Book Description

A passionate tale of Alaskan exploration and discovery in North America's most controversial wildlife refuge.

The nineteen-million-acre Alaskan National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) contains three to eight billion barrels of crude oil. Conservationists and developers have fought bitterly over the land for the last half-century, an era in which petroleum has virtually come to define Alaska. Struggling to combat the big-money politics that threaten ANWR, the conservation efforts of one couple, Olaus and Mardy Murie, have made them legendary.

Jonathan Waterman blends historical narrative with vivid tales of his journeys into the Arctic, creating tension between past and present, science and politics, reflection and investigation. Since 1983, he has taken eighteen trips into the far North, trekking and paddling thousands of miles and encounteringhowling wolves, Inupiat hunters, and the oil-ravaged Prince William Sound. Where Mountains Are Nameless explores how oil exploration has choked Alaska's pristine wilderness and also traces the lives of the celebrated Muries. This memorable portrait makes the stakes over ANWR vividly clear. 3 maps, 23 illustrations. ... Read more

Book Description

What actually happens to the earth when one of its heart chakras is ruthlessly blocked by a building that has been erected without sensitivity (Cologne Cathedral, for example), when a wall with a 'no-man's-land' cuts an integral landscape in two (the Berlin Wall, which still stands despite having been physically dismantled), when massive constructions of steel and concrete slice through the sensitive energy lines of the earth (road networks), when battles fought in past wars continue to 'rage' as a memory in the subtle tissue of a landscape? All this leads to blockages and imbalances in the subtle organs and energy systems of the earth which culminate in a life-endangering malfunction. Healing the Heart of the Earth illustrates this kind of problem with numerous examples based on the experience gained by the author in earth-healing projects throughout Europe.

Our growing sensitivity to the ever-increasing amount of damage to natural and urban landscapes would be expanded in constant lament if we did not take a third, practical step: one that requires the human being as the root of all these difficulties to undergo an all-encompassing inner transformation. This process of transformation in every human being needs to have started before turning to earth healing makes sense.

For the spiritual and energetic purification and revitalization of the subtle systems of a place or a natural or urban landscape, it is possible to use the healing vibrations of sound, color, dance and guided imagery, amongst other techniques, as well as the art of lithopuncture.

In the final part of the book, the author addresses the question of how each and every one of us can contribute towards earth healing in our own personal space and surroundings. Those who wish to turn lovingly inwards and also outwards to the living world around us will find an abundance of inspiration here.

The earth is our concern, the earth that gives life to us all. ... Read more

Reviews (1)

Poweerful & Profound
JUST AS THE HUMAN BODY IS PREY TO VIOLENCE AND trauma (both physical and psychological), and manifests that trauma through illnesses in certain parts of the body; and just as it is possible to heal that trauma by releasing the blocked energy locked inside the area where the violence has manifested itself-so the Earth's body has sites where human violence (both to the Earth itself, other human beings, and other animals) has led to trauma that needs to be healed. The knowledge of the Earth's bodily energies is present in Asian cultures through feng shui-a science where objects are located to harmonize with the natural energy patterns of the environment around them. In the West, this knowledge is expressed through the practice of geomancy-a wisdom tradition that argues that our planet is crisscrossed with energy lines. At the nodal points of these lines, human beings have constructed sacred sites (such as Stonehenge, the Pyramids, and Sedona, Arizona) that reflect the powerful energies that meet there. Marko is a Slovenian artist and healer who specializes in visiting sacred sites and places where enormous suffering has taken place, and trying to heal the wounds. He does this by what he calls "lithopuncture." Just like acupuncture, which recognizes that the body is an interconnected network of energy channels called meridians and tries to release the energy blocked by trauma or illness, so lithopuncture involves placing monoliths-effectively large acupuncture needles-in key places to release the blocked energy of the Earth and revitalize the environment, both human and natural. "To the inner vision," writes Marko in his book, Healing the Heart of the Earth, "an acupuncture point looks like a sort of energy vortex penetrating vertically into the earth. Within itself it collects information on the properties of the specific subtle phenomenon with which it resonates. These points can be detected at very specific spots on the ground. There they hand over the information they hold to whomever attunes to their focal point." Marko has performed lithopuncture in Northern Ireland, where in 1992 he was invited by the county council of Derry-scene of some of the most violent encounters between Catholics and Protestants in the ongoing 30-year conflict-to revitalize certain places that the council felt had continuous problems. He placed an acupuncture bronze plate in the sidewalk of a Derry street and a lithopuncture stone on the border between Northern Ireland and the Republic. Sometimes lithopuncture is neither suitable nor possible. When this is the case, Marko uses human beings-both residents and visitors-literally to harmonize the natural environment. Groups gather in a circle and sing certain notes, which vibrate with the natural harmonies of the landscape and retune the discordant wavelengths of the area. "Musical sound has a strong power for breaking through and enabling access to a place, no matter how heavily blocked and suppressed it is," Marko writes. "Music can serve to cleanse and revitalize power points and also to regenerate a space completely. In the same way that spring revitalizes the forces of nature, music too carries within itself the energy that reawakens life; therefore, sound can bring a place that has, for example, been put to sleep by destruction, oblivion and the like back to vibrating, awakening, and reactivation. Its pulse beings to beat again, its currents to flow." Marko used singing when he visited the site of the former Berlin Wall. "When viewing the site with my inner vision," he says, "I noticed to my surprise, a deep black canal inside the no-man's-land where two energy lines run alongside each other, a thicker yellow one and a thinner red one. As my intuition interpreted it, this was a 'rope' made of two 'strands' with the help of which West Berlin was to be choked on an energetic level." "Our work consisted of two kinds of acupunctural singing," he continues, "coupled with color visualization and guided imagery. From what the participants related to us afterwards we were able to reconstruct the whole grueling process of 'alchemically' transforming the Wall's energies at that place." The result was startling: instead of a black tunnel, Pogaĉnik saw a white band at the same place on the surface of the earth, which reflected the colors of the rainbow. This was a sign that the transformation had been successful. Marko confirms the descriptions given in detail by Rudolf Steiner of the elemental world and its main beings - gnomes, undines, sylphs and salamanders, discussed by Rudolf Steiner in his book "Man as Symphony of the Creative Word" Marko feels that more and more people are going to awake to the sensitivity of the Earth and what should take place on it. Pogaĉnik echoes James Lovelock's Gaia hypothesis in arguing that the Earth is a living organism, an organism we have to be responsible for. In both his works, including his first book Nature Spirits and Elemental Beings: Working with the Intelligence in Nature, Marko suggests that we all have to wake up to what this planet really is, and act on what we can do to make sure it is healthy. ¨ ... Read more

