Our Plundered Planet
| Company type | Book |
|---|---|
| Industry | Publishing |
| Founded | 1948 |
| Founder | Fairfield Osborn |
| Products | Environmental non-fiction book |
Our Plundered Planet is a 1948 publication authored by American conservationist Fairfield Osborn that explores environmental degradation, emphasizing the condition of soil and criticizing mankind's inadequate stewardship of the planet. It stands as an early example of apocalyptic environmental writing, depicting humans as agents of nature's destruction.
Together with William Vogt's Road to Survival, also released in 1948, Our Plundered Planet contributed to a resurgence of Malthusian thought following World War II. The book notably shaped the perspectives of Anne Howland Ehrlich and her spouse Paul R. Ehrlich, who authored The Population Bomb and more than thirty works concerning overpopulation and ecology.
Influences
The ideas presented in Osborn's work were shaped by earlier publications such as Guy I. Burch and Elmer Pendell's Population Roads to Peace or War (1945) and Paul Sears' Deserts on the March (1935). Osborn also incorporated insights from New Deal programs focused on land management and ecological restoration, including the Tennessee Valley Authority and the Civilian Conservation Corps, alongside policies formulated in response to the Dust Bowls. Both Osborn and his father, Henry Fairfield Osborn, were additionally influenced by the pre-World War II eugenics movement.
Editions
- United States edition: Published by Little, Brown and Company in 1948.
- United Kingdom edition: Issued by Faber and Faber, London, 1948.
- French version: Released in 1949 under the title La planète au pillage.
- German edition: Published in 1950 by Pan-Verlag, Zürich; translated by Fritz Levi with a foreword by Paul Reiwald, titled Unsere ausgeplünderte Erde, comprising 161 pages.
Since its initial release, Our Plundered Planet has been reissued more than eight times and translated into upwards of twelve different languages.
See also
- Road to Survival, William Vogt’s 1948 work covering related themes