The Storm-cloud of the nineteenth century - John Ruskin

Dismissed by Ruskin's contemporaries as the ravings of a deluded enemy of modernity, The Storm Cloud of the Nineteenth Century is an eerily prescient denunciation of capitalism's assault on the atmosphere - and the profound danger that this represents not only for the health of the earth, but for the spiritual well-being of humanity. It is one of Ruskin's final writings, conducted with both rigorous scientific observation and a sense of Biblical prophecy. This call to action is even more urgently needed today. Ruskin has a claim to be recognised as one of the founding spirits of the environmental movement, although his insistence on the keeping sight of the social value and morality of man's relationship with nature has still not been fully absorbed. His great rallying cry, There is no Wealth but Life, is implicit throughout the Storm Cloud. How his thought developed through a hugely conflicted relationship with the professional science of his day, and what we should take from his writings, are examined by Peter Brimblecombe, Professor of Atmospheric Pollution at the University of Essex, in his Introduction. A foreword by the Master of the Guild of St George, Ruskin's association for social and spiritual reform, sets out what Ruskinians today can do and are doing.