Book Description

Amazon.com

"This book will try to change the way you think about American history," writes Ted Steinberg in the opening line of Down to Earth. That's an ambitious claim, but not far off the mark. His fascinating book is essentially an environmental history of the United States, with the author paying particular attention to how elements of nature became commodities and thereby isolated Americans from the natural world. Readers don't have to subscribe to this neo-Marxist concept in order to appreciate Steinberg's observations about everything from the old-time urban problem of horse excrement ("the nineteenth-century equivalent of auto pollution") to the massive amounts of garbage produced by fast-food chains (McDonald's, he says, requires "an area equivalent in size to more than 450,000 football fields" to supply its paper needs). He also tells what may be the first-ever natural history of the Civil War. This may sound idiosyncratic, and to some extent it is, yet Steinberg weaves it all together and makes the underappreciated point that "it is quite simply wrong to view the natural world as an unchanging backdrop to the past." It changes all the time, he writes, and it has shaped Americans in ways that few of them understand. --John Miller ... Read more

Book Description

One of the world’s most important scientists, Edward O. Wilson is also an abundantly talented writer who has twice won the Pulitzer Prize. In this, his most personal and timely book to date, he assesses the precarious state of our environment, examining the mass extinctions occurring in our time and the natural treasures we are about to lose forever. Yet, rather than eschewing doomsday prophesies, he spells out a specific plan to save our world while there is still time. His vision is a hopeful one, as economically sound as it is environmentally necessary. Eloquent, practical and wise, this book should be read and studied by anyone concerned with the fate of the natural world. ... Read more

Reviews (42)

What's happening to our world?
There are many species in the world. There are all different types of species, living in all different types of habitats. But how long will they be around? There is only a fraction of the original number of species that once existed on the Earth's land and in the oceans. Why are so many species coming to extinction so quickly? HIPPO is the answer. HIPPO is the reason created by "conservation biologists." HIPPO gives explanation for the disappearing of species. HIPPO is just one of the many things explained in this book.

In Edward O. Wilson's book, The Future of Life, the future of life on Earth is questioned. Wilson, and other professionals, look at statistics and find the patterns to predict the future. By following the patterns, they are able to predict how long a species is expected to survive in the wild. Also, the size of the population of humanity will change over time. Wilson looks at all of the different scenarios, which results in the many different possible outcomes.

Through looking at many studies it has become evident that the human species is responsible for most of the extinction of species. People come in and ruin habitats, such as the rainforests. They also hunt the animals and introduce alien species, which crowd out or kill out the native species of a land. Although now, many attempts at saving the mass extinction have started, it will take some time to be effective and at the current rates, it is too late. However, Wilson hopes that with reading this book, more attempts will be made. We must increase the conservation and decrease the destruction of species. The flora and fauna of our world need our help. We created the problem and now we must help to fix it.

Read The Future of Life, by Edward O. Wilson, to find out what's going on in your world, to learn about the mass extinction occurring as we speak. Read about Wilson's solution and how you could help. Learn about the species soon to be lost to extinction. The book goes into great detail about many different situations and the trouble that the world is in. An interesting piece of literature, which will hopefully spread the dangerous situation of the Earth as we know it.

A high-calibre primer on environmental conservation
It's refreshing to read an environmental diatribe where the writer has both the authority of a world expert and a willingness to compromise to pursue realistic solutions. Wilson ' a Harvard biology professor, two-time Pulitzer Prize winner, and a director of the Nature Conservancy ' presents a succinct evaluation of the great ecological issues of our day, focusing on the rapid pace of species extinctions, and on the promise of finding a balance between conservation and human activity that will bring the extinctions to a halt.

Future begins with a fascinating overview of life itself, its awesome diversity, its adaptation to the most extreme environments on Earth, and even the possibility of life on Mars, Europa, Callisto, and elsewhere in the Universe. From this perspective of life in the grandest scheme, he turns to the current pace of extinctions due to human activity, depletion of water, crop, and fish resources, and frames a debate with a hypothetical opponent who is more concerned with economic growth than the environment. This hypothetical opponent is a representative of the 'juggernaut of technology-based capitalism' (p. 156), and is portrayed as reading The Economist. However, Wilson recognizes that economic and technological growth cannot be reversed, and instead are the best hope to continue relieving poverty and disease throughout the world. Instead he seeks out a way for 'its direction [to] be changed by mandate of a generally shared long-term environmental ethic' (p. 156) to which everyone's opinion can converge. Wilson points out diplomatically that economists also recognize value in the natural environment, and conservationists enjoy driving to national parks in combustion-engine cars.

To further his tone of optimistic compromise, Wilson finds hope in the slowdown and projected stop in human population growth, in environmentally friendly legislation and treaties, and in conservation methods that also produce proven economical value, such as ecotourism and bioprospecting for medical products. Wilson even concedes that genetically modified foods, though requiring further study, may contribute to environmental conservation by making agriculture more productive and allowing greater human nutrition to be produced from less cropland, and reducing dependence on chemical pesticides.

