The Plundered Planet: Why We Must--and How We Can--Manage Nature for Global ProsperityPaul Collier's The Bottom Billion was greeted as groundbreaking when it appeared in 2007, winning the Estoril Distinguished Book Prize, the Arthur Ross Book Award, and the Lionel Gelber Prize. Now, in The Plundered Planet, Collier builds upon his renowned work on developing countries and the world's poorest populations to confront the global mismanagement of natural resources. Proper stewardship of natural assets and liabilities is a matter of planetary urgency: natural resources have the potential either to transform the poorest countries or to tear them apart, while the carbon emissions and agricultural follies of the developed world could further impoverish them. The Plundered Planet charts a course between unchecked profiteering on the one hand and environmental romanticism on the other to offer realistic and sustainable solutions to dauntingly complex issues. Grounded in a belief in the power of informed citizens, Collier proposes a series of international standards that would help poor countries rich in natural assets better manage those resources, policy changes that would raise world food supply, and a clear-headed approach to climate change that acknowledges the benefits of industrialization while addressing the need for alternatives to carbon trading. Revealing how all of these forces interconnect, The Plundered Planet charts a way forward to avoid the mismanagement of the natural world that threatens our future. |
Other editions - View all
The Plundered Planet: Why We Must--and How We Can--Manage Nature for Global ... Paul Collier No preview available - 2010 |
The Plundered Planet: How to Reconcile Prosperity with Nature Paul Collier No preview available - 2010 |
Common terms and phrases
accrue Africa agriculture auction become Botswana bottom billion Brazilian capital carbon emissions carbon tax climate change commodity boom consumers consumption copper corruption costs country’s decades decision democracy depletion domestic investment economic economists effect elections emit environmentalists equivalent exports farms finance fish free-riding future global warming growth harnessed incentive income increase industry intentionally left blank low-income country ment natural assets natural liabilities natural owners natural resources natural world natural-resource Nicholas Stern Nigeria OECD officials ordinary citizens output ownership percent plunder policies political potential problem production propinquity prospecting public investment rain forest renewable natural asset rent-seeking rents resource curse resource revenues resource-extraction companies resource-rich countries responsibility result revenues from natural rich countries romantics shadow price simply social societies subsoil assets sustainable tion Tony Venables U.S. Treasury Bills unsustainable Utilitarian valuable volatile World Bank world price