According to Jack M. Hollander's book The Real Environmental Crisis: Why Poverty, Not Affluence, Is the Environment’s Number One Enemy (University of California Press, April 2003), our most critical environmental problem is global poverty. Hollander challenges the widely held belief that economic development and affluence pose a major threat to the world's environment and resources, and he also argues that the essential prerequisite for a sustainable future is a global transformation from poverty to affluence, coupled with transition to freedom and democracy. Pointing to the great strides made toward improving and protecting the environment in affluent democracies, Hollander draws a road map for a new spirit of environmentalism--one that embraces the twin goals of environmental improvement and reduction of poverty.