Jeffrey Sachs Wants To Change The Economy And Save The World

Grist:

Jeffrey Sachs -- the renowned economist who devised a grand plan in 2005 to rid the world of poverty -- is now focused on an even broader ambition: saving the planet and all of us who call it home.

His new book, Common Wealth: Economics for a Crowded Planet, explores the crises of climate change and ecological degradation in a world squeezed by soaring population and industrial growth. But it's no doomsayer's lament. Sachs is a practical problem solver who's made his name advising big players in international politics and drawing up detailed plans for tackling the world's biggest challenges -- plus palling around with do-gooding celebs like Bono and Angelina Jolie. A professor of sustainable development and director of the Earth Institute at Columbia University, Sachs is also a bigwig at the United Nations, where he advises Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon. He previously served as special adviser to Secretary-General Kofi Annan from 2002 to 2006, during which time he oversaw the U.N.'s Millennium Project.

Read the whole story: Grist

Comments

[V4Vendetta]

Asking an economist to save the Earth from economics? This idea has flaws methinks

[Erdgeist]

I look at the problem from a Buddhist perspective. It is by eliminating free-trade where, instead, poor nations become self-sufficient through protectionism and revenue tariffs, so their labor and national resources can't be exploited by predatory corporations. It is a modification of the American School of economics founded by Hamilton and Clay. Historically it has worked--and is still working. Most Asian nations deploy it. What could be more beautiful than seeing a world of self-sufficient nations who in their strength and mutual respect, come together in real brotherhood? Marx, by the way, had it right, if you desire destruction, adopt free-trade. That is what we have now. It doesn't work.