Our Country the Planet by Shridath Ramphal, Lime Tree, London, pp 291, £16.99
Drawing on his experience of service on all five international commissions on the future of the world from Brundtland in 1987 to last month's Earth Summit, Shridath Ramphal proposes strategies for 'enlightened change', suggesting that the industrialised rich countries forge a partnership with the developing poor countries that acknowledges our need for mutual sustenance. He believes that global survival depends upon the emergence of an international environmental ethic.
Ramphal recognises that the world's worst polluter is poverty, and that it will take a commitment across the world to eradicate it. He suggests that rich countries bring their activities within sustainable limits, relinquish Third World debt, remove barriers to trade in manufactured goods and make access to technology equitable. In response, the South cooperates on conventions to preserve biodiversity and protect the climate from harmful changes.
Ramphal estimates ...
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