Talking About Trees ranges widely, from personal narratives to theoretical discussions on the need for the precautionary principle in science. Levins offers a strong critique of the industrial-commercial pathway to development; in its place he promotes an alternative development pathway that emphasizes economic viability with equity, ecological and social sustainability and empowerment of the dispossessed. , Richard Levins Richard Levins is John Rock Professor of Population Sciences, Department of Population and International Health at Harvard University, Boston, MA. He is the author, along with Richard Lewontin, of The Dialectical Biologist (1985). , See more books by Richard Levins