Sick Planet

Supporters of neoliberal globalization often cite better public health and nutrition as proof that it works. Stan Cox disputes this. He argues that the corporate food and medicine industries are wrecking environments and worsening living conditions around the world.

Cox, a scientist, traces the link between Western big business and environmental destruction. He describes the damage that drug manufacturers and large food corporations do to the health of both people and crops. His examples range from poisoned water supplies in South Asia to the depletion of natural gas, and in each he shows the demand for profit winning out over the public interest.

He credits individual efforts to shop for a better world and to save energy, but says they are not enough by themselves. Finding a cure for the sick planet, he argues, requires an economic system built on ecological sustainability.