On Common Ground: Managing Human-Planet Relationships

Simon Dalby is a research associate at the Centre for International
Studies at Simon Fraser University.

This book should probably have been published under the title
“Sustainable Development for Beginners.” Written in an accessible
style suitable for a wide range of readers, the book provides an
overview of the links between environmental degradation and economic
development. It explains clearly what needs to be changed if policies of
sustainable development are to become widely implemented, and why such
changes are necessary for the future.

Arranged in four parts, the text first presents the rationale for
rethinking how humanity interacts with the planet. Part 2 discusses how
decisions are—and how they might be—made about environmental
management. Part 3, which constitutes the bulk of the text, deals with
eight “earth systems”: planetary dynamics; watersheds; natural
vegetation; soil quality and agriculture; human settlements and
urbanization; atmosphere and climate; oceans and coastal zones; and
earth materials, energy, and waste. Part 5 focuses on the human
dimensions of creating sustainable futures.

This book is billed as the first in a series of “learning packages”
designed to foster an understanding of the need for, and goals of,
sustainable development. As such, it contains a number of textual
devices designed to allow readers to use the book as the basis for a
self-taught course on sustainable development. Each of the discussions
of “systems” concludes with a short section summarizing a number of
critical issues in the form of key questions; these allow the reader to
critically reflect on the material contained in the main text.

Given its unabashed advocacy of sustainable development, this book can
be faulted for not dealing with some of the hard political realities of
the current global crisis, but its optimism is admirable in the face of
the difficulties ahead. The accessible, partly illustrated text and
straightforward style offer some hope that the book’s message will
reach a wide audience and, in the process, contribute to a learning
process the authors see as essential to the creation of sustainable
development.