Wilson's conciliatory tone ends with his professed admiration for the WTO protestors of Seattle and Genoa. He marks the low point of the book by echoing the left-wing polemic that global income disparities contributed to 9/11. He also lapses a few times into the poorly reasoned hyperbole that often erodes the conservationists' credibility. For instance, on page 39 we read of ''the United States, whose citizens are working at a furious pace to overpopulate and exhaust their own land and water from sea to shining sea.' Yet, Wilson points out on page 30 that population growth in the United States is now due only to immigration, and that the non-immigrant population of the United States has achieved practically zero growth. In another instance that is more esoteric, but sloppy for an expert on biological history, Wilson suggests humans are the first species to alter the environment on a global scale: ''Homo Sapiens has become a geophysical force, the first species in the history of the planet to achieve that dubious distinction.' This neglects vast influences that have been exerted on the global environment by past life, including the production of all of our oxygen and nitrogen ' together constituting 99% of the Earth's atmosphere ' and the eradication of almost all of the carbon dioxide, which is thought to have formed most of the primitive Earth's atmosphere, just as it still composes over 95% of the atmospheres of Earth's neighbors, Mars and Venus.

On the other hand, Wilson's detailed account of different species that have recently gone extinct or are down to just a few individuals shows good reason to be disturbed. The current rate of extinctions is in the range of the greatest mass extinctions on record, including the K-T impact event that eliminated the dinosaurs and many other life forms 65 million years ago. Wilson outlines what he calls the bottleneck of the next century or so ' the efforts, or lack thereof, of our generation will make an indefinitely large difference in the future biological heritage of the Earth.

Future is most valuable for presenting a comprehensive road map for environmental remedy. In perhaps the most compelling prescription, Wilson urges an end to perverse subsidies, whereby governments use taxpayer money to finance economically wasteful activity that also destroys the environment, to cater to special interests, or the economically discredited idea of 'strategic industries.' An example of this is the massive subsidies Germany pays to its coal mines, theoretically to protect the miners' jobs, but also supporting an operation that is not only not profitable in the free market, but also the single greatest source of global environmental degradation. Wilson goes on to offer a summary of sources of value in biodiversity, some of it not yet realized, and recommends economically valuable drivers for ecological protection. He also identifies twenty-five 'hotspot' ecosystems that together cover only 1.4 percent of Earth's land surface, but are 'the last remaining homes of' 43.8 percent of all known species of vascular plants and 35.6 percent of the known mammals, birds, reptiles, and amphibians.'

Analyses such as these make it possible for policymakers and other actors to cooperate with conservationists in carrying out conservation efforts according to reasoned priorities, something that cannot be done where conservationists offer nothing more than an undistinguishing, blanket opposition to any development. The Future of Life provides an ideal, scientifically authoritative, well documented, and absorbing primer on the essential issues of environmental conservation, and a concise but vital guide for shaping or understanding environmental policy.

The Future of Life
I really enjoy reading the book ¡§The Future of Life¡¨ by the Biologist Edward O. Wilson. It is a rich and vivid book where the writer uses lots of brilliant and detailed description about the animals and other habitats. The sufficient amount information provides me a great and accurate picture of how the wild lives out there truly live.

This book depicts how Agriculture, one of the vital industries, endangers the remaining wild species and the nature environment. The world's food supply is hung by a slender thread of biodiversity. Ninety percent of the food supply is actually provided by slightly more than a hundred plant species out of a quarter-million known to exist. Of these hundred species, twenty species carry most of the load, of which only the main three--Wheat, maize, and rice---stand between humanity and starvation. Furthermore, most of the premier twenty are those that happened to be present in the agricultural region.

In a more general sense, these important species are the major potential donors of genes that genetic engineering utilize to improve the crop performance. With the insertion of the right snippets of DNA, new strains can be created that are variously cold-hardy, pest-proofed, perennial, fast growing, highly nutritious, multipurpose, water-conservative, and more easily sowed and harvested. And compared with traditional breeding techniques, genetic engineering is all but instantaneous.

In sum, Genetic Engineering have drastically changed our old ways of growing crops and thus, it threatens the future existence of the other species since it have significantly decreased the diversity of the nature wild lives.

Situation desperate but not completely hopeless
The Future Of Life is a great book and a perfect antidote to: a) unwarranted optimism about the state of the environment, which by almost any measure appears desperate; b) unwarranted pessimism or fatalism regarding man's ability to DO something about this situation; and c) the reams of misinformation, uninformed opinion, and ridiculously wild-eyed optimism on environmental matters that exists out there (i.e., "The Skeptical Environmentalist").

Unlike The Skeptical Environmentalist, which is written by a statistician, The Future Of Life is written by one of the world's greatest living scientists, Edward O. Wilson, author of 20 books (including Sociobiology, and Consilience), winner of two Pulitzer prizes plus dozens of science prizes, and discoverer of hundreds of new species. Dr. Wilson is often called, for good reason, "the father of biodiversity." Wilson is also one of the rare breed of scientists, like Stephen J. Gould, Carl Sagan, and Stephen Hawking, who can actually communicate their thoughts and findings to the general public. This is particularly important when it comes to Wilson's area of expertise, given that the environment is something which affects all of us and which all of us can play a part in protecting (or destroying).

Wilson's main theme can be summed up as "situation desperate, but not hopeless." Why desperate? Because humans--all 6 billion of them--are the most destructive force ever unleashed on Earth. According to Wilson, humanity's "bacterial" rate of growth during the 20th century, its short-sightedness, wasteful consumption patterns, general greed and rapaciousness, ignorance, and technological power have resulted in a mass extinction: "species of plants and animals...disappearing a hundred or more times faster than before the coming of humanity," and with "as many as half...gone by the end of the century." Americans in particular are an environmental disaster, consuming so many resources (oil, meat, timber, etc.) per person that, according to Wilson's calculations, "for every person in the world to reach present U.S. levels of consumption with existing technology would require four more planet Earths." Well, we don't have four more planet Earths, and at the present time, we are well on our way to trashing the one we've got. In short, Wilson concludes after chronicling the sorry, depressing, nauseating history of man's mass slaughter and destruction of the environment, our species richly deserves the label: "Homo sapiens, serial killer of the biosphere.''

