Whoopi Goldberg: Her Journey from Poverty to Megastardom

Customer Reviews:

I'd like to see another one........1998-03-14

I found Whoopi Goldberg's life to be interesting (dare I say even inspiring?). I commend this biography because it provides plenty of details and Parish backs up his factual account of her life with lots of quotes from Whoopi. But I was really annoyed by how often he mentioned he doesn't think she's good-looking. Also, he sometimes offers long descriptions of movies she herself didn't think much of, but then shorts others like The Long Walk Home. Passable, but there's room for another book or more about this remarkable woman we seem to know so much and so little about all at the same time.

Book Description

William Simmonds. The book features Mail Pouch Tobacco barns as well as others painted with old-fashioned advertisements.

Customer Reviews:

solid book with lots of information.......2002-06-22

very good book about rollercoasters with lots of information and good pictures

Good Book Overall.......2002-03-15

This is a very good book if you want a look back to the predecessors of today's coasters. The coverage is very thorough and informative. The coasters covered range from early 1900's to many of today. The photos are simply great -- they made the book wonderful (though the text could easily support itself). If you like coasters, this is the book for you.

Amazing Photos.......2002-01-17

Perfect book on rollercoasters. Great photos, great history. If you were only to buy one book about roller coasters- make it this one!

Good Roller Coaster Reference.......2001-03-30

Other reviewers have given a good overview of this book. I will go into some detail on Chapter 3:Nuts and Bolts -- How Coasters Work. Rutherford begins by talking about materials used in the basic structure. His section on the evolution of tracking is excellent. Most readers will be surprised to learn about the side-friction coaster. This is a rare beast, and to my knowledge, this is the only easily available documentation available about it.

The wood track structure is well explained along with cross sectional diagrams of how the carriages (trains) are attached to the track/structure. Rutherford finishes this part with a discussion on standard bent construction for the structure.

In the next part of this chapter, the discussion continues with steelie coasters, track fabrication and wheel assemblies. Propulsion, lift chain, anti-rollback devices, other safety devices, brakes, zone blocking, restraints, etc. are wonderful background information for the teacher who wants to take their class to the amusement park for a science field trip.

The chapter ends with the nature of teh ride and what is involved in creating one of these machines. The difference between an track plan and profile are clearly illustrated.

Good addition to the library.

A "must" for all roller coaster buffs & enthusiasts!.......2000-08-04

An excellent and unusual title providing insights into American pastimes and interests, Scott Rutherford's American Roller Coaster covers the ups and downs of roller coaster history, pairing a clear text history with color photos and illustrations of coasters from 1900 to modern times. The history and evolution covers construction as well as roller coaster styles and development.

Bordering on Chaos: Mexico's Roller-Coaster Journey Toward Prosperity

Average customer rating:

Should be required reading
GOOD HISTORY, WELL RESEARCHED, FAST PACED READ
Facinating account
Andresito has excellent contacts
Excellent. Give Us More.

Bordering on Chaos: Mexico's Roller-Coaster Journey Toward Prosperity
Andres Oppenheimer
Manufacturer: Back Bay Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Mexico | Americas | History | Subjects | Books

General | Politics | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books

General | Social Sciences | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books

ASIN: 0316650250

Amazon.com

This is an attempt to understand Mexico's steep descent into turmoil, which happened rapidly after the uprising in Chiapas on New Year's Day 1994. Following the assassinations of a presidential candidate and then the congressional leader, President Carlos Salinas de Gortari had barely left office when the peso collapsed. Pursued by allegations of corruption, Salinas then fled the country. Oppenheimer, a reporter for The Miami Herald, argues that the crisis is the result of nothing grander than a turf war within a decrepit ruling party and that the Chiapas uprising is not something new, just another eruption of the Marxist intellectualism that has long flourished in Latin America.

Book Description

This is an attempt to understand Mexico's steep descent into turmoil, which happened rapidly after the uprising in Chiapas on New Year's Day 1994.Following the assassinations of a presidential candidate and then the congressional leader, President Carlos Salinas de Gortari had barely left office when the peso collapsed. Pursued by allegations of corruption, Salinas then fled the country. Oppenheimer, a reporter for The Miami Herald, argues that the crisis is the result of nothing grander than a turf war within a decrepit ruling party and that the Chiapas uprising is not something new, just another eruption of the Marxist intellectualism that has long flourished in Latin America.

Customer Reviews:

Should be required reading.......2003-05-04

This book is so shocking, it left me hoping the author made it all up. It raises many important questions regarding the US relationship with out southern neighbor. A must read.

GOOD HISTORY, WELL RESEARCHED, FAST PACED READ.......2003-04-12

In Bordering on Chaos, Oppenheimer does a very good job of depicting the events and digging up the dirty that led to many of the most important events in mid-1990s Mexico, including the murder of the leading presidential candidate, the rise of the Zapatistas and the choice of Zedillo for president.

However, instead of pure history, we are presented with deep character development for the two main actors in this process, Zedillo himself (the president to be) and Subcomandante Marcos, the leader of the Zapatista movement. In this process, we learn of the political ploys adopted by the PRI, the almost monarchic party that led the country for most of the century. These include forays into education, health, and the most important social services. Another important area is the corruption going on at the top levels of the PRI, requiring, for example, that business people contribute a minimum of [several] million to participate in the government, or else be excluded, with all that it entailed. There is less than I would like to know on Carlos Salinas, the now disgraced but formerly darling leader.

Overall, a good history and a well written book. If you have an interest in Mexico, or in the crisis period of the mid-1990s, this may offer some of the pieces that build up a puzzle of it.

