The Big Ratchet: How Humanity Thrives in the Face of Natural Crisis

by Ruth DeFries

Book Overview

How an ordinary mammal manipulated nature to become technologically sophisticated city-dwellers -- and why our history points to an optimistic future in the face of environmental crisis

Our species long lived on the edge of starvation. Now we produce enough food for all 7 billion of us to eat nearly 3,000 calories every day. This is such an astonishing thing in the history of life as to verge on the miraculous. The Big Ratchet...

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0465044972
• ISBN13: 9780465044979
• Release Date: September 2014
• Publisher: Basic Books
• Length: 288 Pages
• Weight: 1.15 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.2" x 6.3" x 9.3"
• Age Range: 13 years and up
• Grade Range: Grade 8 to Postsecondary