Given all this, how can I say that Wilson's book is not hopeless? First, because human population growth is slowing (finally!), as women gain education, careers, and power over their reproductive choices. Luckily, when given this choice, women increasingly have opted for "quality over quantity," and average family size has plummeted. In most advanced industrialized nations, in fact, fertility rates have now fallen below replacement level (2.1 children per woman), meaning that populations in those countries will actually start to decline (barring immigration) in coming years. Wilson points that the worldwide average number of children per woman fell from 4.3 in 1960 to 2.6 in 2000. This is still far too high, and still means years more of absolute human population growth, but it's at least a bit of hope amidst the environmental carnage and constant drumbeat of bad news.

Second, there is some hope because many humans do love the environment and want to preserve and protect it. Here, Wilson uses the fancy, scientific-sounding term "biophilia" to describe man's "innate tendency to focus upon life and lifelike forms, and in some instances to affiliate with them emotionally.'' In this instance, I believe Wilson may be overly optimistic. When confronted with the choice of a Big Mac or an acre of rainforest, let's say, most people appear to choose the Big Mac. Or when given a choice of driving their gas-guzzling SUVs and living in sprawling suburbia vs. driving smaller cars, living in cities, taking mass transit, and helping to prevent disastrous global warming, most people choose the SUVs and suburbia. Still, much of this is undoubtedly a result of ignorance and skewed economics (i.e., billions of dollars per year in government subsidies doled out to agriculture, fossil fuel production, wasteful water usage, among other things), and these can be corrected--at least in theory. Also, there are undoubtedly millions of humans who strongly care about the environment--whether for aesthetic, religious, ethical, "biophiliac," or other reasons--and are volunteering, donating money, or altering consumption patterns in order to help save it.

This brings us to the third reason for not losing all hope: humans have the ability to save the environment, and Wilson lays out a clear, realistic, step-by-step plan for doing so. Ironically, one of the very characteristics of environment which causes it to be so vulnerable --its concentration of biological diversity in a small areas ("hotspots") --means that it is possible to target that land and save it. Wilson estimates that biological "hotspots" cover "less than 2 percent of the Earth's land surface and [serve] as the exclusive home of nearly half its plant and animal species." In Wilson's calculations, those "hotspots" can be saved "by a single investment of roughly $30 billion." Just to put this in perspective, the U.S. gross domestic product is over $10 trillion, or more than thirty times the $30 billion needed to save the "hotspots."

The Future Of Life ends on a note of cautious optimism: although right now we find ourselves in a "bottleneck of overpopulation and wasteful consumption," Wilson believes that the race between "technoscientific forces that are destroying the living environment" and "those that can be harnessed to save it" can be won. In order for this to come to pass, however, humanity needs to take action immediately along the lines that Wilson lays out. Ultimately, The Future Of Life is a passionate, brilliant, clarion call to arms by a great scientist, and a great man as well. If we don't hear Wilson's call, we will have only ourselves to blame. And whichever way things turn out, we can't say we weren't warned.

Well read, not so well produced
The reader, Ed Begley, Jr., reads this book clearly and with good phrasing. The abridging is not heavy.

Only one complaint: 6 CDs with NO TRACK INDEX! This means that the CDs are useful for listening to straight through only. The user can only guess which chapter will be on which CD, and there is no way (that I know of) to jump to a specific part of the book on the CD, because there is only one track per CD. ... Read more

Reviews (4)

A wildlife rehabilitator's world.
How great that a second edition of Shannon Jacob's "Healers Of The Wild" has come out. It is so much more than just a "guide for young people..." as she modestly states on the cover of her first edition.

While there are many heartwarming success stories in which injured, orphaned or abandoned animals have been successfully reintroduced to the wild, there are also stories of man's stupidity causing harm to some of nature's most innocent creatures.

For those brave enough to wander into the depths of a wildlife rehabilitator's world, a life-altering experience awaits you on the pages of this book, through the anecdotes and accompanying photographs.

Not being able to read this book again for the first time, I must be content to read it anew, for no other reason than to relive the warm, fuzzy success stories.

This book is a keeper.

Kudos to Shannon Jacobs, and wildlife rehabilitators everywhere.

Excellent Resource
As a wildlife writer who writes about animals in their natural setting, I found Jacobs' book on rehabilitators to be fascinating and informative, bringing the story of what happens to creatures when they have a run-in with humans, but are fortunate enough to be aided by these caring folks. As a birdwatching columnist, I am asked all the time about what to do when they find a baby bird. This book's "I Found A Baby Bird" flow chart is very good, and I am recommending it to my readers.

Indispensible Reference for Living with Wildlife
Healers is a must-have: concise, clearly-written, and easy-to-read. I consider it a critical reference for anyone whose life is touched by wildlife in some way, shape, or form. The book has tons of helpful information, addressing all the panic-stricken questions you have at that fateful moment when you happen to cross paths with an injured or orphaned creature. It's just the thing to grab in a wildlife emergency and the flow charts in the book that help sort out what action to take are the best I've ever seen. I've used these charts many times in dealing with wildlife emergencies, so I consider the flow charts alone to be well-worth the price of the book. Plus the updated edition has even more information than before. It's a real quality publication. As far as I'm concerned it's an indispensible wildlife reference and I wouldn't be without it.

Wildlife rehabber is enthused
As a wildlife rehabilitator, I am picky about book on the subject. I was very impressed with Healers...the quality of information, the layout, and the fact that it is valuable for ALL ages....for anyone who cares about wildlife, wants to know what it is like to dedicate yourself to helping wildlife and what it takes in time, money, and skills, how to aquire those skills or just where to go for help when you find injured or orphaned wildlife...and when to just leave it alone. This is a book that should be in everyone's library. ... Read more

Book Description

Feminism and the Mastery of Nature explains the relation between ecofeminism and other feminist theories. Plumwood provides a

philosophically informed account of the relation of women and nature, and shows how relating male domination to the domination of nature is important and yet remains a dilemma for women. ... Read more

Book Description

Environmental concerns can greatly affect business success, regardless of whether a business person or corporation shares those concerns. Today's corporate managers must understand the power of environmental issues, and shift their mindset from one focused on environmental "management" to one focused on strategy.