Facinating account.......2001-12-14

This is a great read for anyone wanting to know about Mexico during the 1990s. It's very indepth, at times it feels like maybe Oppenheimer doesn't have all the information to tell the story, but he sure tells a lot of it. It's also not overly biased, like many books about recent Mexican history. Oppenheimer does a great job of setting the scene, explaining who is who, and helping the reader get their arms around all the different factions that make for a volatile social environment in Mexico. I also read "Castro's Final Hour" which was informative, but not as good (especially since the "final hour" was somewhere in the early nineties, and now it's 2001). I'd love to read more of Oppenheimer.

Andresito has excellent contacts.......2001-02-17

Excellent book on recent Mexican history.

Excellent. Give Us More........2000-12-07

The dearth of good books on Mexico makes this one very welcome. It's architecture rests largely on two character portraits: one of Ernesto Zedillo, and the other of the man who calls himself Subcommander Marcos. There is some sketchy material, too, on Carlos Salinas, but it's the type of data that adds to the enigma of the man rather than to our understanding of him.

With Zedillo, one can see why two huge accomplishments coincided with his term in office, and went largely unlauded: 1) the payback of the bailout money ahead of time, and 2) the holding of real elections.

Oppenheimer shows Zedillo to be honest and smart--unlike many Mexican politicians, his degree from an Ivy League school was not just window dressing; he really is a trained economist. But he was not very popular. As an uncorruptible technocrat, he never would have gotten the nod to be the new president if not for the assassination of Colosio, whose campaign manager he was at the time of the murder. But once he was thrust in by Fate to the number one spot, he proved unusually effective. He was not fashionable or charismatic, and not very well loved by the electorate, which understandably blamed him for the devaluation which occurred at the very beginning of his term. Carlos Salinas was fashionable and charismatic, and there can be little doubt that the conditions necessitating the devaluation accumulated during his term.

Even now, with Zedillo gone, those two accomplishments loom over the future more powerfully than anything else that has happened in Mexico for many years.The payback of the bailout money signals that though there may be stumbles on the way to free trade with the US, a quick recovery is possible instead of a long Japanese-style tailspin. The bailout money could have gone into the pockets of well-placed Mexicans, (where now are the millions that the World Bank poured into Russia?) but it did not. I would guess that a lot of credit for that goes to the unfashionably honest Zedillo.

The conversion to a truly multiparty system where it is possible for anyone to win also bodes well for the future, both economically and culturally. Mexico could have started having real elections a long time ago, elections that were more than just costly and showy formalities, but it did not. They didn't have a real election until it was time to replace Zedillo. The irony is that a corrupt system put into power an honest man, who then reformed it.

The other character that makes this book work is Rafael Guillen, AKA Subcommander Marcos, the leader of the Zapatista uprising, who turns out to be neither an Indian nor a peasant nor even a native of Chiapas, but simply a garden variety marxist from a middle class family in Tampico. An undereducated and underworked lout, he acquired a degree from the National Autonomous University of Mexico with a dissertation on capitalist oppression (what else?). Employing in this dissertation a style reminiscent of the Unabomber, he revealed the family to be the first "unit of oppression", followed by schools, the second "unit of oppression", and so on. The only thing that can break this ubiquitous oppression, according to the budding Subcommander, is "proletarian politics".

Oppenheimer doesn't go into how this ideological huckster managed to convince the peasants of Chiapas he could help them--that would be an excellent and highly entertaining book in itself--, but he does show clearly what type of person cooked up the rebellion, which did no good for anyone. In short, it was the kind of person without enough sense to use something other than a ski mask (wool?) to disguise himself in the tropics.

By making plain the character of these two men, Oppenheimer adds much to our understanding of what has gone on in Mexico in the last few years. Still, much goes unanswered, such as the actual legality or illegality of the billionaires' banquet, where each of thirty rich men pledged $25 million to the PRI for the election of 1994. Oppenheimer tells of what a scandal there was when the publication El Economista broke the story, but doesn't say whether anyone was prosecuted or even had in fact broken the law. The implication of the secrecy of the banquet and the subsequent scandal, is that there are legal limits on campaign contributions in Mexico, as there are in the US. I'm not sure this is the case.

If in fact there are no legal limits, it becomes a question of whether Mexicans in general disapproved of their richest compatriots throwing their financial weight around. It's to Oppenheimer's credit that he notes the alternative to wealthy men giving dizzying sums to the PRI, which is the Mexican government giving dizzying sums to the PRI, which is the way it had been done since the Revolution.

Book Description

The Roller Coasteróthe Cyclone at Coney Island, the Racer at Pittsburghís Kenywood Park, the Blue Streak at Sanduskyís Cedar Pointóicon of the midway, capable of reducing even the strongest of grown men to screaming, white-knuckled hysterics. During the early decades of the 20th century, daring designers pushed the limits of these high-speed thrillers, reaching hundreds of feet in height and thousands of feet in length, with ever more miles of winding, twisting, lurching track dominating the landscapes of Americaís amusement parks. Most of the roller coasters from that golden age are gone today. Thankfully, they live on in memory, preserved in vintage postcards that provide a lasting record of the magnificent wooden structures that thrilled our parents, grandparents, and great-grandparents. ÝÝ

Customer Reviews:

Chock Full Of Roller Coaster History .......2004-12-09

I can't imagine a book jam-packed with more pictures of vintage coasters. Every page of the book has at least one picture that takes up a full half of the page (including a paragraph about it). There are rinky dink coasters from a 100 years ago to a whole chapter on Coney Island. This is must-have for a coaster fan. The book is a nice softcover; it's not some cheesy paperback.

