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Ursula K. Le Guin: The Dispossessed (1974)

The Dispossessed: An Ambiguous Utopia is a 1974 utopian science fiction novel by American writer …

My world, my Earth, is a ruin. A planet spoiled by the human species. We multiplied and gobbled and fought until there was nothing left, and then we died. We controlled neither appetite nor violence; we did not adapt. We destroyed ourselves. But we destroyed the world first. There are no forests left on my Earth. The air is grey, the sky is grey, it is always hot. It is habitable, it is still habitable — but not as this world is. This is a living world, a harmony. Mine is a discord, You Odonians chose a desert; we Terrans made a desert... We survive there, as you do. People are tough! There are early: a half billion of us now. Once there were nine billion. You can see the old cities still everywhere. The bones and bricks go to dust, but the little pieces of plastic never do — they never adapt either. We failed as a species, as a social species.

The Dispossessed by  (Page 287)

Terran Ambassador to Urras speaking to Shevek from the anarchist (Odonian) utopia of Annares when they meet on Urras. Written 50 years ago.