Bruce Rich
Bruce Rich is an American writer and lawyer who has published extensively on the environment in developing countries and development in general. He is the author of a critique and history of the World Bank, Mortgaging the Earth: The World Bank, Environmental Impoverishment, and the Crisis of Development (Beacon Press, 1994, Island Press, 2013) and was awarded the United Nations Global 500 Award for environmental achievement for his research and advocacy concerning multilateral development banks.[1] He is the author of To Uphold the World: A Call for a New Global Ethic From Ancient India (Beacon Press, 2010), a philosophical and historical reflection on the need for a global ethic in a global economy,with a foreword by Amartya Sen and an Afterword by His Holiness the Dalai Lama.[2] He has also published extensively on the role of Export Credit Agencies in developing countries, especially concerning the environmental impact of projects funded by them.
Since the 1980s Rich worked as an attorney at the Natural Resources Defense Council and the Environmental Defense Fund. He has also worked for the U.S. Agency for International Development, the United Nations Environment Program, the World Resources Institute, the U.S. Congress Office of Technology Assessment and the World Bank. He also testified in Congressional hearings on U.S. participation in international financial institutions. He has written numerous articles and opeds on international development and environment in publications such as The Nation, The Financial Times, The Ecologist, and Environmental Forum, the policy journal of the Environmental Law Institute, where he is currently a Visiting Scholar. He has lectured widely at universities and colleges around the U.S. His most recent book, Foreclosing the Future: The World Bank and the Politics of Environmental Destruction, focusing on issues such as climate change, governance and corruption, was published by Island Press in 2013.[3]
Publications
- Foreclosing the Future: The World Bank and the Politics of Environmental Destruction. Washington DC: Island Press, 2013.
- To Uphold the World: The Message of Ashoka and Kautilya for the 21st Century, with a Foreword by Amartya Sen and an Afterword by His Holiness the Dalai Lama, Penguin/Viking India, 2008. US edition: To Uphold the World: A Call for a New Global Ethic from Ancient India, Boston: Beacon Press, 2010
- "The World Bank Under James Wolfensohn", in J. R. Pincus and J. A. Winters, eds., Reinventing the World Bank, Cornell University Press, 2002.
- "Exporting Destruction", in Steve Hiatt, ed. A Game As Old As Empire. San Francisco: Berrett-Koehler Publishers, 2007.
- Mortgaging the Earth: The World Bank, Environmental Impoverishment, and the Crisis of Development. Boston: Beacon Press, 1994, 1995; London: Earthscan, 1994; Island Press, 2014.
References
- ↑ Island Press Author Page
- ↑ The Ashoka Code, a review of To Uphold the World by Malini Sood, September 6, 2008, on DNA India
- ↑ Review in "The Ecologist"
External links
- To Uphold the World: What Two Statesman from Ancient India Can Tell Us About Our Current Crisis, Tikkun, March, 2011
- Foreclosing the Future: examining twenty years of the World Bank's environmental performance, Bretton Woods Project, October 2013