Iconic America: A Roller-Coaster Ride through the Eye-Popping Panorama of American Pop Culture

Average customer rating:

Iconic America: A Roller-Coaster Ride through the Eye-Popping Panorama of American Pop Culture
Tommy Hilfiger , and George Lois
Manufacturer: Universe
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

Popular Culture | Social Sciences | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books

General | Social Sciences | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books

General | Fashion | Arts & Photography | Subjects | Books

General | Arts & Photography | Subjects | Books
ASIN: 0789315734
Release Date: 2007-11-06

Book Description

What is America? It’s Monopoly and Mickey Mouse, but also Sinatra and Fred Astaire. It’s the Declaration of Independence, but it’s also Barbie and Playboy, Winslow Homer and Rudi Gernreich’s topless bathing suit. This juxtaposition of images reflects America’s unique eclecticism, and the unprecedented influence that the images of America’s pop culture have had on the world. This book works as a great treasury of Americana, and as a mischievously enjoyable observation on all things truly American. Fashion designer Tommy Hilfiger and famous adman George Lois have crafted an enlightening book, searching American history to find over 350 people, symbols, and things of import. Their iconic and iconoclastic choices are entertainingly presented through surprising visual juxtapositions. Inspired by Tommy Hilfiger’s passion for Americana and George Lois’ wit, Iconic America dramatizes the national ethos, and makes us think about who we are and what we stand for, with humor and charm.

A Journal in Poem: The roller-coaster ride after high school

Average customer rating:

A Journal in Poem: The roller-coaster ride after high school
Lynn Mason-Frantz
Manufacturer: 1st Books Library
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Contemporary | General | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

Anthologies | Poetry | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

General | Poetry | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

Average customer rating:

LIKE A MADE FOR TV MOVIE
Overall, a good read- but flawed logic/characters/ending
Jumper
A roller coaster of a ride
Jumper: A Novel, is a very fast paced and run read

Jumper
Richard Barth
Manufacturer: St. Martin's Minotaur
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

General | Mystery | Mystery & Thrillers | Subjects | Books

General | Mystery & Thrillers | Subjects | Books
ASIN: 0312266081

Book Description

Richard Barth departs from his popular series featuring elderly sleuth Margaret Binton to introduce Dr. Samuel Garvey, the best and most daring roller coaster designer in the country, and to take his readers on the ride of their lives.

Garvey is now at work on his masterpiece, the Jumper, for the Angelus Corporation in Texas. The Jumper will do just that-the two cars will jump tracks with each other in the middle of the ride travelling over a 60 foot gap 75 feet in the air. This is the ride that will make or break Garvey as a designer and he is taking every step to insure that it is successful.

While in the middle of designing Jumper, he receives a phone call from Rachael White of the National Transportation Safety Board. She explains to him that there was an accident at the Cyclone in Coney Island and that she would like his help. It soon becomes clear that the accident wasn't an accident, but sabotage. What is even more disturbing is that the assailant left a note tying the crash to other recent "accidents" and threatening to strike again. But where? And why?

As the mystery unfolds and another tragedy is barely averted, the danger is closer to Garvey than he ever could have imagined. Not only is someone after his reputation, but also his life. An exhilarating novel that will leave you as breathless as the passengers on the Jumper.

Customer Reviews:

LIKE A MADE FOR TV MOVIE.......2004-08-29

JUMPER by Richard Barth reminds me of one of those glossy tv movies that puts somebody like David Hasselhoff and Jaclyn Smith together in a suspenseful, if somewhat unbelievable, plot. However, like some tv movies, this one isn't so bad.
Sam Garvey, a world renowned roller coaster designer, discovers that someone is sabotaging roller coasters across the country, resulting in death and injuries to many. He is joined by Rachel White, a National Transportation Safety agent, to try and figure out who this madman is, and why the notes left behind are signed by a Greek god.
There are no earth shattering surprises here, but there are some tense scenes of the rollercoaster rides and the climactic Jumper ride is appropriately exciting, although the book ends very quickly without any real rationalization behind the villain's motives.
A Quick and satisfying time waster.

Overall, a good read- but flawed logic/characters/ending.......2004-08-20

Overall, Jumper was an interesting read- it was good...not great, but good. Some of the events in the book were a bit illogical and I didn't buy into a whole lot of it, and the ending was really bad- very anticlimactic. I couldn't really say much about why it was a bad ending, without possibly spoiling the book for others, but I can say that the ending was very odd- very short, and things really resolved way too fast to be believable.

Garvey, the roller coaster designer, was an intresting character, and he was easy to like- but, like a lot of other things in this book, he fell into a quick relationship with another character way too fast- the story read as tho it was normal, and they had been together for years, when in reality it was a couple of weeks, and you wouldn't have expected the relationship to start at all.

Interesting information on rollercoasters- even if the rollercoaster in the book was totally implausible, and there were some exciting moments when it came to the rollercoaster accidents.

In the end- it was entertaining, but a lot of the logic was severely flawed, and ultimately it was hard to believe much of the plot points- which hurt the book, but, like I said, it was still entertaining overall.

Jumper.......2002-06-07

The Jumper is a book about an architech thats wants to make a new roller coaster. He finds out that there recently was a roller coaster crash in different places. At the end of each crah the person had left a note. He must find the mystery man before his idea comes to an end.
I'm really into architechure so i thought this was a good book. One of my favorite hobbies is roller coaster riding, and the book was about roller coasters so I knew i would like the book. This is a great brain buster book. It was a great mystery.
My favorite part of this book was when the Jumper first opened. The Jumper is a roller coaster that jumps over the other cart half way through the ride. I liked this part because of the way Richard Barth described the reaction of all the people. When you read this part it is like you are really riding the roller coaster with the people, it's really neat.

A roller coaster of a ride.......2001-01-31

I know that phrase is used over and over to describe things that are exciting, but it totally fits this book. There are many plot twists and surprises. The book is a very fast read (maybe that's because it's not as long as most novels). Even so, the characters are developed well. There aren't too many novels written about roller coasters or that take place in amusement parks, so I jump at the chance to read any that I find. There was a movie released in the mid-70's titled "Rollercoaster" starring George Segal, Richard Widmark, and a young Helen Hunt that has a plot similar to this book. Not entirely the same, but similar (a guy wants money and is destroying roller coasters at parks around the country.) If you've seen that movie, you would enjoy this book. I recommend them both!