Competitive Environmental Strategy examines the effects of environmentalism on corporate management, explaining how and why environmental forces are driving change and how business managers can think about environmental issues in a strategic way. The author discusses:

• the evolving drivers of corporate environmental strategy, including regulators, shareholders, buyers and suppliers, insurers, investors, and consumers
• how environmentalism alters basic conceptions of competitive strategy and organizational design
• how external institutions create both opportunity and limitations for environmental strategy
• how environmental threats can be incorporated into risk management, capital acquisition, competitive position, and other management concerns

Competitive Environmental Strategy offers a valuable overview of the subject, and provides a wealth of real-world examples that demonstrate the validity and applicability of the concepts for business people, clearly showing how managers are turning an understanding of environmental issues to competitive advantage. ... Read more

Book Description

The knowledge of citizen scientists, biologists, and naturalists informs this book’s coverage of every aspect of the monarch butterfly’s life cycle (breeding, migration, and overwintering) from the perspective of every established monarch population (western North American, eastern North American, and Australian). In addition to presenting the most recent basic research on this species, The Monarch Butterfly contains the first publication of data compiled from two established citizen science projects, Journey North and the Monarch Larva Monitoring Project. It also reports for the first time on two major events of long-term importance to monarch conservation and biology: the creation of a larger protected area in the Mexican overwintering sites and a weather-related mortality event during the winter of 2002.

Monarch butterflies are arguably the most recognized, studied, and loved of all insects, and the attention that scientists and the general public have paid to this species has increased both our understanding of the natural world and our concern about preserving it. The unique combination of basic research, background information, and conservation applications makes this book a valuable resource for ecologists, entomologists, naturalists, and teachers. ... Read more

Book Description

A look at how America has preserved more than 100 million acres of diverse wilderness areas in 44 states, now protected in our National Wilderness Preservation System. Discussion of current visions valuing wilderness and its place in our culture.

*Outlines key details of the Wilderness Act and what it does
*Explanations of what protecting wilderness means and requires
*Provides in-depth historical context ... Read more

Book Description

America's top chefs present delectable and ecologically sound seafood recipes.

Earth's oceans were once thought to be inexhaustible sources of food, but we now know that they cannot sustain the demands we are placing on them. Overfishing has led to the depletion of once abundant fish and shellfish species. Yet seafood is a healthy and desirable choice in our diets. So what is an ecologically conscious, seafood-loving cook to do?

Carole C. Baldwin and Julie H. Mounts have solved the dilemma. Rather than suggest avoiding consumption of seafood for conservation purposes, they present an array of U.S. seafood species to choose from that are fished or farmed in an ecologically sound manner. Furthermore, they have assembled delicious recipes from America's top chefs based on these species: try Alice Waters's Dungeness Crab Salad with Meyer Lemon, Endive, and Watercress; Mario Batali's Atlantic Mackerel in Scapece with Lemon Thyme and Sweet Peppers; or Sautéed Soft-Shell Crabs on Asparagus from Jacques Pepin.

By diversifying our seafood consumption, we can lessen the demand for problematic species and distribute the burden among a broad spectrum of well-managed stocks—and still prepare delicious meals. Beautifully illustrated with 25 color illustrations by Charlotte Knox. ... Read more

Reviews (3)

Good Concept, but Disappointing
I love the IDEA of this book -- what seafood is eco-friendly and how to cook it. The book contains numerous short essays about poor fisheries-management and suggestions about less harmful practices, and these are nice. But in terms of practical advice on fish-buying, the authors are trying to avoid all negativity and don't help the reader distinguish truth from fiction at the fish-mongers. And some of the fish varieties discussed can only be distinguished from look-alikes by DNA testing. Also, the recipes are all very fancy and beautiful but way too fussy (how many words does it take to say "salt and pepper"?) Overall, the book is an expensive indulgence (think coffee-table), but not too useful.

Slow Food Cooking prevealent in today's modern restaurants
Aside from not having glossy embossed photos to drool over, this book is a wonderful collection of recipes from some of the countries best chefs. What I really love is that the book dives into sustainable aquaculture and what you can do as a consumer to demand better quality local seafood that is not harmful to the environment. Here are 150 recipes that deal with what actually swims in our backyards. It's time we supported restaurants who put such an effort into Slow Food (that is food that is environmentally, physiologically, and mentally the opposite of fast food like McDonalds). I say congratulations to the authors for putting such an effort together.

Good Fish vs. Bad Fish
I'm a huge fish fan but find it confusing to know which fish are environmentally safe to eat. My grocers aren't much help and most recipes I find in magazines and books don' t mention whether the seafood ingredients called for are an eco-friendly choice. I was thrilled to find this book for several reasons.

Each chapter is devoted to a certain type of fish such as crab, basses and perch, prawns and shrimp as well as a host of species I had never heard of. Within each chapter is a "how to shop for" guide, cooking methods, and other common names the fish might go by in your local grocery store. Then you've got some great sounding recipes from numerous well-respected chefs. While some of the recipes look a little more complicated than I'm used to, most look easy enough to pull-off at home wihtout buying loads of special ingredients. I like how they throw in a comprehensive glossary to help out with all the cooking terminology. Really, the only downside is the lack of photos. While the illustrations are good, I personally like to see what a finished dish looks like.

The environmental info is easy to read -- not at all preachy (which is refreshing) and the issues section is helpful in understanding what overfishing is all about. I had no idea that up to 100 pounds of by-catch can be discarded for every pound of targeted seafood caught. The authors numbers are really eye-opening.

