The First Global Revolution

Last updated
The First Global Revolution
First Global Revolution Book Front Cover.jpg
Cover of first edition (paperback)
Author Alexander King and Bertrand Schneider
Cover artistFearn Cutler (1991 First Edition)
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
Genre Non Fiction
Publisher Pantheon Books
Publication date
1991
Media typePrint (Hardback & Paperback)
Pages259 pp
ISBN 0-679-73825-8
Preceded by The Limits to Growth  

The First Global Revolution is a book written by Alexander King and Bertrand Schneider, and published by Pantheon Books in 1991. The book follows up the earlier 1972 work-product from the Club of Rome titled The Limits to Growth . The book's tagline is A Report by the Council of the Club of Rome. The book was intended as a blueprint for the 21st century putting forward a strategy for world survival at the onset of what they called the world's first global revolution. [1]

Contents

Contents

  • The Whirlwind of Change
  • Some Areas of Acute Concern
  • The International Mismanagement of the World Economy
  • Intimitations of Solidarity
  • The Vacuum
  • The Human Malaise
  • Conclusion: The Challenge
  • Introduction
  • The Three Immediacies
  • Governance and the Capacity to Govern
  • Agents of the Resolutique
  • Motivations and Values
  • Learning Our Way Into a New Era

Overview

The book is a blueprint for the twenty-first century at a time when the Club of Rome thought that the onset of the first global revolution was upon them. The authors saw the world coming into a global-scale societal revolution amid social, economic, technological, and cultural upheavals that started to push humanity into an unknown. The goal of the book was to outline a strategy for mobilizing the world's governments for environmental security and clean energy by purposefully converting the world from a military to a civil economy, tackling global warming and solving the energy problem, dealing with world poverty and disparities between the northern hemisphere and the Southern Hemisphere.

The book saw humankind at the center of the revolution centered on:

The product of a think tank, the book attempted to transcend the nation-state governance paradigm of the nineteenth-century and the twentieth-century and sought a way to eliminate some of the challenges seen inherent with those older systems of global governance. As such, it explored new and sometimes controversial viewpoints.

Because of the sudden absence of traditional enemies, "new enemies must be identified." [2] "In searching for a new enemy to unite us, we came up with the idea that pollution, the threat of global warming, water shortages, famine and the like would fit the bill...All these dangers are caused by human intervention, and it is only through changed attitudes and behavior that they can be overcome. The real enemy then is humanity itself." [3]

Later editions

An English language edition of this book was published in 1993 ( ISBN   978-0001160323) by Orient Longman of Hyderabad, India.

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kyoto Protocol</span> 1997 international treaty to reduce greenhouse gas emissions

The Kyoto Protocol (Japanese: 京都議定書, Hepburn: Kyōto Giteisho) was an international treaty which extended the 1992 United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) that commits state parties to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, based on the scientific consensus that global warming is occurring and that human-made CO2 emissions are driving it. The Kyoto Protocol was adopted in Kyoto, Japan, on 11 December 1997 and entered into force on 16 February 2005. There were 192 parties (Canada withdrew from the protocol, effective December 2012) to the Protocol in 2020.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Environmental movement</span> Movement for addressing environmental issues

The environmental movement, is a social movement that aims to protect the natural world from harmful environmental practices in order to create sustainable living. Environmentalists advocate the just and sustainable management of resources and stewardship of the environment through changes in public policy and individual behavior. In its recognition of humanity as a participant in ecosystems, the movement is centered on ecology, health, as well as human rights.

<i>The Limits to Growth</i> 1972 book on economic and population growth

The Limits to Growth (LTG) is a 1972 report that discussed the possibility of exponential economic and population growth with finite supply of resources, studied by computer simulation. The study used the World3 computer model to simulate the consequence of interactions between the Earth and human systems. The model was based on the work of Jay Forrester of MIT, as described in his book World Dynamics.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Club of Rome</span> Political and economic think tank

The Club of Rome is a nonprofit, informal organization of intellectuals and business leaders whose goal is a critical discussion of pressing global issues. The Club of Rome was founded in 1968 at Accademia dei Lincei in Rome, Italy. It consists of one hundred full members selected from current and former heads of state and government, UN administrators, high-level politicians and government officials, diplomats, scientists, economists, and business leaders from around the globe. It stimulated considerable public attention in 1972 with the first report to the Club of Rome, The Limits to Growth. Since 1 July 2008, the organization has been based in Winterthur, Switzerland.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jeremy Rifkin</span> American economic and social theorist

Jeremy Rifkin is an American economic and social theorist, writer, public speaker, political advisor, and activist. Rifkin is the author of 23 books about the influence of scientific and technological changes on the economy, the workforce, society, and the environment. His most recent books include The Age of Resilience (2022), The Green New Deal (2019), The Zero Marginal Cost Society (2014), The Third Industrial Revolution (2011), The Empathic Civilization (2010), and The European Dream (2004).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dennis Meadows</span> American and coauthor of The Limits to Growth

Dennis Lynn Meadows is an American scientist and Emeritus Professor of Systems Management, and former director of the Institute for Policy and Social Science Research at the University of New Hampshire. He is President of the Laboratory for Interactive Learning and widely known as a coauthor of The Limits to Growth.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ronald Bailey</span> American libertarian science writer

Ronald Bailey is an American libertarian science writer. He has written or edited several books on economics, ecology, and biotechnology.

