Disaster Makers: Tackling Unmanaged Growth for Sustainable Futures

Some disasters are highly visible to us all, such as the Covid-19 pandemic or the climate emergency. Many more are hidden, everyday disasters grinding down the lives of the poor and vulnerable. Very few of these disasters just happen. Most are caused by those who create risk faster than they can mop it up, by those who pursue reckless, unmanaged economic growth that demands ever-increasing manufacture, consumption, building, food production, and energy consumption. These are the disaster makers.

In this book, Gibson provides a thorough, sophisticated, yet accessible account of who the disaster makers are, what they do, and how we can do things better. Ultimately, Gibson demonstrates the urgency of replacing growth-based economics with a fundamentally different social and economic model. This is more than a dream. As Gibson shows, it becomes a practical possibility the moment enough of us commit to building a movement.