Even in premodern times, human beings intervened in the natural world around them and changed it in order to survive. But they always tried to make these changes positive rather than destructive, because they knew the natural world was the foundation on which their lives, and the lives of future generations, depended. It was only with the dawn of modern science, with the Enlightenment, the Industrial Revolution and the market economy, that short-termist thinking and behaviour took over, and nature and the environment began to be exploited without any thought for their long-term survival. It is now clear that such ways of thinking and such behaviour will, in the long term, destroy our whole environment and ultimately lead to our own destruction.

• ‘An encyclopaedic read of rare brilliance.’ - Ingo Mose on ‘Die Alpen’

• An eye-opening book that explains the world and motivates the reader to take action

• The culmination of a lifetime of research

• Why we need to revolutionise our relationship with nature

• Is there a way of interacting with nature without destroying it?