The Big Ratchet: How Humanity Thrives in the Face of Natural Crisis

by Ruth DeFries Narrated by Pam Ward

Overview

The Big Ratchet is the story of the ratchets: the technologies and innovations, big and small, that propelled our species from hunters and gatherers on the savannahs of Africa to shoppers in the aisles of the supermarket.

Our species long lived on the edge of starvation. Now we produce enough food for all 7 billion of us to eat nearly 3,000 calories every day. This is such an astonishing thing in the history of life as to verge on the miraculous. The Big Ratchet is the story of how it happened.

The Big Ratchet itself came in the twentieth century, when a range of technologies-from fossil fuels to scientific plant breeding to nitrogen fertilizers-combined to nearly quadruple our population in a century, and to grow our food supply even faster. To some, these technologies are a sign of our greatness; to others, of our hubris. MacArthur fellow and Columbia University professor Ruth DeFries argues that the debate is the wrong one to have. Limits do exist, but every limit that has confronted us, we have surpassed. That cycle of crisis and growth is the story of our history; indeed, it is the essence of The Big Ratchet. Understanding it will reveal not just how we reached this point in our history, but how we might survive it.

Editorial Reviews

Publishers Weekly

06/30/2014
Columbia professor and MacArthur fellow DeFries (Ecosystems and Land Use Change) follows the trajectory of the human species by tracing how we meet our most basic need—feeding ourselves. DeFries frames humanity’s relationship to the environment in three-step cycles of pivots, new innovations that allow us to stave off hunger by extracting energy from nature more efficiently; ratchets, the population increase that this new bounty allows; and hatchets, obstacles that arise when the innovation has reached a limit that lead to the invention of new pivots. Her history of agriculture tracks our path from hunter-gatherers to farmers to city dwellers: in each successive stage we have grown more reliant on the efforts of fewer people to feed more, and have utilized sources of energy which steal fewer of the calories by moving from human power, to animal power, to the power of fossil fuels. Neither technophile nor doomsayer, DeFries sees today’s hatchet not in overpopulation but in the uneven distribution of access to new methods and in the declining quality of the human diet. DeFries places her faith in human creativity as a primary means to our survival, an appealing point of view for the hopeful but concerned reader. B&w images. (Sept.)

From the Publisher

"The Big Ratchet is a well-researched and highly readable account of how we came to be a 'world dominating urban species', and the opportunities and threats we will face in feeding a world of 9 billion people with only a small minority living in rural areas. For those who have deep concerns about our ability to meet future food needs, this book provides at least some reassurance that we have done it before."—Nature Geoscience

"[The Big Ratchet] is a fast-moving and information-packed history of human appetites.... DeFries does environmentalism a favor by presenting this history as a dialectic that never ends."—Orion

"[A]n interesting and timely thesis.... This is an environmental history, chockablock with examples from the past that might guide us in the future."—Toronto Star

"Ruth DeFries has written a brilliant book that starts with the origin of Earth and life on our planet, and goes through thousands of years of ecological history and one natural crisis after another.... DeFries has a nuanced and sophisticated view of human history.... [The Big Ratchet] is a beautifully written book that is unique in combining wisdom, scientific discovery, and story-telling."—Cool Green Science

"[A] lucid and intelligent book.... There is something satisfyingly stark and elemental about DeFries' focus on food, which, she notes, is 'our most fundamental connection with nature'."—Financial Times

"Engaging and optimistic...a book that considers human progress not as an ever-ascending scale but as a sort of fugue with a repeating theme." —Wall Street Journal

"An admirable history of human ingenuity that does not claim it will overcome such looming crises as overpopulation and global warming."—Kirkus Reviews

"Is there a tale more astonishing and improbable than the human story? Lurching between triumph and catastrophe, humankind has transformed itself from a run-of-the-mill forager on the African savanna into a species that dominates every corner of the planet. Now, as our numbers surpass 7 billion, Ruth DeFries shows how our remarkable past can serve as a guide to thinking about our uncertain future. Neither a hymn to optimism nor an invocation of catastrophe, The Big Ratchet is an essential account of how we got to be where we are."—Charles C. Mann, author of 1491

"Timely.... Clearly demonstrates the role of science in converting calamities into opportunities. The Big Ratchet provides a message of hope in the midst of the sea of despair we see in the areas of sustainable development and environmental protection. Ruth DeFries has rendered an invaluable service."—M. S. Swaminathan, Founder and Chairman, M. S. Swaminathan Research Foundation

"Forget farm to table; this history shows that the food on your plate has a history stretching back to the dawn of the species."—Emma Marris, author of Rambunctious Garden

NOVEMBER 2014 - AudioFile

Defries, an environmental geographer and 2007 MacArthur Fellow, offers the basic information we should all know to understand our species’ precarious ability to extract enough food for our growing numbers from our small but bountiful planet. Following the outline of a basic course in food systems or sustainable development, the book discusses climate change only briefly, environmental politics not at all. Pam Ward’s delivery is always clear and well paced. She’s at home with the pronunciation of scientific terms and place names from around the world. Her didactic tone may remind listeners of a grade school teacher, but she gets her points across. F.C. © AudioFile 2014, Portland, Maine

Kirkus Reviews

2014-06-18
A solid, cheerful scientific account of how humans have dealt with disasters throughout history.MacArthur Fellow DeFries (Ecology, Evolution and Environmental Biology/Columbia Univ.;Ecosystems and Land Use Change, 2004, etc.) emphasizes that progress in human history depended mostly on success in feeding ourselves. For thousands of years, hunter-gatherers ate well. The largely grain diet consumed after the arrival of agriculture 10,000 years ago was unhealthy, but its vast increase in quantity produced a population explosion, cities and civilizations. DeFries describes each subsequent advance as a “pivot” that inevitably overshoots, leading to “hatchets” (i.e., famine, drought, epidemics) overcome by advances (better ploughs, irrigation systems, sewers, fertilizers) that “ratchet” up our well-being but inevitably lead to further difficulties. Her first example of this process is the development of the potato, imported from South America after 1500. Nutritious and easy to grow, it became a staple, resulting in larger numbers of healthier Europeans. Readers are familiar with the 1845 potato blight that led to famine and depopulation, especially in Ireland. While historians usually stop there, DeFries points out that the blight still exists, but resistant strains and improved agricultural practices have restored production, even in Ireland. It wasn’t pretty, but human inventiveness applied to the potato led to a ratchet in our well-being. The Big Ratchet occurred during the second half of the 20thcentury when, thanks to pesticides, industrial farming, massive fertilizer use and genetic improvements, worldwide production of corn and rice nearly tripled and wheat more than doubled. Food is more abundant than ever, but other problems have emerged. “As long as civilization exists,” writes the author, “we will be grappling with how to hijack nature to feed ourselves.”An admirable history of human ingenuity that does not claim it will overcome such looming crises as overpopulation and global warming.

Product Details

BN ID:	2940171738679
Publisher:	HighBridge Company
Publication date:	09/09/2014
Edition description:	Unabridged

Videos