As far as I can tell, this is the only book on the market that combines the issue of sustainable seafood with actual recipes. Seeing so many great chefs come together for this cause is heartening and I definitely recommend this book for any seafood lover. ... Read more

Book Description

In Earth in Mind, noted environmental educator David W. Orr focuses not on problems in education, but on the problem of education. Much of what has gone wrong with the world, he argues, is the result of inadequate and misdirected education that:

• alienates us from life in the name of human domination
• causes students to worry about how to make a living before they know who they are
• overemphasizes success and careers
• separates feeling from intellect and the practical from the theoretical
• deadens the sense of wonder for the created world

The author begins by establishing the grounds for a debate about education and knowledge. He describes the problems of education from an ecological perspective, and challenges the "terrible simplifiers" who wish to substitute numbers for values. He follows with a presentation of principles for re-creating education in the broadest way possible, discussing topics such as biophilia, the disciplinary structure of knowledge, the architecture of educational buildings, and the idea of ecological intelligence. Orr concludes by presenting concrete proposals for reorganizing the curriculum to draw out our affinity for life. ... Read more

Reviews (5)

A Design for "Ecological Transformation"
David Orr presents an intellectual schematic for bringing "Earth in Mind" into the forefront of Human Conscousness. The Essential Theme running through this incisive and thoughtful book might best be summarized through the author's words: "Commercial television, the breakdown of families, and the culture of violence have made the task of nurturing young minds and hearts far more difficult than it once was." He approaches this fragmation of America's Ideal by presenting a series of in-depth metaphors and perspectives, which answer his question, "How do you create good schools without first creating a good society that values the life of the mind and lives lived with heroism and high purpose? This book is a valuable contribution to the Ecological Literature of the times. Elliott Maynard, Ph.D., President, Arcos Cielos Research Center, Sedona, Arizona.

The Single Most Important Book on Education
That the world we now live in is unsustainable goes without saying. Our skyrocketing population puts enormous pressure on the productive and absorptive capacities of the land, outstripping the natural carrying capacity of the planet by some twenty percent. As ever more fisheries collapse, forests shrink, rangelands deteriorate, soils erode, species vanish, temperatures rise, rivers run dry, water tables fall, ozone depletion expands and polar ice caps melt across the globe, the single most important question humanity has faced resonates ever louder: How can we live sustainably?

In this amazing book, Orr argues that the ecological crisis is not technological problem that we can fix with some new-fangled gadgetry or updated economic models. Rather, as he says, the "disordering of ecological systems and the great biogeochemical cycles of the earth reflects a prior disorder in the thought, perception, imagination, intellectual priorities, and loyalties inherent in the industrial mind." In other words, ecological crisis is a crisis of education. And yet, "we continue to educate the young for the most part as if there were no planetary emergency."

The effects of our educational system are not only bad for the planet, according to Orr, but bad for us as well. Contemporary "education...alienates us from life in the name of human domination, fragments instead of unifies, overemphasizes success and careers, separates feeling from intellect and the practical from the theoretical, and unleashes on the world minds ignorant of their ignorance." In effect, we educate a society to get straight As and fail Life.

Rather than educating for upward mobility, globally competitive economic success or increased technological cleverness, Orr recommends that we need educate for "ecological design intelligence" in an effort to foster "healthy, durable, resilient, just, and prosperous communities." "The world does not need more rootless symbolic analysts," says Orr. "It needs instead hundreds of thousands of young people equipped with the vision, moral stamina, and intellectual depth necessary to rebuild neighborhoods, towns, and communities around the planet. The kind of education presently available will not help them much. They will need to be students of their places and competent to become, in Wes Jackson's words, "native to their places.'"

What would a sane, place-centered economy look like?

"A sane civilization," he says, "would have more parks and fewer shopping malls; more small farms and fewer agribusinesses; more prosperous small towns and smaller cities; more solar collectors and fewer strip mines; more bicycle trials and fewer freeways; more trains and fewer cars; more celebration and less hurry; more property owners and fewer millionaires and billionaires; more readers and fewer television watchers; more shopkeepers and fewer multinational corporations; more teachers and fewer lawyers; more wilderness and fewer landfills; more wild animals and fewer pets." A sane civilaiton would not advocate unending economic growth at the expense of all planetary life. "Utopia?" he asks. "No! In our present circumstances it is the only realistic course imaginable. We have tried utopia and can no longer afford it."

Rather than offering utopian idealism, Orr sticks closely to the stark environmental consequence of our industrial society, the failures of our philosophical heritage, and the ecological crisis our educational system spawns, offering practical advice for change at every stage of the argument. From educating out-of-doors to redesigning schools to rehabilitating local habitats, Orr's educational vision is radical and necessary. Without implementing his pedagogical advice, one cannot expect things to get better.

Without a doubt THE BEST work on education I have ever read, yet one need not have any interest in education to appreciate the import of Orr's thesis. This book is critical for the health of our bodies, minds, and the greater economic and ecological systems those bodies and minds operate within. Should definately not be overlooked.

Inspiring!
David Orr is a hero in my mind. He is making a true diffence. In this amazing piece he explains how and why we must integrate ecology into every aspect of our educational system. He not only writes about this, he also practices what he preaches. This is evident at Oberlin college where he has built, with the help of Bill McDonough, John Todd and others, a building that acts like a tree. Great work David, keep it up.

Persuasive analysis of the causes of environmental problems
Dr. Orr's analysis of the root causes of our environmental problems is powerful and pesuasive. Rather than trying to address the corrective actions for the symptoms (ozone holes and global warming, for example) he identifies their fundamental sources and focuses his proposed corrective actions on them. The lack of any meaningful educational content on what it means to be a citizen in a closed ecology on a planet with finite resources is at the center of why the environment continues to deteriorate. If you are serious about being part of the solution and not part of the problem, read this book! --and get others to do the same. I've bought twenty copies that I plan to send to the most influential people I know. If they will read it, they will be "hooked" as I was.

