Roy Woodbridge / University of Toronto Press – 2004-08-11 09:40:19

http://www.utppublishing.com/detail.asp?TitleID=2863

If history is our guide, the options for meeting these enormous ‘provisioning’ needs are extremely limited. Like the tribes, cities, and nations of earlier times, we can fight our neighbours for privileged access to declining ecosystem goods and services.

This confrontation will inevitably pit the wealthy beneficiaries of the global economy against the billions of excluded, and lead to accelerated ecological collapse, the derailment of growth, and social chaos.

The only alternative to this dismal prospect is to mobilize on a scale as if for war in order to meet this provisioning challenge on the battlefields of directed technological innovation.

In The Next World War, Roy Woodbridge argues that the international
community must redirect present sustainable development and poverty
reduction efforts in ways that place the provisioning of societies at the heart of political decision-making. To move this highly focused agenda forward, he calls on the United Nations to convene a World Forum on Global Provisioning to declare war on ecological decline and set the battle plans for the next world war — the war to equitably provision continued growth.

Roy Woodbridge is the president of Woodbridge & Associates, an environmental policy consulting firm in Vancouver. Canadian Advanced Technology Alliance Alumni 2004.

Praise for The Next World War

‘In The Next World War, Roy Woodbridge presents a cogent and compelling
argument to turn biocentrism on its head. Woodbridge’s innovative analysis suggests we refocus the environmental agenda on the threat to all human societies from ecological decline. Having read his argument, I cannot but agree with him.’
— Elizabeth May, Executive Director, Sierra Club of Canada

‘There is little question that there will be a ‘next world war.’ The only matter of dispute is whether it will be a bloody battle over the remaining pockets of essential resources on a degraded planet, or a war in which the world’s nations rally together against ecological decline. Roy Woodbridge’s book is a ‘must read’ for anyone not familiar with the dynamics that present us with this fatal choice and for everyone interested in the prospects for continued civilized life on Earth.’
— William E. Rees, Professor, School of Community and Regional Planning,
University of British Columbia.

Contents

Part I
The Enemy Is Ecological Decline
A Shift in the Angle of Vision
Provisioning Societies

Part II
From Common Genes to the Global Economy
Round One: The Spread of Hunter-Gatherer Societies
Round Two: The Rise and Spread of Agricultural Societies
Round Three: Urbanization
Round Four: From City-States to Nations
Round Five: Reliance on Global Business Networks
The Organization and Potential of Round Five

Part III
The Twenty-Five-Year Challenge to Growth and Social Stability
From Egalitarian Tribes to Global Inequity
Ecological Roadblocks to Growth and Poverty Reduction
The Catalysts of Calamity

Part IV
The War to Provision the World
Our Common Enemy
Mobilizing Nations for War
Mobilizing the International Community
Round Six: The Age of Global Provisioning

Contact
CATAAlliance British Columbia
c/o Triumph Communications
596 East 30th Ave. Vancouver, BC V5V 2V6
(604)-677-6844 Fax: (604)-874-6522
Clay Braziller Regional Director
cbraziller@ cata.ca

The Next World War: Tribes, Cities, Nations, And Ecological Decline(ISBN: 0802086039. $27.95 Paperback 328 pages: July 22, 2004)
University of Toronto Press, 10 St Mary Street, Suite 700, Toronto, Ontario, M4Y 2W8 CANADA. (416) 978-2239. Fax: (416) 978-4738. publishing@ utpress.utoronto.ca