The Ecology Book

263

See also: Deforestation 254–259 ■ Overfishing 266–269 ■ The water crisis 288–291

■ Humankind’s dominance over nature 296 ■ Human devastation of Earth 299

Naomi Klein

Born in Montreal, Canada, in

1970 to politically active

parents, Klein developed a

sophisticated understanding

of the way the world works

while still young. Her first job

was on a Toronto newspaper,

The Globe and Mail. Her debut

book No Logo, criticizing

globalization and corporate

greed, was a bestseller. Her

second, The Shock Doctrine,

attacked neoliberalism. Klein

then began campaigning

against corporate interests

taking priority over the

environment and the interests

of humanity. Her book This

Changes Everything was later

made into a film. Klein’s many

campaigns included a protest

against the construction of the

Keystone XL pipeline—a

symbol in the battle against

fossil fuel use and climate

change. In November 2016,

she was awarded Australia’s

Sydney Peace Prize.

are left behind. These can leak into

the land, rivers, and groundwater,

killing fish, migrating birds, and

other animals.

Global action

By the 1980s, the environmental

effects of industrialization and

depletion of the Earth’s resources

were already becoming a matter of

concern. The United Nations (UN)

created a World Commission on

Environment and Development,

which published a report in 1987

called “Our Common Future.”

Contributing experts, including

scientists, agriculturalists, foreign

ministers, technologists, and

economists, made it clear that

the future of humans relied on

balancing ecology and economics

in a way that was sustainable and

fair for all nations around the world.

Key areas in the struggle for a

sustainably managed Earth are

use of fossil fuels, deforestation,

and water management.

Five years later, at the 1992

Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro,

172 nations signed environmental

resolutions. Among them was

Agenda 21, a plan for governments

to work together to protect natural

resources and the environment.

However, implementing changes

has proved difficult, and subsequent

Earth summits have called for

better international cooperation

in order to achieve goals set.

Peak oil

Fossil fuels are among the world’s

most highly prized resources.

People have become increasingly

reliant on oil, squandering it to

create a lifestyle that is ultimately

unsustainable. The oil crises of the

1970s highlighted how dependent ❯❯

THE HUMAN FACTOR

Key works

2000 No Logo

2007 The Shock Doctrine: The

Rise of Disaster Capitalism

2014 This Changes

Everything: Capitalism vs

The Climate

Extracting crude oil from Canada’s

tar sands is notoriously harmful to

the environment. It accounts for a

tenth of Canada’s annual greenhouse

gas emissions.

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