In October 1992 Myers, the award winning environmentalist, and Simon, an outspoken critic of environmentalism, met at Colombia University to vehemently argue their corners. This, the transcript of this debate, also includes position papers issued by the candidates and his opponents reply. This brief book thus makes for fascinating and unusual reading: Can we risk dooming ourselves and the planet if we don't change the way we exploit the earth's resources, or are environmentalists simply being alarmist, underestimating nature and humanity's resilience and adaptiveness?