Arthur Firstenberg – författare

Electricity has shaped the modern world. But how has it affected our health and environment?Over the last 220 years, society has evolved a universal belief that electricity is ‘safe’ for humanity and the planet. Scientist and journalist Arthur Firstenberg disrupts this conviction by telling the story of electricity in a way it has never been told before - from an environmental point of view - by detailing the effects that this fundamental societal building block has had on our health and our planet.In The Invisible Rainbow, Firstenberg traces the history of electricity from the early eighteenth century to the present, making a compelling case that many environmental problems, as well as the major diseases of industrialised civilisation - heart disease, diabetes, and cancer - are related to electrical pollution.

Almost all environmental books treat the environmental crisis as though humans are in charge of nature, rather than part of it. The Earth and I is the first book to put all preconceived notions aside and to ask, naïvely: Who are we really? What is our relationship to the earth? How is it possible that we, out of all the millions of species, have come to destroy our common home? The answers are surprising and have far-reaching implications for those searching for solutions.  Part One tells what is happening to the earth’s systems and how they are being destroyed. It rewrites the two-million-year history of humanity’s tenure on the earth as if we are part of nature and not separate from it, and describes both the earth and the universe as living systems. It paints a global, coherent picture of the devastation to Earth’s air, water, forests, and creatures that is not found elsewhere. It reviews assaults on these systems that are not treated adequately, if at all, elsewhere: chemicals; radiation; plastics; detergents; biocides; noise; cars; and guns.  Part Two, “Digging below the Surface,” asks why, and enters territory not previously explored by environmentalists. It describes the various ways to make a living on the earth—hunting and gathering, shifting agriculture, nomadic herding, settled agriculture, and industrial technology—as choices, not eras—choices coexisting with one another until today. It rewrites economics. It explores the relationship of warfare, slavery, religion, and human sexuality to the environmental crisis. And it is forced to conclude that these aspects of human culture are not only shaped, but created by the technologies we use; that the use of non-human sources of energy interferes with human psychological development; and that the unfulfilled urges within us explode in the violent technologies that are destroying our planet.  The solutions, if it is not too late, therefore lie in wise choice, rather than wise use, of our technologies.

Almost all environmental books treat the environmental crisis as though humans are in charge of nature, rather than part of it. The Earth and I is the first book to put all preconceived notions aside and to ask, naïvely: Who are we really? What is our relationship to the earth? How is it possible that we, out of all the millions of species, have come to destroy our common home? The answers are surprising and have far-reaching implications for those searching for solutions.   Part One tells what is happening to the earth’s systems and how they are being destroyed. It rewrites the two-million-year history of humanity’s tenure on the earth as if we are part of nature and not separate from it, and describes both the earth and the universe as living systems. It paints a global, coherent picture of the devastation to Earth’s air, water, forests, and creatures that is not found elsewhere. It reviews assaults on these systems that are not treated adequately, if at all, elsewhere: chemicals; radiation; plastics; detergents; biocides; noise; cars; and guns.   Part Two, “Digging below the Surface,” asks why, and enters territory not previously explored by environmentalists. It describes the various ways to make a living on the earth—hunting and gathering, shifting agriculture, nomadic herding, settled agriculture, and industrial technology—as choices, not eras—choices coexisting with one another until today. It rewrites economics. It explores the relationship of warfare, slavery, religion, and human sexuality to the environmental crisis. And it is forced to conclude that these aspects of human culture are not only shaped, but created by the technologies we use; that the use of non-human sources of energy interferes with human psychological development; and that the unfulfilled urges within us explode in the violent technologies that are destroying our planet.   The solutions, if it is not too late, therefore lie in wise choice, rather than wise use, of our technologies.