The Earth Only Endures: On Reconnecting with Nature and Our Place in It

Pretty covers the "greening" of the early Earth (the emergence of life) over many aeons, our own development as a species to predominantly city-dwellers, and ways in which we have now disconnected from nature. He describes how we have moved from husbandry to exploitation and damage of the environment on which we depend, giving some stark examples. He does hold hope for the future but with some provisos. His argument quotes and is complimentary to Collapse (Penguin Press Science) I would thoroughly recommend reading Diamond's book in conjunction with this one. I liked Pretty's concept of "rewilding agriculture" and I would like to have read rather more about modern examples of alternatives to standard broadacre monocultures. I suspect without having read any that they are to be found in some of his other work.- Regenerating Agriculture: Policies and Practice for Sustainability and Self-Reliance This book is quite readable by the layperson.