The Big Ratchet - Ruth DeFries - [PDF][N27]seeders: 2
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Description The Big Ratchet: How Humanity Thrives in the Face of Natural Crisis by Ruth DeFries Language: English | Format: PDF | ISBN-10: 0465044972 | ISBN-13: 978-0465044979 Page count: 288 | Date Published: September 9, 2014 | Publisher: Basic Books  Social Sciences, Geography CONTENTS Intro Contents Prologue 1: A Bird''s-Eye View 2: Planetary Beginnings 3: Enter Human Ingenuity 4: Conundrums of Settled Life 5: Ratchets from Afar 6: Smash Open the Bottlenecks 7: Monocultures March Across the Midwest 8: Competition for the Bounty 9: The Revolution Goes Global 10: Farmer to Urbanite Acknowledgments Notes References Index Excerpt: SOCRATES, SPEAKING TO HIS DISCIPLES in his final hours, imagined the view if he could “take the wings of a bird and fly upward” and peer down upon the Earth. “I believe that the earth is very vast,” he surmised, with little more than water, patches of earth, and “an endless slough of mud.” Humanity’s significance wanes against the vastness of the world below in this long-ago view. More than a hundred generations later, the view from above tells a story that Socrates could scarcely have imagined. Whether from airplane windows or images beamed down from space, the picture is clear. Roads crisscross the landscape. Fields where people sow wheat, rice, potatoes, and a multitude of other crops pockmark the countryside. Pastures where grazing cows are raised to supply meat and milk for their owners expand to the horizon. Bright lights beam to the sky from buildings in towns and cities. Socrates’s view from above diminished our significance in the world. Today, that same view signifies our powerful role. Signs of human presence are nearly everywhere. Sharing Widget |