Our wants for food, housing, medicine, transportation, luxuries, and all the other benefits of industrialization have resulted in the exploitation of our natural surroundings. We know our actions affect the physical world we depend on, so why must we be faced with catastrophic problems--overpopulation, the loss of bio-diversity, global warming, and the like--before we act to protect the planet's ecosystem--and then often inadequately?

With astute analysis Peter Seidel explores the complex convergence of psychological, social, economic, and political factors that keep us from acting in our own self-interest. An environmental and human relations visionary, Seidel proposes adoption of a new "world model," a "universal ethic," and long-term societal goals.

Educators and journalists must give us a better understanding of ourselves-creatures evolved to function in a hunter-gatherer society, not in the complex, hazardous world we have created. We must learn to use our minds to control our primitive drives rather than to satisfy them.

• April 2013 Indie Next List
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