Ecological Futures, the final book in Sing C. Chew's trilogy on world ecological degradation, proposes that our own era exhibits ecological conditions similar to those of the past. The climate changes, environmental crises, mass population migrations, and socioeconomic disorganization we find in our globalized world also characterized the Late Bronze Age and the period following the fall of the Roman Empire. Given such historical parallels, can history tell us what to expect Analyzing past trends, Chew identifies a set of long-term structural changes common to previous systemic crises and suggests possible outcomes. These 'possible futures' include the collapse of systems, territories, informational technologies, and communities in an era of scarce resources, political reorganization, and globalization.

Reviews

This is the concluding volume of Sing Chews trilogy on the relationship between society and the environment over five thousand years of world history. . . . Extensively researched, readable, and compelling, Ecological Futures takes an unsparing look at how contemporary societies will change during the current era of climate change. -- Bill Devall, Deep Ecology Resource Center, co-editor The Ecology of Wisdom
Life on earth is predicated on the conjunction of a variety of environmental factors. Throughout history societies and civilizations have experienced crises when these conjunctions became less favorable. It is our modern conceit that we have somehow escaped those problems. Sing Chew's well-researched trilogy, of which this is the third volume, is a powerful antidote to this fundamental misconception about possible and probable futures. -- William R. Thompson, emeritus, Indiana University

Author Bio

Sing C. Chew is a research scientist with the Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research in Leipzig, Germany, and professor of sociology at Humboldt State University, Arcata, California.