The Wizard and the Prophet

Posted on 26 August 2017 by Charles C. Mann

From the best selling, award winning author of 1491 and 1493 an incisive portrait of the two little known twentieth century scientists, Norman Borlaug and William Vogt, whose diametrically opposed views shaped our ideas about the environment, laying the groundwork for how people in the twenty first century will choose to live in tomorrow s world.In forty years, Earth s population will reach ten billion Can our world support that What kind of world will it be Those answering these questions generally fall into two deeply divided groups Wizards and Prophets, as Charles Mann calls them in this balanced, authoritative, nonpolemical new book The Prophets, he explains, follow William Vogt, a founding environmentalist who believed that in using than our planet has to give, our prosperity will lead us to ruin Cut back was his mantra Otherwise everyone will lose The Wizards are the heirs of Norman Borlaug, whose research, in effect, wrangled the world in service to our species to produce modern high yield crops that then saved millions from starvation Innovate was Borlaug s cry Only in that way can everyone win Mann delves into these diverging viewpoints to assess the four great challenges humanity faces food, water, energy, climate change grounding each in historical context and weighing the options for the future With our civilization on the line, the author s insightful analysis is an essential addition to the urgent conversation about how our children will fare on an increasingly crowded Earth. New Download [ The Wizard and the Prophet ] By [ Charles C. Mann ] – kino-fada.fr Dual biography which compares and contrasts two main currents of thought in the environmentalist movement The Wizard is the Iowan scientist Norman Borlaug, who believed that scientific advancement would solve problems of food scarcity He is best remembered as a champion of the Green Revolution , which led to increasing crop yields in South Asia and other parts of the developing world The Prophet is the ornithologist William Vogt, who first studied the question of guano production in Sout Dual biography which compares and contrasts two main currents of thought in the environmentalist movement The Wizard is the Iowan scientist Norman Borlaug, who believed that scientific advancement would solve problems of food scarcity He is best remembered as a champion of the Green Revolution , which led to increasing crop yields in South Asia and other parts of the developing world The Prophet is the ornithologist William Vogt, who first studied the question of guano production in South America, and concluded that human population growth would lead to the exhaustion of natural resources In his 1948 book, The Road to Survival , he warned against the dangers of overpopulation and overconsumption, and warned of the worst case scenarios of Malthusian food shortages and resource shortfalls After two brief and admiring biographies, Mann moves to how these two separate perspectives woul...Uma obra fant stica e recomendad ssima em tempos recentes Charles Mann escreveu livros que gostei muito 1491 e 1493 E neste livro compara duas formas de encarar o mundo e o futuro da humanidade os profetas, que falam que recursos s o finitos e a humanidade precisa parar o quanto antes com o abuso como Jared Diamond e os magos, que falam que a tecnologia a solu o de tudo, incluindo os problemas mais recentes como Matt Ridley Ele reconta o surgimento recente dos dois tipos de mentali Uma obra fant stica e recomendad ssima em tempos recentes Charles Ma...A pretty good, if overlong, book about technical progress Wizards vs environmental activism Prophets More or less Mann does a good job of remaining even handed in this long running debate, which became prominent in the US with John Muir vs Gifford Pinchot in the early 20th century Mann picked William Vogt as his Prophet poster boy I d never heard of Vogt, an ornithologist who studied the guano islands off Peru in the 1940s, and went on to activism And I had trouble remembering who w A pretty good, if overlong, book about technical progress Wizards vs environmental activism Prophets More or less Mann does a good job of remaining even handed in this long running debate, which became prominent in the US with John Muir vs Gifford Pinchot in the early 20th century Mann picked William Vogt as his Prophet poster b...This book addresses what is, as far as the material comforts of the modern age, the central question of our time can mankind have it all The author, Charles Mann, does not answer that question, though I think his answer would be, if forced, probably yes What Mann offers, rather than canned answers, is a refreshingly and relentlessly non ideological work, comparing two philosophies of human development, embodied in the lives of two men of the twentieth century The first, Norman Borlaug, engi This book addresses what is, as far as the material comforts of the modern age, the central question of our time can mankind have it all The author, Charles