Jumper: A Novel, is a very fast paced and run read.......2001-01-22

Jumper: A Novel was a very entertaining read. Dr. Samuel Garvey, a roller coaster expert has been currently working on his newest invention: the Jumper. The Jumper is designed to, after partway throught the ride,jump the tracks over another car and reach the other side safely.

While he works on this, roller coasters across the country start to mysteriously have accidents and deaths. After each incident the saboteur leaves a note.

When Garvey is pinpointed as the cheif suspect things get a little more tricky for him and the jumper.

I love roller coasters and this was a great one to read if you like them also. The book did not include a lot of "riding" a roller coaster but it was immensly entertaining.

Average customer rating:
Roller Coaster - ACE (American Coaster Enthusiasts) 1993 Membership Directory - Volume XIV Issue 4
American Coaster Enthusiasts
Manufacturer: American Coaster Enthusiasts
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Pamphlet
ASIN: B000U3Z70A

Product Description

This publication has a two-stapled spine and b/w cover. The front shows The Loch Ness Monster which opened in 1978 at Busch Gardens, and the back shows The Rebel Yell at Paramount's Kings Dominion which was the scene of a roller coaster marathon in 1977. Fifty-five pages cover an alphabetical listing of members, honorary members, regional reps and membership trivia. This magazine published quarterly by the American Coaster Enthusiasts in Pittsburgh, PA.

Roller Coaster - the Bank of America and the Future of American Banking

Average customer rating:

Roller Coaster - the Bank of America and the Future of American Banking
Moira Johnston
Manufacturer: Ticknor & Fields
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000J0PUPG

Average customer rating:

The Roller Coaster Kid and Other Poems
Barry Wallenstein
Manufacturer: Thomas Y. Crowell
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

General | Baby-3 | Children's Books | Subjects | Books

Average customer rating:

A real page-turner. You'll feel the ups & downs so hang on!

Thrill
Robert Byrne
Manufacturer: Carroll & Graf Pub
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

General | Mystery | Mystery & Thrillers | Subjects | Books

General | Mystery & Thrillers | Subjects | Books
ASIN: 0786701994

Customer Reviews:

A real page-turner. You'll feel the ups & downs so hang on!.......1998-02-08

This book is a real thriller. Like all good thrillers, there's a love story intertwined. It's a fast read and you'll almost feel the roller coaster's ups and downs. It's a quick read but well worth the time. Don't read the last two chapters right after lunch.

Average customer rating:
Chinese Kites How to Make and Fly Them
D. F. Jue
Manufacturer: Tuttle Pub
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

General | Puzzles & Games | Entertainment | Subjects | Books
Similar Items:

Asian Kites: Asian Arts & Crafts for Creative Kids

ASIN: 0804801010

Average customer rating:
Chinese Kites: How to Make and Fly Them
David F. Jue
Manufacturer: Charles E. Tuttle Co.
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000NZ3ZW2

Book Description

In this detailed economic investigation of sustainable development, a noted professor of economics argues that many of the alarms commonly sounded by environmentalists are, in fact, unfounded, and that current sustainable development policies should be reconsidered in light of their effects on the earth's human population, such as increased poverty and environmental degradation in developing countries. In a rare balanced counterpoint to popular sustainable development rhetoric, Professor Beckerman forces policy makers to consider whether future generations have rights that morally constrain and trump the claims of those alive today, particularly the masses of people living in dire poverty, arguing that the current sustainable development program is a menace to the prosperity and freedom of both current and future generations.

Customer Reviews:

Should we worry about running out of oil? or take any precautions?.......2006-12-20

A popular idea lately with government and the media has been "sustainable development," which is that we are rapidly depleting essential natural resources and are thus short-changing future generations. Beckerman contends that the whole notion is false and, in spite of regular predictions throughout history of shortages, we haven't run out of such resources, but even if we did there are free market mechanisms to counter such conditions. Also, since future generations are likely to be more prosperous than we are now, we have no such obligations to sacrifice for benefits of dubious value. He goes on to argue that projections of climate change are likewise not worrysome, because technology will allow us to adapt, and any precautions taken now should be cost-effective or should not be attempted (the "Precautionary Principle"). Overall, he advocates more for the poor of the world and improving their conditions as the best way to ensure future improvements in the environment. He argues that they need access to sufficient energy supplies (regardless of carbon emissions) to improve their lot and to deny it to them is a form of imperialism, and points out that developed nations take much better care of the environment than developing nations.

Much of his logic is persuasive, especially as he explains how market mechanisms will deal with possible fuel shortages in the future. For example, if known reserves of oil become depleted (and known reserves are ample for a long time yet) prices will increase which will encourage the discovery of more sources, and technology will find a way to obtain the oil from sources that were previously too expensive to mine (such as the tar sands in Canada). Technology is an important part of the equation, because future advances will also improve renewable sources of energy such as solar and wind which are currently not economically viable. He also points out that numerous and repeated past predictions of shortages of essential materials (such as lead, tin, and oil among many others) have never come true.

The weakest point of the book (and maybe I just failed to properly understand his reasoning) was that he looks at everything from an economic perspective. He acknowledges that there are asthetic or spiritual values associated with wilderness and natural environments that are difficult to quantify with simple monetary values, but he dismisses such things as simple failures in allocating property rights (such as placing a value on clean air or water, and charging polluters for fouling such public resources). I found his arguments that species biodiversity has value to us only for the potential of future medicines to be unconvincing, and his argument that caution in proceeding with genetically-modified foods only harms the poor of the world to be reckless (although I'll agree that current policies are overly cautious). Also, he limits his critique of sustainable development mostly to mineral and energy resources where the extent of reserves is poorly known, and fails to address how it might be applied in situations such as fishing, where numbers can be more easily estimated and depletion more readily observed.

