Gerard Piel brings to the monumental issues addressed in Only One World the knowledge and understanding accumulated in his four decades as publisher of Scientific America?. Under his leadership, the magazine has distinguished itself not only by bringing the achievements of science to the wider audience, but also by monitoring the industrial revolution, the effects of human activity on the environment, the arms race and arms control, population growth, and economic development. In nine languages and 10 editions, Scientific American has a worldwide circulation of more than one million readers. The June 1992 United Nations Earth Summit will focus on the tremendous human and environmental devastation caused by the gap that divides the world's rich and poor nations. Written in anticipation of that conference, "Only One World" is Gerards Piel's vision of how to heal this division - how to make this only world "One World", and 'keep' it so. It is an urgent message about the survival of the planet. In "only One world ", Piel describes how the current disparity between industrialised and pre-industrial nations developed over the course of history. He then shows how the acceleration of economic development in poor nations can reduce the costs of poverty to the environment - and how rich and poor nations alike can adapt their appetites and their technologies to sustain and develop the planetary ecosystem.