An icon of the environmental movement outlines a provocative approach for reclaiming our planet According to Stewart Brand, a lifelong environmentalist who sees everything in terms of solvable design problems, three profound transformations are under way on Earth right now. Climate change is real and is pushing us toward managing the planet as a whole. Urbanization-half the world's population now lives in cities, and eighty percent will by midcentury-is altering humanity's land impact and wealth. And biotechnology is becoming the world's dominant engineering tool. In light of these changes, Brand suggests that environmentalists are going to have to reverse some longheld opinions and embrace tools that they have traditionally distrusted. Only a radical rethinking of traditional green pieties will allow us to forestall the cataclysmic deterioration of the earth's resources. Whole Earth Discipline shatters a number of myths and presents counterintuitive observations on why cities are actually greener than countryside, how nuclear power is the future of energy, and why genetic engineering is the key to crop and land management. With a combination of scientific rigor and passionate advocacy, Brand shows us exactly where the sources of our dilemmas lie and offers a bold and inventive set of policies and solutions for creating a more sustainable society. In the end, says Brand, the environmental movement must become newly responsive to fast-moving science and take up the tools and discipline of engineering. We have to learn how to manage the planet's global-scale natural infrastructure with as light a touch as possible and as much intervention as necessary.

《地球的法则:21世纪地球宣言》是斯图尔特•布兰德近10年来关于环境运动之反思而写成的一本著作，主要是讲述了作者关于城市、核能以及转基因的重新思考。他探讨了关于城市、能源、生物技术这三个话题，提出我们必须转变一些长期固守的观念，去接受一些先前不信任的工具。对传统的绿色悲悯心态来一次彻底的反思，才能避免让我们的地球资源遭到灾难性的毁灭。 斯图尔特•布兰德是一个颠覆常理的人，而《地球的法则:21世纪地球宣言》则再次显示出他思维的高度，也是他一生当中最重要的一本书。正如《地球的法则:21世纪地球宣言》标题所暗示的，这本书讲的是如何进行有规则的思考。这本书有科学家的、反直觉的观察以及富含热情的倡议，是一个让人心智为之震撼的探索，它告诉我们可以并且必须做些什么事情，才能把人类文明挽救下来。斯图尔特•布兰德通过《地球的法则:21世纪地球宣言》为我们展示了地球困境之来源，并且提出了一系列大胆而且富于创见的政策建议，以及一些基于设计的创建更可持续的社会的解决方案。