Overall, the book brings up many interesting points that are seldom thought through properly in the current debates over our responsibilities regarding climate change and preserving the environment - and our responsibilities for meeting the needs of the poor of the world. Good reading for anyone who is seriously concerned about such important issues and willing to keep an open mind.

A Rebuttal to "A Poverty of Reason".......2006-10-13

"A Poverty of Reason" should rightly be called "An Attack on the Concept of Sustainable Development". Beckerman's title implies that opinions other than his own are impoverished, regardless of their qualifications. The central tenant of the book, that sustainable development is inherently confusing, undesirable, and possibly immoral reminds me of a petulant conversation between an adolescent and a parent. On observing the teenager leaving the house the parent might say "Be safe!" to which Beckerman, if he were the teenager would reply "How safe?", "What does safe mean?", "What things are considered safe?", "How do I know when I've achieved safeness?". The frustrated parent knows that his child understands what he means by "safe" and although there are instances in which they might disagree on safe behavior, there are more cases in which they would agree.

It is much the same with the term "Sustainable Development." Beckerman understands full well what it means despite his lawyerly attacks on other writer's attempts to define it. God help us if Beckerman had been participating when the countries founders declared "Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness" to be rights of man. Had he been alive, he would have attributed all of the ills of society in his day to ambiguity of the word "Happiness".

The fact there is disagreement about a concept's meaning does not make the concept any less valuable. Beckerman should choose the join the debate rather than attacking the debate itself. I found his ideas on climate change to be one of the more reasonable chapters, not because I agree with his conclusion, but because he actually offered an opinion of his own and suggested a policy to fit it.

I would recommend that Beckerman read "Fooled by Randomness" by Nassim Taleb particularly as it relates to predicting "Black Swan" events. Beckerman claims that predictions of long-term shortages of resources are wrong because some predictions have been wrong in the past. It is like saying "All swans are white" because you've never seen a black one. Observing only white swans, no matter how many you see, does not mean they are all white, while observing a single black swan does prove they are not all white. Historically, we have had numerous "black swan" events relating to resource shortage. We know they exist and that more will occur over time regardless of the accuracy of predicting them.

Beckerman attempts the same philosophical drubbing of the "Precautionary Principal" that he gave "Sustainable Development." He wants more clear definitions of the words "serious", "damage", and "threat" as if these are mystical phrases. He uses as an example of the destructive power of the Precautionary Principal the regulation of the bio-tech industry. This is an industry that has yet to articulate it safety to my father, a PhD in biology, let alone the public as a whole. His claim that developing nations are suffering as a result of the slowdown in bio-tech is a contradiction of earlier claims that there are no real food shortages, only political upheaval that distort food distribution (I happen to agree with him in this case). Clearly more rapid advances in biotech would not solve issues of political inequity.

Although Beckerman has little patience with the moral aspect of environmentalism, he has little problem moralizing in general. His particular platform is the responsibility of developed nations to the developing world. To Beckerman, someone dumping toxic waste into a river is not immoral (simply violating property rights), but insisting that imported goods be held to the same environmental standards as domestic products is not only immoral, but imperialist. What rubbish! Using a tariff to raise the price of an imported good manufactured using a less-costly and more polluting method than we allow domestically is simply placing an economic value on that aspect of the environment, something that Beckerman should understand and appreciate.

Beckerman seems to claim that pollution is an inevitable part of development and that is should be allowed to take its course. He believes that developed countries are less polluted today (true for some resources, not true for others) so we can expect developing countries to see improvements in their environments as they grow. But there is no reason to believe that pollution and the wholesale destruction of natural areas is a requirement for development and it should not be our standard.

I do like some of Beckerman's notions (not original) of placing a market value and assigning property rights to all resources. I should have rights to the air over my home and in public areas and those that dump in it should have to pay a fee that creates a real incentive for them for reduction. The same is true of the pollution caused by mining, waste management and energy exploration to name a few. How this is accomplished without the central planning and tariffs that Beckerman abhors is a mystery to me. Surely he does not believe that these industries will offer up a pollution bounty on their own?

A noted Stanford professor, speaking on global warming, said that perhaps the greatest enemy of environmentalism is the far left of the Green movement, not because their goals aren't worthy, but because their alarmist rhetoric lacks reason causing the entire movement lose credibility. Had Beckerman's book dealt with only the fringes of environmentalism I might have had some sympathy for his arguments. Attacking the goals of "Sustainable Development" as inherently immoral and imperialist is, at best, unreasonable and, at worst, silly.

A Poverty of Reason; Sustainable Development and Economic Growth.......2005-11-22

Will economic growth deplete the natural resources on which it depends? Are we in danger of running out of energy sources? Will global warming bring widespread devastation on the planet? Does unbridled economic growth threaten the balance of nature?

Looking at the evidence on these questions, Oxford University economist Wildred Beckerman finds that many of these fears are unfounded. While billions of people around the world suffer under appalling environmental conditions, such as a lack of clean water and sanitation, these problems are primarily caused by poverty, not unsustainable development.

Despite the fact that so many are touting the wisdom of "sustainable development" as though its meaning and desirability were an established fact, there is no widespread agreement over its meaning, and its desirability is too often not subjected to scientific, economic, and philosophical scrutiny.

The author points out in his introduction to the book that support for sustainable development is based on a confusion about its ethical implications and on a flagrant disregard of the relevant factual evidence.

