Contents -- Preface -- 1. THE IDEA OF PROGRESS -- 1.1 Cultural evolution -- The agricultural revolution -- Early forms of writing -- 1.2 Condorcet -- 1.3 Godwin -- 1.4 Adam Smith -- Suggestions for Further Reading -- 2. THE DISMAL SCIENCE -- 2.1 Malthus -- 2.2 Ricardo and the Iron Law of Wages -- Suggestions for Further Reading -- 3. DARK SATANIC MILLS -- 3.1 Development of the steam engine -- The discovery of atmospheric pressure -- Steam engines using atmospheric pressure -- 3.2 Working conditions -- 3.3 The slow acceptance of birth control in England -- Suggestions for further reading -- 4. HOBSON'S THEORY -- 4.1 The colonial era -- 4.2 Hobson's explanation -- 4.3 The neocolonial era? -- Suggestions for further reading -- 5. MAINSTREAM INDUSTRIALISM -- 5.1 Trade unions and minimum wage laws -- Robert Owen and social reform -- Rusting of the Iron Law -- 5.2 Rising standards of living . -- 5.3 Robber barons and philanthropists -- "Hain't I got the power?" -- Carnegie's philanthropies -- 5.4 The conict between capitalism and communism -- The Russian Revolution -- The First Red Scare -- McCarthyism -- the Cold War -- Capitalism triumphant -- 5.5 Globalization -- 5.6 Say's law -- Suburbia -- Keeping up appearances -- Suggestions for further reading -- 6. VEBLEN, GANDHI AND THE GREENS -- 6.1 Veblen -- economics as anthropology -- 6.2 Gandhi as an economist -- 6.3 Thoreau -- 6.4 The counter-culture -- 6.5 The Brundtland Report -- 6.6 The Earth Summit at Rio -- Suggestions for further reading -- 7. GROWTH AND NONRENEWABLE RESOURCES -- 7.1 Biology and economics -- 7.2 The Club of Rome -- 7.3 Global energy resources -- 7.4 Hubbert peaks for oil and gas -- 7.5 Oilsands, tarsands and heavy oil -- 7.6 Coal -- 7.7 Climate change -- 7.8 Metals -- 7.9 Groundwater -- 7.10 Topsoil -- Suggestions for further reading -- 8. RENEWABLE ENERGY.

8.1 Beyond the fossil fuel era -- 8.2 Biomass -- 8.3 Solar energy -- Solar thermal power plants -- Solar designs in architecture -- Solar systems for heating water and cooking -- 8.4 Wind energy -- 8.5 Hydroelectric power -- 8.6 Energy from the ocean -- Tidal power -- Wave energy -- Ocean thermal energy conversion -- Methane clatherates -- 8.7 Geothermal energy -- 8.8 Hydrogen technologies -- Hydrogen fuel cells -- 8.9 Some concluding remarks -- Suggestions for further reading -- 9. ECONOMICS WITHOUT GROWTH -- 9.1 The transition from growth to a steady state - minimizing the trauma -- 9.2 Keynesian economics -- 9.3 The transition to a sustainable economy -- 9.4 Population and goods per capita -- Suggestions for further reading -- 10. OPTIMUM GLOBAL POPULATION -- 10.1 The Green Revolution -- 10.2 Energy inputs of agriculture -- 10.3 Limitations on cropland -- Optimum population in the long-term future -- 10.4 The demographic transition -- 10.5 Urbanization -- 10.6 Achieving economic equality . -- 10.7 The need for new values -- Suggestions for further reading -- 11. THE PROBLEM OF WAR -- 11.1 The passions of mankind -- The explosion of human knowledge -- Tribal emotions and nationalism -- Formation of group identity in modern nations -- 11.2 Modern weapons -- Hiroshima and Nagasaki -- The postwar nuclear arms race -- Flaws in the concept of nuclear deterrence -- Future weapons -- 11.3War as a business -- Eisenhower's farewell address -- The devil's dynamo -- Resource wars -- 11.4War as a hindrance to global equality -- Indirect costs of war -- Destruction of infrastructure -- Environmental damage -- 11.5 Global inequalities as a hindrance to peace -- Inequalities maintained by force -- Rich nations fear global democracy -- 11.6 The future of global governance -- Peace within nations -- Federations -- Laws binding on individuals -- The Tobin Tax.

Voting reforms -- 11.7 Global ethics -- Education for world citizenship -- The role of the mass media -- The role of religion -- Suggestions for further reading -- 12. SCIENCE: ITS OPPORTUNITIES AND DANGERS -- 12.1 Science as organized knowledge -- The predictive value of statements -- Reductionism versus Holism -- Induction versus deduction -- Is science value-free? -- 12.2 Exponential growth -- 12.3 Patrons of science and engineering -- Soldiers in the laboratory -- UNESCO as a patron of science and technology -- 12.4 Rapidly growing fields -- Biotechnology -- The Asilomar Conference -- Information technology and microelectronics -- Autoassembly of supramolecular structures -- Artificial life -- 12.5 Science and technology out of control? -- Science loses its innocence -- Respect for natural evolution -- 12.6 The need for ethics -- The impossibility of "Star Wars" -- Global ethics -- A non-anthropocentric component for ethics -- Suggestions for further reading -- 13. LEARNING TO LIVE IN HARMONY -- 13.1 New goals for education -- The social impact of science -- Global ethics -- 13.2 Learning from pre-industrial cultures -- The Pythagorean concept of harmony -- The concept of harmony in Chinese civilization -- India -- Original American societies -- African respect for nature -- Traditional agricultural societies -- 13.3 Science and social institutions -- 13.4 Building the future -- Suggestions for further reading -- Appendix A The Carnot cycle -- A.1 Entropy -- A.2 The efficiency of heat engines -- Appendix B Dangers of nuclear power generation -- B.1 The Chernobyl disaster -- B.2 Reactors and nuclear weapons -- Suggestions for further reading -- Index.