Can Life Prevail?

Pentti Linkola
Can Life Prevail?
A Radical Approach to the Environmental Crisis
Trans. Eetu Rautio and Olli S.
Arktos, 2009
212 pages

paperback: $20

This is the first-ever collection of essays by Pentti Linkola, a controversial figure in his native Finland, to appear in English. Linkola’s interest is in the environmental crisis, but unlike most authors on the subject, he does not propose simple solutions such as recycling or electric cars. Rather, for Linkola, the root of the problem lies in the nature of modern civilization itself, and only by a complete transformation of it can there by any hope for survival.

With the train of civilization hurtling at ever-increasing speed towards self-destruction, the most pressing question facing humanity in the 21st century is that of the preservation of life itself. Can Life Prevail?, the latest book by Finnish environmentalist Pentti Linkola, provides a radical yet firmly grounded perspective on the ecological problems threatening both the biosphere and human culture. With essays covering topics as diverse as animal rights, extinction, deforestation, terrorism and overpopulation, Can Life Prevail? for the first time makes the lucid, challenging writing of Linkola available to an English-speaking public.

“By decimating its woodlands, Finland has created the grounds for prosperity. We can now thank prosperity for bringing us – among other things – two million cars, millions of glaring, grey-black electronic entertainment boxes, and many unnecessary buildings to cover the green earth. Wealth and surplus money have led to financial gambling and rampant social injustice, whereby ‘the common people’ end up contributing to the construction of golf courses, classy hotels, and holiday resorts, while fattening Swiss bank accounts. Besides, the people of wealthy countries are the most frustrated, unemployed, unhappy, suicidal, sedentary, worthless and aimless people in history. What a miserable exchange.” — Pentti Linkola

Read Derek Hawthorne’s review of Can Life Prevail? here, and Diord Fionn’s review here.

CONTENTS

Foreword
Introduction
Preface by the Author

Chapter 1: Finland
Humbug
The Finnish Body
Sales Season
What is the Majority and What is the Minority?
Life Protection, Utopias, and Agriculture
Against Highway Crime

Chapter 2: Forests
The Old Forest of Talaskangas
The Green lie
It is Dark in the Woods
The Forest Covering in Finland Must Be Restored
A Logging Story
Is the WWF Favoring Crime?

Chapter 3: Animals
From Gunslingers to Environmental Disaster
An Animal History of the New Age
The Ethics of Environmentalism
The Suppressed nightmare of Conservation
The Cat Disaster
Joyful Chickens and Sad
The Animal Protector As an Apostle of Doom
Aspects of Animal Protection
Animal rights in the Bible
A Look at Vegetarianism
The Value of Humans and That of Animals

Chapter 4: The World and Us
A Refresher Course in the State of the World
The Intolerable Misfortune of Technology
Women As the Protectors of Life
Human Nature and History
The Decline of the World Knows No Mercy
The World at the Turn of the Millennium
Bull’s Eye
A Perspective on the State of the World, or the ABC of the Deep Ecologist – Part One
A Perspective on the State of the World, or the ABC of the Deep Ecologist – Part Two

Chapter 5: The Prerequisites for Life
The Sum of Life
On the Reversal of Finnish Society
Can We Survive?: A Model for a Controlled Future

paperback: $20