The popularity of sustainable development is founded on two indefensible propositions, according to the author:

Economic growth will soon come up against the limits of resource availability.
Sustainable development represents the moral high ground.
It is argued that action is required in order to reduce to "sustainable" levels the rate at which resources are used, which, Beckerman argues, is an impossible task unless we were to stop using some resources completely. Also, he asserts, the risk to the human race from climate change is greatly exaggerated.

Sustainable development's place in the moral high ground is questioned, as there are few coherent reasons to believe that sustainable development is an ethically superior goal.

Chapter one focuses on two questions:

What exactly does sustainable development mean?
What is so good about it?
The World Commission on Environment and Development defines the term as "development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs." Beckerman contends that this criterios is not very helpful, and for a number of reasons.

First, since not every need of the current generation is being met, why should future generations be any different? Furthermore, he reasons that people at different points in time or at different income levels or with different cultural or national backgrounds differ about the importance they attach to different needs.

Also, this injunction leaves no room for trade-offs. If it is true that future generations will face serious environmental problems, how many of the needs and wants of the current generation are to be sacrificed in order to help future generations meet their needs? Do we eve know what these needs might be?

Another concept of sustainable development relates to the conservation of plant and animal species. What price must we pay to conserve all plant and animal species for posterity? Is this even the natural order of things? Given that approximately 98% of all the species that have ever existed are believed to have become extinct already, how many of us can truly say that we have suffered as a result?

As for the moral high ground, the idea that we have a responsibility to maintain the environment exactly as it is today is morally repugnant. Given the large numbers of people who are living in poverty and environmental degradation, we cannot ignore these real human needs in order to save every single one of the several million species of beetle that exist.

Chapter two concentrates on finite resources and the prospects for economic growth. Resources are either finite or they are not. If they are, then the only way to ensure that they last forever is to stop using them. But of course, even the most fanatical proponents of sustainability don't go that far, and would reasonably have to admit that the human race will eventually find ways of coping with the changes that take place in he balance between demand and supply of resources.

In other words, you can't have it both ways. Either resources are finite in some relevant sense, in which case even zero growth will fail to save us in the long run, or resources are not really finite in any relevant sense, in which case the argument for slowing growth collapses.

Actually, the author contends, not only are resources not finite in any relevant sense, but the evidence of all past history, including even the recent past, shows that there have been no trends toward the exhaustion of any resources that matter. History is littered with predictions of imminent resources scarcity that have subsequently been proven false.

In 1929, a study concluded that the world's resources of lead cannot meet the anticipated demand. Yet for the rest of the twentieth century, no one worried about a lead shortage. In fact, people have been more worried that there is too much of it around.

The same 1929 study concluded that the known resources of tin do not satisfy the increasing demand of the industrial nations, predicting that the supply of tin would be exhausted within ten years. More than forty years later, a 1972 report stated that tin reserves would last us for only another fifteen years. Yet here we are in 2004, still using up that ten year supply that we were believed to have back in 1929.

There are two chief reasons why predictions of imminent exhaustion of resources have proven false. First, they are invariably based on comparisons between existing known reserves and the rate at which they are being used up. Second, they ignore the economic mechanisms that are set in motion when any resource becomes scarce.

Even in the postwar world, with unprecedented rates of economic growth, resources have more than increased to meet demand. In 1945, estimated known copper reserves were 100 million metric tons. During the following twenty-five years of economic growth, 93 million metric tons were mined, yet the reserves were estimated at more than 300 million metric tons - three times what they were at the outset.

Whenever demand for any particular resource begins to run up against supply limitations, a wide variety of forces are set in motion to remedy the situation. These forces begin with a rise in price, which in turn leads to all sorts of secondary favorable feedbacks, including a shift to substitutes, an increase in exploration, and technical progress that brings down the cost of exploration, refining, and processing, as well as the costs of the substitutes.

Sustainable development schemes do not account for the probability that, without unnecessary economic intervention, future generations may be much wealthier than is the current generation. That is the trend. Before asking the present generation, including its poorest members, to make sacrifices in the interests of future generations, shouldn't we take account of the strong likelihood that the latter will be far richer than the former? Where is the high ground in taking from the poor to give to the rich?

Chapter 3 further explores the fallacy of basing predictions on current demands. Will future generations have the same reliance on oil and fossil fuels that we have today?

In addition to the constraints on materials such as food and energy, it is argued that economic growth is leading to mass destruction of biodiversity. This destruction, the proponents of sustainable development allege, has two types of harmful effects:

It deprives the human race of an essential input into our welfare, notably a source of future medicinal remedies;
We are depriving future generations of the environmental inheritance that is their due.
Most of the world's biodiversity is found in tropical or semitropical regions, which happen to be mainly in developing countries. In the past, any loss of biodiversity caused by humans was the result of hunting, but today it is caused almost entirely by the damage done to the habitat of millions of species that live in forests, particularly in tropical and semitropical regions.

These are difficult to measure because we don't know how many species are becoming extinct each year, or even how many there are to begin with. The recorded fact that 641 species have been certified as having become extinct since the year 1600 does not exclude the possibility that many others have become extinct without anyone knowing it, particularly given that the vast majority of all species, including plants and animals, are insects, and about 40% of these are beetles.

Beckerman argues that the most alarming features of the whole debate is the unscientific attitude of some distinguished biologists. There is no empirical basis for the fear that continued economic growth is unsustainable, he says. Even with respect to food or energy supplies, two types of resources that have been most frequently the subject of pessimistic predictions, there is no cause for alarm. The destruction of biodiversity also appears to be exaggerated, although the author concedes that there are some real problems in some countries.

Yet, he argues, slower growth is more likely to perpetuate market failures than to promote their elimination, as faster economic growth makes it easier to compensate those who may lose out from an elimination of market imperfections.

In Chapter 4, Beckerman takes on climate change. While environmental groups claim that unchecked climate change will lead to catastrophic declines in world income, requiring drastic international action to reduce carbon emissions, particularly by the advanced nations, who are regarded as morally responsible for the high carbon concentrations in the atmosphere.

