The Wizard and the Prophet

Learned soooo much about soooo much, 4real

Very interesting journey into the shaping of !!!western!!! mindsets and approaches to nature from the 20th century to today. It's quite a deep philosophical question really, where we are set at the start of the book: what is the position of humankind in this planet we find ourselves in? how do we then relate to all other beings, to the non-human? are we, in a cartesian way, unique and different from all automata out there, and thus need to use nature to our whim to preserve our special human ingenuity? (the wizard) or are we just a being equal to any other, part of an interconnected, balanced system that must be honored and preserved? (the prophet)

it's crazy to see how this dichotomy is the underlying mechanism that will shape so many opinions and attitudes to the way societies should work! the author spends a lot of the book explaining how these 2 attitudes have shaped the advance of food, water, and energy technology in the 20th centuries and how they've been at odds with the other.

by the end i was a bit bored but it was a verrrry interesting read!!! so much relevant info about recent history and modern advances in science that i can't reproduce anymore dammit why does this always happen!!!

Mann explores two opposing philosophical positions on how we should shape the future of our society and planet by following two lesser known pioneers of modern sustainability research.

To his credit, Mann mostly manages to keep the reader engaged as we cover a continuous stream of dry subject matter that spans most of this work.

Interesting it it's own right as a historical account of the hard and soft path value systems that battle for supremecy in our political and scientific landscapes, the book doesn't lay out too much more than that and perhaps an outlook would have been welcomed at the conclusion.

Whilst I haven't read into the author's credentials at all, from the places he has visited and the connections to the subject matter he obviously has, the fact that he only barely shares his own opinion on the subject matter leaves me thinking the book is a little unfinished. Even without this insight, I found the concluding chapter essentially missing contemporary debates.

That's not to say the rest of the book is not impeccably researched and well written. All in all this is a great summary of the emergence and history of sustainability field even to this day.