High Noon by J. F. Rischard, Basic Books, $27.50, ISBN 0465070094 Reviewed by Fred Pearce
STRAIGHT talking, plain thinking? Give me a break. High Noon purports to be a 200-page low-down on “20 global problems” – global warming, poverty, deforestation, overpopulation and so on. It promises clear-eyed appraisal and “new thinking” on how to solve them from one of the World Bank’s vice-presidents. Just the stuff to galvanise delegates at the 2002 World Summit in Johannesburg. Except that it turns out to be an exercise in World Bank obfuscation and management-speak, exposed rather than disguised by the crisp language.
Take the…