Land use, land-use change, and forestry (LULUCF), also referred to as Forestry and other land use (FOLU) or Agriculture, Forestry and Other Land Use (AFOLU), is defined as a "greenhouse gas inventory sector that covers emissions and removals of greenhouse gases resulting from direct human-induced land use such as settlements and commercial uses, land-use change, and forestry activities."

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Alexander King (scientist)</span> British chemist and environmentalist (1909–2007)

Alexander King was a British chemist and pioneer of the sustainable development movement who co-founded the Club of Rome in 1968 with the Italian industrialist Aurelio Peccei. The Club was one of the first institutions to voice concerns about the impact on the environment of unprecedented economic growth in the 20th century. "Peccei and King were lonely prophets at a time of overwhelming optimism," who did much to push environmental issues on to the political agenda. At the time of the Club's founding, King was Director-General for Scientific Affairs at the Paris-based Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).

This is a list of climate change topics.

Degrowth or post-growth economics is an academic and social movement critical of the concept of growth in gross domestic product as a measure of human and economic development. Degrowth theory is based on ideas and research from a multitude of disciplines such as economics, economic anthropology, ecological economics, environmental sciences and development studies. It argues that the unitary focus of modern capitalism on growth, in terms of monetary value of aggregate goods and services, causes widespread ecological damage and is not necessary for the further increase of human living standards. Degrowth theory has been met with both academic acclaim and considerable criticism.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Climate change in Russia</span> Emissions, impacts and responses of Russia related to climate change

Climate change has serious effects on Russia's climate, including average temperatures and precipitation, as well as permafrost melting, more frequent wildfires, flooding and heatwaves. Changes may affect inland flash floods, more frequent coastal flooding and increased erosion reduced snow cover and glacier melting, and may ultimately lead to species losses and changes in ecosystem functioning.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">2008 United Nations Climate Change Conference</span>

The 2008 United Nations Climate Change Conference took place at PIF Congress Centre, Poznań International Fair (PIF), in Poznań, Poland, between December 1 and December 12, 2008. Representatives from over 180 countries attended along with observers from intergovernmental and nongovernmental organizations.

This timeline of the history of environmentalism is a listing of events that have shaped humanity's perspective on the environment. This timeline includes human induced disasters, environmentalists that have had a positive influence, and environmental legislation.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Carlo Pelanda</span>

Carlo A. Pelanda is an Italian professor of Political Science and Economics.

In political ecology and environmental policy, climate governance is the diplomacy, mechanisms and response measures "aimed at steering social systems towards preventing, mitigating or adapting to the risks posed by climate change". A definitive interpretation is complicated by the wide range of political and social science traditions that are engaged in conceiving and analysing climate governance at different levels and across different arenas. In academia, climate governance has become the concern of geographers, anthropologists, economists and business studies scholars.

The Kyoto Protocol was an international treaty which extended the 1992 United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change.

Territorialisation of Carbon Governance (ToCG) is a concept used in political geography or environmental policy which is considered to be a new logic of environmental governance. This method creates carbon-relevant citizens who become enrolled in the process of governing the climate. The territorialisation of carbon governance transforms climate change from a global to local issue. It embodies political practices that serve to connect the causes and consequences of global climate change to local communities.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">2012 United Nations Climate Change Conference</span>

The 2012 United Nations Climate Change Conference was the 18th yearly session of the Conference of the Parties (COP) to the 1992 United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and the 8th session of the Meeting of the Parties (CMP) to the 1997 Kyoto Protocol. The conference took place from Monday 26 November to Saturday 8 December 2012, at the Qatar National Convention Centre in Doha.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Timeline of international climate politics</span>

The timeline of international climate politics is a list of events significant to the politics of climate change.

References

  1. Alexander King & Bertrand Schneider - The First Global Revolution (Club of Rome) 1993 Edition Archived 2012-10-26 at the Wayback Machine
  2. Alexander King & Bertrand Schneider. The First Global Revolution (The Club of Rome), 1993. p. 70
  3. King & Schneider, p. 115