A good portion of the book is given over to setting out the problems. This is not as dry as it sounds; Collier has a good line in the wry anecdote, the telling statistic and judicious use of research studies. He makes complex economic theories accessible to the lay reader in a briskly chatty style.
Early on, Collier tells us he is breaking fresh ground. He faces two opposing armies: the environmentalists, characterised as deluded romantics, and the traditional economists, or ostriches as he calls them, who bury their heads in their theories without paying heed to the plunder of the real world around them.
Collier is right to portray aspects of the green movement as foolishly romantic, and many mainstream economists as too doctrinaire….
nice, but pointless to think that governments round the world will think in terms of anything other than putting their own economic interests ahead of any health concerns until the situation turns code blue. one only has to look at china who doesn’t hesitate to poison people or even our own government stalling to see this in action. they will glom onto any scientist who says it isn’t happening to avoid doing anything constructive. the situation will have to be quite dire for the blind to see beyond their own economic interest.