Mind changing, powerful book
David Orr's book is powerful. I hope that this would become a best seller because it opened me up to a whole new way of thinking about what we can do with the environmental mess we have gotten into. Essentially we need to be educating people how to think from a system perspective and give people the experience to appreciate the environment. I hope you buy this book and be part of the solution. ... Read more

Book Description

In an era when corporations are under increasing pressure to be stewards of the environment and society as they pursue profits, business expert Bob Willard provides a practical benefit-by-benefit guide for assessing all three areas as a win/win/win proposition. Written in the pragmatic language of business leaders, this book is the first to present compelling and quantitative bottom-line evidence of the profitability of social and environmental initiatives. ... Read more

Book Description

Reviews (6)

Great passion and conviction -- terribly written
I completely agree with the political agenda of this book. I am glad it was written. Kovel is RIGHT ON TARGET.
But the book was dreadful to plow/bore through. Talk about OBTUSE VERBIAGE. There is still this awful tradition out there that if you wor dsomething so that it "sounds" brilliant -- it must be. I hate that tradition. We need plain language and simple articulation. This book is just the opposite. Here are but a couple of random examples to give you some idea: "Capital's invasion takes place across an ecosystemic manifold encompassing both culture and nature, with points of commodity formation arising everywhere" (p.55) -- got that? or "If 'entropy' is a logarithmic measure of the probabilistic disorder of a given physical system, the Second Law states that for such a system, whether it be the air in a room, a living body, or the earth as a whole, so long as neither energy nor matter is added to said system -- that is, so long as the system is 'closed' -- then its entropy will rise with time" (p.93) -- got that?
Look, there were many times in this book where I wrote "right on!" in the margins. There were also many times whene I wrote "blah blah blah"...I was going to assign this to my students of social theory -- I teach at a small liberal arts college. No way. Very few people can plow through this dense stuff.

Makes a powerful case
Anyone who considers themselves an environmentalist should read this book. Kovel makes the case the environmental destruction is inherent to the capitalist system and for the most part, reforms are little more than band-aids for a system that is, by its very nature, out of control.

Kovel focuses less on the environmental problems we face today (which you can find in any other book); and focuses more of the book lies in describing how the nuts and bolts of the capitalist economy works (which is what sets this book apart from all others).

He makes the case that actions like voluntarism, isolated cooperatives, bioregionalism, and so forth will eventually get rolled over by the immense power that capital has and are not long-term solutions.

My only problem with the book is that, while Kovel accurately describes the underlying environmental problem as having its root in capitalism itself, he doesn't present a coherent solution except an extremely vague "eco-socialism" (that's why I gave it 4 stars instead of 5). You can tell by this last chapter that he is groping for some sort of answer - going off in many directions.

If you want a cutting analysis of the problem human beings face today, get this book! If you want a revolutionary solution, this book is only a start.

Some background to a flawed but brilliant book
For Joel Kovel the revolution is only a matter of time. Marx was right: Capitalism cannot help but prepare the stew in which it will roast. But Old Whiskers got one thing wrong. The crucial antagonist of capital is not labor but nature. If Marx made a fetish of capital's propensity to generate too much wealth to be profitably re-invested, Kovel does the same in regard to planetary ecosystem crackup. Instead of periodic economic downturn catapulting the proletariat into History, it's the shattering of life-essential natural processes that's destined to set off socialist (make that ecosocialist) revolution.

Professor Kovel, who ran to the left of Ralph Nader for the Green Party nod in 2000, wastes no time making the case that capitalism, by its very nature, cannot help but destroy the integrity and well-being of what we call "nature." No need for yet another inventory of disturbances in the environment, our bodies, and our psychic balance (though Kovel does provide a lot of data in this regard). The enemy of nature is not oil or pesticides or factories or bulldozers but capital, "that ubiquitous, all-powerful and greatly misunderstood dynamo that drives our society."

While traditionally the marketplace is a means of exchanging goods for money so as to purchase other goods, under capitalism it becomes a way for those who already have money to accumulate more. Reversing the natural order, the merchant starts off with money and buys the product of someone else's labor, then turns around and sells it at a markup. As long as the laborer is poor and the buyer rich, the trader makes a profit.

What gives a commodity its value is not what we do with it, like using bricks to build houses or shoes to walk home in, but the price it commands in trade. In contrast to "use value"-- a quality that belongs to any given item intrinsically-- "exchange value" is an abstraction that must be expressed quantitatively. When you buy a pair of shoes (or better yet a thousand pairs) only to sell them for profit, their entire value is a number.

As the basis of economics becomes the trade itself and not the tangible thing exchanged, money is transformed into an all-consuming monster. No longer bound up with the limitations of actual land, people, and resources, it springs to life, an abstraction with a will of its own. "Pure quantity," says Kovel, "can swell infinitely without reference to the external world."

There lies the source of our ecological crisis.

Despite its reputation as the very acme of rational economic exchange, capitalism follows its own imperatives, quite apart from the needs of humans and ecosystems. In its compulsion to grow and multiply, capital "constantly tries to violate" whatever limit is set before it. Success means only one thing: surpassing yesterday's mark. No matter how big the beast gets, to cease growing further is to die. Yet the one thing we know for sure is that it can't grow forever. Sooner or later abstraction runs up against reality.

Does that mean capitalism is setting the stage for ecosocialist uprising? "If the argument that capital is incorrigibly ecodestructive and expansive proves to be true, then it is only a question of time before the issues raised here achieve explosive urgency." True enough, but that doesn't mean the Revolution is just over the horizon. What Kovel overlooks is the likelihood that worsening environmental conditions will exacerbate the scarcity that already pits us against each other. While the rich compete to survive as rich people, the poor compete to survive, period. If it's the money-driven struggle of all-against-all that's pushing us, inexorably, to the edge of the cliff, shouldn't we expect rising insecurity and the resulting intensification of this struggle to push us right over the edge? Precisely when, between now and doomsday, do the masses finally revolt?

As Kovel himself points out, capitalists are perfectly willing to perpetuate eco-destabilization as long as they can insulate themselves and perhaps even profit from the meltdown all around them. He cites an article in London's Guardian Weekly purporting to show a shift in elite opinion since the early 70s, when the Club of Rome called for "limits to growth." These days, digging our own grave is simply the ultimate business opportunity.

