ABOUT THIS BOOK: HRH Prince Philip first became interested in the natural world in the late 1950s. At this time it was clear to only a limited number of specialists that the public's attitude to 'nature' was at best one of blissful ignorance and at worst of wilful combat. Nature lovers and property speculators, scientists and farmers, industrialists and urban planners alike were trampling under foot the precious heritage of the countryside. It was a stunningly obvious case of killing the goose that laid the golden egg. On the one hand the struggle for economic development, and on the other, sentiment, were blinding people to whom it had probably never even occurred that they had any relationship with the natural world, much less responsibility for it. It is oddly paradoxical that, so often, visionaries become conservationists. Prince Philip's is a classic and exemplary case of curiosity turning to concern, and concern being translated into action. The Prince was amongst the first openly to voice the unpopular view that man was exploiting his privileged position of power, that he had become a primitive predator with no thought for the future survival of the human species. The natural world, man's most valuable ally, had become his victim. But issues which may have sounded esoteric in the 1950s have since come to be accepted as urgent; attitudes which were once regarded as eccentric are now universally espoused. Over the period between 1961 and 1987 covered in this book, opinion seems gradually to have caught up with Prince Philip. DOWN TO EARTH is a clear exposition of the threats posed by man to the natural environment. During the thirty years over which Prince Philip has been voicing his often outspoken views on this subject, whether as President of WWF-UK and subsequently WWF-International or as an impassioned amateur, he has encountered just about every practical problem and tackled every thorny issue that exists. His observations, assessments, criticisms and exhortations are organised here according to topic, and cast against a background of profound commitment to the world's survival. The public career and the personal philosophy of one of the world's foremost conservationists stands as both a historical record and a challenging picture of the future: a future that lies at once in the balance and in our own hands. 

Condition: Good. Click on Photo to see actual item. Ships same or next day (weekdays and Saturdays)! Ships in a BOX with padding. Ships from California. Pages: sticker ghost and small pencil marks on intro page, otherwise, not written on, clean, bright, fine edges, odor free. Dust Jacket: clean, bright, minor bumping to top edges, rubbing to corner tips.