Mann, does not answer that question, though I think his answer would be, if forced, probably yes What Mann offers, rather than canned answers, is a refreshingly and relentlessly non ideological work, comparing two philosophies of human development, embodied in the lives of two men of the twentieth century The first, ...I really didn t think I d ever waste my time reading another new book by Charles Mann After he came out with his article claiming that fossil fuel supplies are infinite, I lost all respect for him I had actually liked 1491 and 1493, finding some ideas to be a bit questionable but for the most part being pretty good books At first I couldn t even believe that the article could have been written by the same guy who wrote those Looking around forsolid evidence of his insanity, I found an I really didn t think I d ever waste my time reading another new book by Charles Mann After he came out with his article claiming that fossil fuel supplies are infinite, I lost all respect for him I had actually liked 1491 and 1493, finding some ideas to be a bit questionable but for the most part being pretty good books At first I couldn t even believe that the article could have been written by the same guy who wrote those Looking around forsolid evidence of his insanity, I found an interview on youtube with him and John Tierney that was just shockingly irresponsible I mean, it s one thing to say that peak oil doomers are putting too much faith in the economy crashing on its own before making the planet uninhabitable an opinion I actually agree with but to use high oil estimates as justification for infinte growth is completely nuts Not only do these guys mock anyone who thinks we should conserve resource...An excellent history and summary of the two views that have dominated our understanding of how we deal with the future The Wizards believe we need to use our human ingenuity to develop ways to deal with resources and our impact on the environment The Prophets believe we have a natural limit to what we can do and we need to develop methods to lessen our human footprint Mann does a very good job of pointing to the positives and shortcomings of both sides He works very hard to be as unbiased as An excellent history and summary of the two views that have dominated our understanding of how we deal with the future The Wizards believe we need to use our human ingenuity to develop ways to deal with resources and our impact on the environment The Prophets believe we have a natural limit to what we can do and we need to develop methods to lessen our human footprint Mann does a very good job of pointing to the positives and shortcomings of both sides He works very hard to be as unbiased as possib...Marvelous chronicle essay fusion of the role of wizard Norman Borlaug bio, condensed and prophet William Vogt bio, condensed from author of the wondrous works 1491 1493 This offering is just as stellar Mann delivers account in a thinking aloud mod...This was a book that changed my perspective on environmental issues and has made me think a lotabout why I hold certain beliefs I learned about history, science, anthropology, politics and so many other things This is also the most balanced, thoughtful and fair presentation of environmental and climate change issues I ve ever read...Excellent book, excellent premise Fundamentally it is about the conflict between the two main responses to resource shortage On the one hand are the alarmists, represented by William Vogt who was hired to protect and rebuild the guano natural nitrogen fertilizer deposits in Peru in the 1930s 40s The alarmists warn of exceeding carrying capacity and urge action to stay within fixed resource limits get smaller, cut back, use resourcesjudiciously, etc The cornucopians, on the other h Excellent book, excellent premise Fundamentally it is about the conflict between the two main responses to resource shortage On the one hand are the alarmists, represented by William Vogt who was hired to protect and rebuild the guano natural nitrogen fertilizer deposits in Peru in the 1930s 40s The alarmists warn of exceeding carrying capacity and urge action to stay within fixed resource limits get smaller, cut back, use resourcesjudiciously, etc The cornucopians, on the other hand, view carrying capacity not as a biological limit but as something constrained only by human imagination and ingenuity or lack thereof , and argue foradvanced technology to produce our way out of trouble This view is represented by Norma ...Through the biographies of two men, William Vogt and Norman Borlaug, Charles Mann frames he conflicting word views of eco pessimism and techno optimism Midway through his skillfully structured account, Mann meanders away from the biographies and explains how these two modes of thought approach the problems of food production, water usage, energy and climate change Mann illustrates both the usefulness and follies of both world views, and ultimately concludes that Vogt and Borlaug shared a commo Throug...

26 August 2017

Charles C. Mann