Go
 

  Get this audio book:




Learn More About
Find More Titles by
This Author: Roger Scruton
This Narrator: Simon Prebble
This Publisher: Blackstone Audio

How to Think Seriously about the Planet by Roger Scruton

How to Think Seriously about the Planet

The Case for an Environmental Conservatism

by Roger Scruton


Title Details

Author
Narrator
Publisher
 
Unabridged Edition
Running Time
10 Hrs. 25 Min.

Description

The environment has long been the undisputed territory of the political Left, which casts international capitalism, consumerism, and the overexploitation of natural resources as the principle threats to the planet and sees top-down interventions as the most effective solution.

In How to Think Seriously about the Planet, Roger Scruton rejects this view and offers a fresh approach to tackling the most important political problem of our time. He contends that the environmental movement is philosophically confused and has unrealistic agendas. Its sights are directed at large-scale events and the confrontation between international politics and multinational business. But Scruton argues that no large-scale environmental project, however well intentioned, will succeed if it is not rooted in small-scale practical reasoning. Seeing things on a large scale promotes top-down solutions, managed by unaccountable bureaucracies that fail to assess local conditions and are rife with unintended consequences. Scruton calls for the greater efficacy of local initiatives over global schemes, civil association over political activism, and small-scale institutions of friendship over regulatory hypervigilance, suggesting that conservatism is far better suited to solving environmental problems than either liberalism or socialism.

Rather than entrusting the environment to unwieldy NGOs and international committees, we must assume personal responsibility and foster local control. People must be empowered to take charge of their environment, to care for it as they would a home, and to involve themselves through the kind of local associations that have been the traditional goal of conservative politics. Our common future is by no means assured, but as Roger Scruton clearly demonstrates in this important book, there is a path that can ensure the future safety of our planet and our species.

Roger Scruton is a visiting scholar at the American Enterprise Institute...


People Who Liked How to Think Seriously about the Planet Also Liked These Titles:
  Forty Years a Forester
by Elers Koch

  Drawdown
by Paul Hawken