The climate is changing more rapidly than scientists predicted even a few years ago, with extreme weather already touching our everyday lives. At the same time, the clean energy revolution is forging ahead faster than nearly anyone anticipated. As Tom Steyer sees it, these two trends together create a moment like the one America faced during World War II: on the one hand, an existential threat calling for collective action; on the other, an opportunity to lead the world, protect the planet, and set the stage for a new generation of shared economic prosperity. In 2012, Steyer walked away from the highly successful investment fund he founded to devote himself full time to climate issues, and he's been on the front lines of the fight ever since: funding cleantech research and businesses, spearheading clean-energy ballot measures and voter registration drives, and running for president on a climate platform. Today, he leads a climate investment firm focused on accelerating climate solutions. In this accessible book, Steyer shares his own story and showcases the inspiring and innovative work of other climate leaders in the clean-energy transition. He shows us how capitalism can be used to scale climate progress, debunks many of the arguments made by fossil fuel companies, and calls on all of us to make stabilizing our planet part of our life's work. As green technology is fast becoming cleaner and cheaper, reshaping our planet's future--and our own--has never been more crucial or within our reach.

Hope on Earth is the thought-provoking result of a lively and wide-ranging conversation between two of the world’s leading interdisciplinary environmental scientists: Paul R. Ehrlich, whose book The Population Bomb shook the world in 1968 (and continues to shake it), and Michael Charles Tobias, whose over 40 books and 150 films have been read and/or viewed throughout the world. Hope on Earth offers a rare opportunity to listen in as these deeply knowledgeable and highly creative thinkers offer their takes on the most pressing environmental concerns of the moment. Both Ehrlich and Tobias argue that we are on the verge of environmental catastrophe, as the human population continues to grow without restraint and without significant attempts to deal with overconsumption and the vast depletion of resources and climate problems it creates. Though their views are sympathetic, they differ in their approach and in some key moral stances, giving rise to a heated and engaging dialogue that opens up dozens of new avenues of exploration. They both believe that the impact of a human society on its environment is the direct result of its population size, and through their dialogue they break down the complex social problems that are wrapped up in this idea and attempts to overcome it, hitting firmly upon many controversial topics such as circumcision, religion, reproduction, abortion, animal rights, diet, and gun control. For Ehrlich and Tobias, ethics involve not only how we treat other people directly, but how we treat them and other organisms indirectly through our effects on the environment. University of California, Berkeley professor John Harte joins the duo for part of the conversation, and his substantial expertise on energy and climate change adds a crucial perspective to the discussion of the impact of population on global warming. This engaging and timely book invites readers into an intimate conversation with some of the most eminent voices in science as they offer a powerful and approachable argument that the ethical and scientific issues involved in solving our environmental crisis are deeply intertwined, while offering us an optimistic way forward. Hope on Earth is indeed a conversation we should all be having.

"What is the right thing to do? Answers might come in the form of responses to particular ethical controversies - abortion, capital punishment, what to do about world hunger. Or they might focus on whether ethical judgements are rooted in universal principles; compassionate interpersonal connection; attempts to create the most happiness and least suffering; obedience to God; or the pursuit of spiritual enlightenment"--

First Published in 1997. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.

Our ecological dilemmas provoke powerful emotions and deeply contested views. How should we think about them? And how can we live together, or even talk together, when we cannot listen to people who think differently? In a lively and at times very funny book, Roger S. Gottlieb ( A Greener Faith, This Sacred Earth, A Spirituality of Resistance ) explores these questions in a collection of distinct but related philosophical short stories. Fictional characters with personalities, individual histories, and strong opinions wrestle with the meaning of life, the value of nature, animal rights, the roles of science and religion in environmentalism, and political choices facing environmental activists--as well as their own anger, fear, despair, and close-mindedness. Encountering forcefully articulated positions and engaging characters, readers will be moved to reconsider their own beliefs--and to examine personal barriers to truly listening to those "on the other side."