However, the author contends, three key points need to be established in order to justify international action to reduce carbon emissions on the grounds of overall benefit to the global community:

Predictions of significant climate change are reasonably reliable;
The damage climate change might impose on the world as a whole will exceed the costs of limiting or preventing it; and
The distribution of the costs and benefits among countries of actions to drastically cut carbon emissions is accepted as reasonably equitable.
Only the first link in the chain of argument gets any attention in the media, perhaps because it is the only link that has any strength at all.

Even the predictions of significant climate change are probably exaggerated by the vast scientific and bureaucratic establishment that is heavily invested in advancing the threat of global warming.

Even assuming that the global consensus is correct and that man-made emissions of carbon dioxide will result in an rise in average global temperatures over the course of this century, Beckerman asserts that there is no foundation for the second and third points concerning the likely impact of climate change and the way it is distributed between countries and generations.

For the world as a whole, the author argues, the beneficial effects of moderate global warming in the range predicted by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) will outweigh its harmful effects chiefly because global warming will increase food production in what are now temperate or cold regions of the world.

With moderate global warming, some regions will be opened up for agriculture, while growing seasons will be extended in large areas, such as the northern portions of the United States, Canada, Russia, and China. Higher carbon concentrations in the atmosphere will raise crop yields.

For the world as a whole, global warming will mean more rain (or snow), and increasing cloud cover means that many parts of the world will be cooler during the day and warmer at night, leading to increased soil moisture.

Given that climate change can have favorable as well as unfavorable effects, particularly in light of the enormous obstacles to accurate predictions of climate change for individual regions, it isn't surprising that most experts cannot foresee the likely net damage for the world as a whole that might result from climate change.

It is true, Beckerman admits, that the impact of climate change on developing countries, where average temperatures are higher, soils are poorer, and technology and infrastructures are less developed, is likely to be harmful, yet he argues that faster economic development in these countries will help them to adapt to the change.

A major flaw in the more gloomy predictions is that they assume that farmers are stupid and incapable of any adaptation to climate variations.

Chapter 5 discusses the precautionary principle established as one of the basic principles of sustainable development.

The idea that there can be full scientific certainty about the consequences of any change in the environment is absurd, and if it had ever been taken seriously, we'd still be living in the Stone Age. Even changes that the environmentalists favor, such as replacement of fossil fuels with other sources of energy, will have environmental effects, and it is impossible to prove that they would not have undesirable consequences of their own.

It cannot be proven that there can never be harmful consequences to greater exploitation of solar energy, a longtime goal of the green movement.

Only about forty years ago, there was a widespread alarm that the world was entering a new ice age. Had policies been put into place to prevent this, the results may have been, as we now know, catastrophic.

Had we taken seriously past predictions of the imminent exhaustion of fossil fuels, not only would many developments that rely on inexpensive energy have been stifled in the interests of energy conservation, but many technological developments that permitted a vastly expanded disovery, exploitation, and use of sources of energy would have not have occurred. The world would be a poorer place, without many of the innovations we now depend upon, such as vaccines and antibiotics.

The author suggests, as an alternative to the precautionary principles of sustainable development, waiting until we have a better idea of what we may be dealing with. Large scale action, as suggested by the proponents of sustainable development, could be catastrophic.

In Chapter 6, Beckerman discusses the plan for bureaucratic regulation and protectionism.

At the 1992 UNCED, the United Nations adopted a document of several hundred pages, known as Agenda 21, which set out, among other things, the agreed intentions of the countries to take account of environmental objectives in their domestic policies, to monitor their own developments from the point of view of their sustainability, and to report on these developments to the newly established Commission on Sustainable Development.

In addition to the UN commission, countless other institutes, government departments, and non-governmental organizations (NGOs), all for the purpose of promoting sustainable development, have been established all over the world. In the United States, even while our Legislature has refused to ratify Agenda 21, its policies have been adopted by our governmental agencies and departments.

One of the worst consequences of excessive bureaucratic intervention in daily life is the bureaucratic preference for regulation over market mechanisms to deal with social and economic problems. Clearly this is the case in environmental protection.

The author argues that it is immoral to use public funds for the purpose of helping plants rather than people, while reducing the future income growth prospects of the poorest nations by promoting the growth-reducing program of sustainable development.

Also, there is no reason why the taxpayers of wealthier nations should contribute to an action that is in the interests of a minority who happen to attach a high existence value to certain environmental assets. Taxpayers in rich countries may have higher priorities. Nothing prevents people who have a strong private preference for preserving rain forests or their indigenous species from organizing voluntary contributions to help such preservation in the same way that many charitable organizations exist so that people can make donations to help starving children overseas. Coercion to impose the environmental values of some groups of people in the developed world on the people of other nations is morally indefensible.

If other countries are to be punished in some way for failing to respect universal basic values, Beckerman asserts that we should take into consideration that many of them indulge in far worse crimes against humanity than cutting down their trees. Yet these violations of basic and universally accepted human rights do not seem to arouse the same indignation among the environmental protectionists that they feel toward the failure of governments to attach an overriding importance to the protection of the environment.

In the same way that for some people an excessive love of animals is the counterpart of hatred of human beings, in some people an excessive concern with future generations is the counterpart of indifference to the suffering of people alive today.

Chapter 7, the last of the book, discusses the ethics of sustainable development.

Beckerman points out that sustainable development is an excuse for a new form of imperialism. Regardless of the accuracy of the claims that are made, sustainable development is used as a means of controlling markets for the benefit of the few at the expense of the many. Sustainable development has practical implications that would be morally unacceptable even if its ethical foundations were valid in theory, which they are not.

