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An excerpt from the preface of Home
by Yann Arthus-Bertrand
Every day, we are assailed by bad news: hunger is growing, the climate is affected, species are dying out, resources such as water, oil, and metals are dwindling, and we are on the brink of a worldwide economic crisis. And yet most of us have not changed at all. We read the many reports from scientists and economists, but still we continue down the same path as if we were suddenly struck by some inescapable intellectual blindness. It is as if, although we know about it, we just don’t want to believe it.
Perhaps what we need is some good news. All over the world, entrepreneurs, local authorities, and associations are moving into action, coming up with new technology, new trades, new relationships between humanity and nature. Their creativity is moving forward into a new century that is cleaner and fairer, more natural and at the same time more human.
This is the international overview that is captured in this book. It appraises the threats that our current lifestyles have created, but at the same time reveals the amazing heritage that four billion years of evolution have given to humanity. It also celebrates the many projects that have been launched to usher in a new era, in which the human spirit has dreamed up new ways of living and thinking that are more in tune with our planet. A world that no longer regards the Earth as a supermarket, but as a home...
AN EXCERPT FROM THE FIRST CHAPTER OF Home—Ecology
We 6 billion human beings are not the only inhabitants of this planet. We share it with billions and billions of animals, plants, and single-cell organisms. And it is not merely a case of cohabitation: our very existence depends on our close links with these other organisms. Albert Einstein once predicted that if the honey bee disappeared, the human race could only last four years: without bees to pollinate their flowers, the majority of plants would fail to reproduce and would die out, along with all the animals that depend upon them for food, and that includes mankind.
All living organisms, including humans, are part of a complex web of relationships that connects them with one another and with their environment. This interdependence relates to the food chain, to the balance of populations, and to natural cycles. As a result of these relationships, all the basic elements circulate and are exchanged between living beings and the environment in a process that is constant and universal, occurring through us and all around us.
To purchase Home, please visit Abrams Books.
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