Imagine the Town of Poughkeepsie — all 31 square miles of it.
Now imagine that this entire area is acquired by foreign land investors.
And now imagine that the equivalent of 3,742 Poughkeepsies has been obtained by these financiers over the last decade.
The 1992 Rio Earth Summit was supposed to be a turning point for the World Bank. What's happened since then? How have the Bank's efforts fallen short? Called a “detailed and thought-provoking look at an important subject” by The New York Times, Mortgaging the Earth analyzes the twenty year period leading up the Rio Summit. Rich offers not only an important history but critical insights about economic development that are ever-more relevant today.
The World Bank Group proudly proclaims "our dream is a world without poverty." Supported by the U.S. and other rich industrialized nations, it lends more than $50 billion annually to developing countries-purportedly for projects and programs that help the poor while protecting the environment.