Even accepting the arguments of the proponents of sustainable development, which the author does not, he suggests that the projected wants and needs of future generations do not ethically trump those of the current generation. The interests that they will have must take their place in the balance together with the interests of people alive today, many of whom live in dire poverty.

Still, he agrees that the interests of future generations shouldn't be ignored. He surmises that future generations are on a whole likely to enjoy much higher living standards than those prevailing today, unless growth is successfully curtailed. A rise in living standards will not ensure that all environmental problems will disappear, nor that poverty will be eradicated everywhere.

The moral policy suggested by Beckerman is to weigh the interests of different generations. The safest predication that can be made is that people will always want life, security, self-respect, and freedom from tyranny, oppression, and humiliation. Unfortunately, one can also safely predict that there will always be forces in society that will threaten these basic human wants.

In contrast with the problems of widespread poverty or acute environmental problems, one concern will never be eradicated: the ever-present threat to basic human rights.

Sustainable development represents one such threat.

Misunderstanding Beckerman's Purpose -- Response to Balfour.......2003-11-20

Though it is unorthodox to do so, I believe I need to respond to Mr. Balfour's review because he appears to misunderstand the purpose of Prof. Beckerman's book as well as the substance of the environmental idea that Beckerman is challenging.

Beckerman is criticizing the notion of "sustainability" -- that the planet's development rate cannot be sustained in the future because resources will not be extractable at a rate that would keep up with future demand. Hence, sustainability isn't an aesthetic argument, but an economic one. Balfour's criticism that Beckerman does not consider the aesthetic arguments for environmentalism is misplaced because that is not Beckerman's project. Balfour's comments thus are akin to criticizing a military history book on Napoleonic tactics for not discussing the romance between Napoleon and Josephine.

For people intrigued with the arguments concerning sustainability, Beckerman's book is a must-read. It offers short but very thoughtful examinations of several apparently problematic assumptions that lie at the heart of the sustainability philosophy. The sustainability notion emerged about two decades ago when environmentalists were forced to retreat from their "finite resources" argument (i.e., the world will run out of resource X) because, as highlighted by the famous Julian Simon-Paul Weyrich bet, the idea that the planet would simply "run out" became too untenable for all but the most radical environmentalists to hold. The more thoughtful environmentalists shifted to the Malthusian/Ricardoian notion that extraction rates will one day be unable to keep pace with consumption -- in part because resource extractors in the future will constrict supply to further drive up prices.

Unlike the finite resources argument, the sustainability has good thought behind it. But does that theory hold up? Beckerman offers some pretty good arguments that it does not, and he also points out some very worrisome side-effects of the sustainability philosophy -- side-effects that could produce serious near-future ecological and human disasters.

Balfour is correct that we must give serious thought to future generations when we set current resource policies. Unfortunately, he does not appear to realize that his philosophy puts those children at risk, nor does he seem to appreciate that the environmental catastrophes that he laments -- overpopulation, subsistence farming -- occur in the Third World whose ecological ethic he cherishes instead of the First World whose ethic he derides. Fortunately, Beckerman -- as well as his future challengers and their respondents -- will promote a better world for the generations to come.

An insightful and short read.......2003-07-16

The author of this book is beginning the arduous task of reassessing ideas that have pervaded economic and social thought since Malthus. This book attacks the idea of "sustainable growth" as illogically based and harmful to developing and developed countries alike. The anti-"sustainable-growth" movement has been growing in the past ten years (and even longer), sparking a serious if somewhat hidden debate by academics fearful of the indoctrinated masses. The author brings together some of the most compelling arguments against "sustainable growth". He does not present the entire argument for any of his points, but rather presents us with a book that should spark intellectual thought, as opposed to environmental fear mongering. The author's style is not particularly lithe; but, it is functional without being too stodgy.

Some of the authors main arguments include:
1.) From an economic perspective, it may be cheaper to deal with the costs of pollution (such as levies to prevent rising ocean water from swamping cities etc) than to pay the cost of abating pollution.
2.) The environmental benefit of ideas such as the Kyoto treaty may be next to nothing while the financial costs are great.
3.) Future generations will most likely have much higher income than we will; therefore, it is immoral to afflict today's population, especially in developing countries, with costs that could best be borne by future generations.
4.) The precautionary principle is an illogical one. Paranoid scientists will then be able to cost the global economy trillions on a whim.
5.) Once countries reach a certain per capita income threshold they begin to improve their own environments. Therefore, retarding growth is . . . unadvisable.
6.) Future generations have no rights, as they do not exist.
7.) Limiting the pollution of developing countries impedes growth and delays expansion of average lifespans.
8.) Most interestingly, he alludes to the idea that environmentalism may be a new form of imperialism. The rich countries impress their values of clean environments on those who would rather have enough clean food or drinking water (resources are not unlimited).

(reviewer's note): While many people mention that those who write in favor of companies are bought off by capitalists, it is also important to note that many environmental organizations as well as international organizations (such as the UN) depend on the public perception of unacceptable environmental conditions to further their agenda as well.

This book got a 4 and not a 5 because it is a compilation of many existing ideas with the added flair of a few new insights. It is more of a workhorse than a show horse.

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Book Review: A poverty of reason sustainable development and economic growth [A book review from: Biological Conservation]
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A Poverty of Reason: Sustainable Development and Economic Growth.(Book review): An article from: Geoscience Canada

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A Poverty of Reason: Sustainable Development and Economic Growth.(Book review): An article from: Geoscience Canada
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Title: A Poverty of Reason: Sustainable Development and Economic Growth.(Book review)
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The unsustainability of sustainability.(Book Review): An article from: Regulation

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The unsustainability of sustainability.(Book Review): An article from: Regulation
Richard L. Gordon
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Title: The unsustainability of sustainability.(Book Review)
Author: Richard L. Gordon
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Date: December 22, 2003
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