Disagreement James Speth Matt Ridley Books \"The

¶ … disagreement James Speth Matt Ridley books "The Bridge End World" "The Rational Optimist." Articulate positions, perform evaluation. Favor Ridley's position . Your paper demonstrate critical thinking showcase high quality writing.

"The Bridge at the Edge of the World" and "The Rational Optimist"

James Speth's book "The Bridge at the Edge of the World: Capitalism, the Environment, and Crossing from Crisis to Sustainability" and Matt Ridley's book "The Rational Optimist: How Prosperity Evolves" both address topics related to the future. However, while Speth emphasizes that the world is heading toward a catastrophe when considering current conditions, Ridley is more optimistic and appears to believe international conditions are likely to improve in the near future as a consequence of the fact that society is experiencing rapid progress.

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Speth relates to capitalism to be one of the primary reasons why society is unlikely to experience progress in the future. From his perspective, even with the fact that environmentalism has advanced greatly in recent years, conditions are still critical when considering the environment in general and the majority of people appear to be more interested in profits than they are in saving the natural world. Speth believes that if society continues to harm the environment as it does today, conditions are going to worsen in the future and people are going to Seth primarily wants to signal that humanity is unable to understand the consequences of environmental destruction and that this is likely to cost it greatly.

From Speth's perspective, people like Ridley are inclined to ignore one of the most disastrous effects of capitalism, as they are only able to look at progress from a technological point-of-view. Speth emphasizes that individuals also need to concentrate on the environment and on how progress negatively affects the natural world in order for society to experience progress on all levels. Speth acknowledges that conditions around the world have improved in recent years but believes that this makes it even more difficult for the masses to express any interest in reform, as many are happy with the way that things currently are and are thus unwilling to accept change. "But if what we actually have is 'spiritual hunger in an age of plenty,' there is a large space for hope. A system that cannot deliver the well being of people and nature is in deep trouble. It invites ideas and actions that are transformative" (Speth 65).

Ridley believes that it would be pointless for people to try to employ a pessimistic attitude in the face of man's destruction of the environment. Instead, he feels that people need to concentrate on progress and to do everything in their power in order to make certain that they're an active part of a movement meant to improve conditions around the world. The fact that Ridley does not appear to be especially interested in the environment is owed to him looking at matters from a more general perspective. By taking on this approach he wants to enable his readers to comprehend that there are a series of topics that they need to address when considering an improved future.

Ridley actually manages to present capitalism in a good light by demonstrating that the contemporary society developed a system where people help each-other have access to things that they are interested in. Although Ridley refers to a series of concept in his attempt to prove that capitalism has brought positive change, this does not mean that he ignores the idea of environmentalism. By providing individuals around the world with better living standards, capitalism also makes it possible for them to get involved in other matters such as environmentalism.

To a certain degree, it appears that Ridley provides Speth with an answer regarding the bridge that society is expected to cross consequent to realizing that it has the resources needed for it to do so. Capitalism enabled people to gain access to tools they could not in the past and this means that environmentalism is presently more advanced than ever. Ridley is not only trying to say that environmentalism is going to continue to experience progress, as he emphasizes that it is inevitable for it to do so. From his perspective, environmentalism is an essential chapter when considering society's progress. This domain provides tools and motivation for individuals to focus on matters like renewable energy sources and environmental strategies in general.