This study examines man's relationship with the natural world. For centuries, man has taken nature for granted, treating it as invincible and a wilderness apart from man. The book looks at the philosophies and technologies that have brought us here and looks at the changes that have taken place over the last 200 years, especially those in the last 50 years. McKibben suggests that we have already destroyed nature. and in its place there lies uncertainty, fear and a sense of impermanence. Bill McKibben has been an editorial writer for the " New Yorker" and has published magazine articles on the environment. His work appears in the "New York Review of Books".