The Nutmeg's Curse: Parables for a Planet in Crisis

This book has become recommended reading on all sorts of environmental and sustainability courses. We firmly believe in order to mitigate the fast approaching and disastrous climate breakdown (and hopefully we are not too late) we have to really understand how we got into the dire situation we are in in the first place.

The Nutmeg’s Curse, though not a comfortable read, will help you on that journey. It has the added benefit of being well written, immaculately researched and documented and although you might wish differently there are no half truths or obfuscations. Arguing that the dynamics of climate change are rooted in a centuries-old geopolitical order constructed by Western colonialism.

The author Amitav Ghosh uses the story of the nutmeg as a parable to reveal the ways human history has always been entangled with earthly materials … where nature exists as a resource for humans to use for our own ends, rather than a force of its own.

We read all the books on our lists and the Nutmegs Curse has affected us deeply. We completely agree with Naomi Klein when she says: ‘Do not miss this book – and above all do not tell yourself that you already know its contents because you don’t’.

Sadly it does not offer solutions – those are up to us. We look forward to any comments you may have.