Giving advice

More than 30 years ago, Australian ethicist Peter Singer stirred up a hornets' nest when he published "Animal Liberation," his book arguing that other creatures have rights too, including one to be free from unnecessary suffering caused by man.

His defense of animals remains the stance for which Singer, now a bioethics professor at Princeton University, is best known. But the truth is that in the intervening years he's written more than 30 more books, tackling such thorny issues as abortion, euthanasia, and infanticide, with his stance on each issue usually embracing a core concern: Can the subject under discussion feel suffering?

Now Singer is back with "The Life You Can Save: Acting Now to End World Poverty," in which he argues that anyone who is comfortably well off has a moral responsibility to help others in dire need, wherever they live around the world. (Singer himself gives a quarter of his earnings to charity.)

In this book, Singer lays out a comparison: "In wealthy societies, most poverty is relative. People feel poor because many of the good things they see advertised on television are beyond their budget - but they do have a television. In the United States, 97 percent of those classified as poor own a color TV. Three quarters of them own a car. Three quarters of them have air-conditioning." By contrast, he writes, "The 1.4 billion people living in extreme poverty are poor by an absolute standard tied to the most basic human needs. They are likely to be hungry for at least part of the year. . . . The poor may not be able to afford to send their children to school. Even minimal health care services are usually beyond their means." Because of such glaring disparity in an age of globalization, Singer contends, it's incumbent on those who can help to do so.

When Singer speaks, people tend to listen. Tomorrow he'll argue his case before the World Bank in Washington. On Friday, he'll be in Cambridge to do so again, at 6 p.m. at the Brattle Theatre, 40 Brattle St. Advance tickets are available at the Harvard Book Store.

Mystery writer Laura Lippman returns with her 14th novel, "Life Sentences," which is receiving strong early reviews. Lippman speaks in the Abbey Room at the Boston Public Library's central branch, 700 Boylston St., Thursday at 6 p.m.

New Hampshire treasure Charles Simic, past American poet laureate and a Pulitzer Prize winner, discusses his life and work Thursday at 7:30 p.m. at the McMullen Museum of Art in Devlin Hall at Boston College, 140 Commonwealth Ave., Chestnut Hill.