The Third Era: Sustainable Development and the Race Against Climate Change

Climate change is the greatest threat ever faced by civilization, and its advent will create a major turning-point in a third era. The only hope for slowing it down?

Sustainable development, a process already part of government in Europe for over fifteen years, is the only proven way of reducing greenhouse gas emissions. It results in a more equitable, prosperous society, in which taxpayers get their money's worth and politicians are answerable to the public.

Climate change—sustainable development—these themes, and the governance issues on which they are based, are explored in a book of conversations spanning places and eras, describing the achievements in sustainable development and implementation of the Agenda 21 process in Barcelona, Berlin, Hamburg, Paris, Sienna, Stockholm, and Vienna. With ideas of Machiavelli as a real-world framework definition of good government and how government works, the book discusses corruption, the climate-science denial conspiracy, the decline of investigative reporting, and lack of local democracy and government accountability.

The Third Era provides an overall view of contemporary sustainable development practice. It gives concerned people the knowledge they need about climate change to make a case for it and to counter the misinformation that is rampant in the media, about the media itself to do something about it, and about the nature of government and contemporary politics to insist that their cities and towns make it a priority to address the most serious threat yet faced by life on earth.