Now Playing: Common Wealth by Jeffrey D. Sachs

judy — Thu, 23 Oct 2008 23:42:32 +0000

Jeffrey D. Sachs is the director of the Earth Institute, Quetelet professor of sustainable development, and professor of health policy and management at Columbia University. I heard Jeffrey Sachs discussing this book in a radio interview. He speaks compellingly on how we can achieve the four key goals of our global society: environmental sustainability (including a solution to climate change), the stabilization of the world’s popultion, the end of extreme poverty, and a new era of global cooperation to solve common problems. Sachs emphasizes these will take only modest investments, but they must be globally cooperative. “The main problem, I shall suggest time and time gain, is not the absence of reasonable and low-cost solutions, but the difficulty of implementing global cooperation to put those solutions in place.” My hope is if we could just make a start, cooperation would become a habit.

From the Wikipedia article:

Originally one of the youngest economics professors in the history of Harvard University, Sachs became renowned for his work on the challenges of economic development, environmental sustainability, poverty alleviation, debt cancellation, and globalization. He has authored numerous books and articles on these subjects, including The End of Poverty and Common Wealth, both New York Times bestsellers. He has been named one of Time Magazine’s “100 Most Influential People in the World” several times.

I’ll check back when I’ve finished…or buy the book for yourself.

This article in Slate is an entertaining discussion of the book between the author and Martin Wolf, associate editor and chief economics commentator at the Financial Times, and author of Why Globalization Works.

riotsystems.com » the dismal page

Now Playing: Common Wealth by Jeffrey D. Sachs