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Good info, but rather tedious reading
“I skimmed a lot of this book - it felt too much like I was reading a (required) college textbook that, while informative, wasn't particularly engaging.
An amazon user wrote this on 2009-08-06.
Overall, the book provides a decent overview of the steps the author feels we must take to move the planet forward (or keep from descending into all manner of intractable problems).
No opportunity to blast the George W Bush administration is spared - so if you're a right wing conservative, you may want to pass on this one.” -
Another book on helping the poor
“What is this book about? It's about our future. Jeffrey Sachs describes the world in the twenty first century. He begins with an estimation of the development of the world population and the growth engine of the world. This is the main themes of the book. The third problem he faces is the ecological dimension of the world. His vision is the future of the world in fifty years. What will be there and witch problems must be solved till then. Every prediction is wrong. It's a matter of fact. In the seventies of the last century the Club of Rome had the same problem. The Limits of Growth was a bad prediction and every prediction of what will be in the future must fail. What will be if we go on in the same way? This is his question. Look to the present and you can find the solution. If we change this and that will give you a better way to cope with the future. Change must come in small parts. It is better to start in little step now, than to make a big solution over countries. In some parts he finds that solution in small steps. Like the millennium villages. But In most parts of the underdeveloped world are wars. This is a big problem to rural development and common wealth.
An amazon user wrote this on 2009-07-27.
But back to the book. The second and third part reflects the population and ecological dimension. It starts with the human population and its development. He sees that the overcrowding of the planet had an enormous effect on the environment. The ecological disaster is maintained in the rising of the carbon dioxide emission. The main part of our effort is to reduce it world wide and get the world to use new technologies to prevent new emissions. Another problem is to solve the water distribution in many parts of the underdeveloped world.
What is his economic solution? He begins with the four stages of economic development. It is very academic and with no great use for the actual situation in many underdeveloped countries. He compares Iceland with India and explains his need for change. His ideas are very general. You can find it in every book on the subject. What I miss in this book is the practical dimension. You need no carbon capture and sequestration program to reduce the emission. We have emission trading and taxation. These are better solutions for the present. If you influence the price on a direct way you can produce new technologies. The fertilisation rate is a second order problem. If you get prosperity on the way, it means education for the kids and work for the women than the population problem will reduce itself. In the last chapter he begins with you. What can you do? The small steps of a combined action of health care companies and NGO are the first steps to get a little closer to the solution. Every state is his own sovereign. You can not find good solutions over a number of countries. You can see that in the WTO or the Kyoto treaty. Common Wealth needs money to be financed. If you find new forms of technologies or a better welfare state system you must look for the money in the economy. Today the help is limited and need a lot of action to get organised. The book describes the situation and prevents that the poor people gets poorer. Common wealth means that the income must rise over decades.” -
Very Informative but Lacking Some Details
“No doubt that the author is well schooled in the politics and economics surrounding the sustainable and stable growth of the World's economy. He brings up some very key points, such as the basis for controlling population growth should be to decrease infant mortality rates. Once those populations realize that they can have just one or two children with a very high probability of them surviving to adulthood, they will opt to greatly reduce their fetility rate and invest more in each child. The author also focuses on decreasing CO2 emissions and the possibility of global warming contributing to the destabilization of many regions with weak governments. The great question is how do we continue to increase global economic productivity to bring many of the poorest regions out of poverty and into the middle class without them reaching the same per capita levels of fossil fuel consumption (and concomitant CO2 emissions) as the developed nations? Clearly the answer is massive technology transfers of efficient electrical infrastructure and utilization of renewable energy sources from the developed nations to the developing ones. Another point the author spends some time on in the book is the various scenarios for global population growth from 6.6 billion to a leveling off point somewhere near 10 billion. A key issue will be how to feed all of these people in a sustainable manner. The author mentions several times the need for drought tolerant, salt tolerant, high yielding crops that are also very efficient at utilizing nitrogen fertilizers. Never once does he go into any details into where these seed varieties will come from or how they might be developed. In fact one of the "Seven Global Funds for Sustainable Development" the author proposes is for biodiversity conservation. The overwhelming opinion of most experts is that this is best accomplished in situ. However if the last hunter-gatherer remnant populations and subsistence farmers are forced to switch over to modern, high input, high yielding, highly efficient crop varieties then it will put strong pressure on reducing biodiversity.”
An amazon user wrote this on 2009-06-19. -
1 of 1 members found this review helpful.
Humane and hopeful
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An amazon user wrote this on 2009-06-09.
Jeffrey Sachs is special adviser on the UN's Millennium Development Goals to UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon. He urges that the principles of social justice should guide economic forces, not profit, and he argues that problems need diplomacy and development, not war, sanctions and threats. Development brings security, not vice versa.
As he notes, "A world of untrammelled market forces and competing nation-states offer no automatic solutions." "Market forces by themselves do not optimally allocate society's resources." "Market forces alone will not overcome poverty traps."
He shows in detail that market forces cannot deliver R&D or ensure the adoption of new technologies or control population growth or protect the environment or prevent species loss or get medicine to the poorest. The market pays no heed to future generations. As we can all now see, capitalism is self-reinforcing, not self-correcting.
We have the technology, industry and resources to solve all our problems. As Sachs writes, "Earth has the energy, land, biodiversity, and water resources needed to feed humanity and support long-term economic prosperity for all. The problem is that markets might not lead to their wise and sustainable use." He urges countries to convert commons from open-access to community management, not privatise them.
So within each country we need to develop and spread technologies suitable for that country, like carbon capture, drip irrigation, desalination, drought-resistant crops, high-yield wheat (which increased India's harvest from 11 million metric tons in 1960 to 55 million in 1990), vaccines for tropical diseases, and turning coal into petrol by Fischer-Tropsch liquefaction.
Within each country, we should promote welfare. Social welfare states like Denmark and Finland do better than free market states like Britain and the USA. They have higher employment rates, higher GNPs per person and more equality. We can cut fertility rates, and therefore increase growth, by providing free access to health services, especially emergency obstetric care and family planning services, and by improving child survival rates.
This is a humane and hopeful book. Sachs proves that we can raise incomes, end extreme poverty, stabilise the population, protect the environment and establish peace. Each needs public action, public funding, long-term thinking and planning, and we all have to take the responsibility.” -
1 of 5 members found this review helpful.
Jeffrey Sachs is the Paris Hilton of Economists
“Yeah, I said it. And I meant it. J.Sachs is the Paris Hilton of Economists, all sex and no substance. Don't believe me, buy this book and read it. The first two chapters are spent paraphrasing a lot of William Easterly's Leaks, Matches and Traps observations, as well as Easterly's emphasis on technology; and yet no credit is given to Easterly. The only time he mentions Easterly is when he dogs him, and his book (the Ellusive Quest for Growth).
An amazon user wrote this on 2009-06-02.
I suffered through the first three chapters enduring his endless rants, desperately waiting for something; some substance that could validate his arguments. Nothing. The entire book is a giant tease that will leave you empty and frustrated. I am just so thoroughly disappointed in this book. I was luke-warm on Sachs before, but now I find him completely pointless.
As a lover of Economists and a centrist student of international political economy, I can tell you there are a wealth of authors out there that will provide you with all the information you need. Easterly, Solow, Robert Lewis, Hernando de Soto, Stiglitz, Edmund Phelps. When you finish reading their books, you walk away enlightened. Whereas with Sachs, you walk away wondering if you need a shot of penicillin. ”
