Indra's Net and the Midas Touch ─ Living Sustainably in a Connected World

We live today in a global web of interdependence, connected technologically,economically, politically, and socially. As a result of these expanding and deepeninginterdependencies, it has become impossible fully to control -- or foretell -- the effects of ouractions. The world is rife with unintended consequences. The first law of human ecology -- whichdeclares that we can never do merely one thing -- is a truth we ignore at our peril. InIndra's Net and the Midas Touch, Leslie Paul Thiele explores the impact ofinterdependence and unintended consequences on our pursuit of sustainability.

Unfortunately, good intentions provide no antidote to the law of unintendedconsequences, and proffered cures often prove worse than the disease. Biofuels developed for thepurpose of reducing carbon emissions, for example, have had the unintended effect of cutting offfood supplies to the needy and destroying rain forests. We must fundamentally transform our patternsof thinking and behavior. Thiele offers the intellectual and moral foundations for thistransformation, drawing from ecology, ethics, technology, economics, politics, psychology, physics,and metaphysics. Awareness of our interconnectedness, he writes, stimulates creativity andcommunity; it is a profound responsibility and a blessing beyond measure.

Leslie Paul Thiele is Professor in the Department of Political Science and the Director of Sustainability Studies at the University of Florida. He is the author of Environmentalism for a New Millennium: The Challenge of Coevolution, The Heart of Judgment: Practical Wisdom, Neuroscience, and Narrative, and other books.