Taking Kovel to task in the September, 2002 issue of Monthly Review, John Bellamy Foster noted, "We should not underestimate capitalism's capacity to accumulate in the midst of the most blatant ecological destruction, to profit from environmental degradation... and to continue to destroy the earth to the point of no return-- both for human society and for most of the world's living species."

Times are tough? How about a liquidation sale? Like Marx before him, Kovel finds a silver lining where none exists. There's just no pulling the socialist rabbit out of the capitalist hat.

An Ecosocialist Manifesto
Joel Kovel's "The Enemy of Nature" offers a powerful and unflinching eco-Marxist critique of the capitalist system. Concluding that the path of accumulation must inevitably lead to a world wide ecological crisis, the author theorizes about the type of "ecosocialist" system that must supplant capitalism in order to ensure humanity's survival.

Kovel is part of a growing "Red/Green" movement that also includes the outstanding Marxist scholar James O'Connor. Kovel's arguments seem to build upon and indeed are closely aligned with many of the ideas in O'Connor's excellent book "Natural Causes," but I personally find Kovel's writing to be a bit more accessible than O'Connor's. Perhaps this pragmatism can be attributed to Kovel's political sensibilities, as he was a candidate for the Green Party Presidential nomination in 2000.

Kovel believes that various forms of so-called "Green economics" are doomed to failure because they do not address what he sees as the root problem driving the ecological crisis: namely, capital's need to continuously expand. He points out that whatever gains might be realized from the introduction of environmentally-friendly technology will be quickly outweighed by the expansion of the economy. For example, fuel cells might be less harmful than internal combustion engines, but if the technology merely enables the manufacture of hundreds of millions of new automobiles, the planet will ultimately be much worse off.

But Kovel acknowledges that the current Green movement is in fact helping to lay the groundwork for what is yet to come. The Green's emphasis on local democratic control of the means of production will help free labor from its bondage with capital, which is essential for socialism to succeed.

Of course, Kovel devotes a section to readers who may need to be reminded that really existing socialism as practiced in the Soviet Union and elsewhere was NOT what Marx intended. Kovel shows that these countries actually substituted the state for the market, in the end merely proving that markets were superior to centralized planning. The ruined environments left behind by the Communist states were testaments to a failed attempt at accumulation, in much the same way that the West is currently degrading the air, land and sea in its ongoing frenzy of accumulation.

Kovel speculates on how collapse might occur in the capitalist nations. He understands that a breakdown of the financial system could easily lead to fascism, or possibly "ecofascism", as capital seeks to hold on to power. But Kovel thinks it may be plausible that the pockets of production growing outside the bounds of capital may be strong enough to resist the counter-revolution. Indeed, Kovel points out that up to 20 percent of the world economy already exists in the "informal" sector, although most of this is comprised of criminal activity and much less of the positive kind (such as the Bruderhof communities of the U.S.).

This latter part of Kovel's analysis bears similarity to Nick Dyer-Witheford's "Cyber-Marx", although Kovel does not appear to be aware of this book nor is it referenced in his bibliography. In short, Dyer-Witheford theorizes that technophiles will appropriate the means of production in order to empower a society that eventually achieves autonomy by existing outside the bounds of capitalist control. Like Kovel, Dyer-Witheford envisions that the post-capitalist society will choose to apply its surplus value to the cause of freeing labor and restoring its ravaged social, physical and natural environments. In my view, the convergence of these two authors' thoughts -- albeit arrived at from different angles, but perhaps more compelling because of this -- bolsters both of their arguments and suggests that the possibility of radical change may not be as elusive as one might suppose.

I strongly recommend Kovel's book for anyone who may be concerned about the future of our society or for those who may be contemplating how a more humane world might come about.

A penetrating indictment of capitalism
After having read and greatly appreciated Professor Kovel's previous book, "Red Hunting in the Promised Land", I was somewhat surprised to see his entry into the ecological debate with "Enemy of Nature." But scepticism soon gave way to great insight about the fundamentals of our current ecological situation, an impending catastrophe threatening survival itself as Kovel makes clear.
Whereas other writers have examined ecological crises and misdeeds as isolated and independent manifestations of similarly discrete abuses by global and regional players, Kovel shows that the root cause of ecological ills is the capitalistic system itself, in effect the very nature of capital or "money-in-motion." What follows from this accusation is the even more unsettling demonstration that no amount of "corrections" of given abuses nor mere simple changes and "controls" applied to the basic rules of the game will suffice to reverse the dangerous nature- and life-threatening trends now evident world-wide. The Enemy of Nature is the capitalistic system itself, and if readers of such a statement should be tempted to dismiss the claim as mere Marxian doomsday-saying and thus forego a reading of it on the basis of our current celebrations that capitalism is the sole surviving economic system and therefore MUST be the best, such potential readers will be ignoring not only essential information, but be contributing to the continuation of processes which must surely end in chaos and anarchy.
For anyone who even pretends to have a passing interest in the future of Western civilisation and the questions concerning its health and survival now discussed with every passing ecological abuse and catastrophe, this book is a must. Ignoring it may well constitute a breach of morality. However, there is a great probability that the book may well be ignored because its arguments and conclusions are fairly well unanswerable and would require outright revolution in all spheres of human activity were it to be taken seriously. As such, it is hard to conclude anything else but that we are indeed approaching global meltdown and the end of history, not for the reasons that Francis Fukuyama laid out in his famous tome, but because the Panglossian continuation of our current ecological mania must soon end not only history but the means even to write it, and possibly even the species which writes. ... Read more

Reviews (6)

Just saw his show in Duluth
Greetings. Just returned from Duluth and saw an exhibit of his photos: very large and some are pretty incredible. The book is worth it. While a few of the images are sugar-sweet,"awe-inspiring" typical pretty but omni-present sunset orangy-pinky shots, others are really pretty exceptional. Pictures of just the water surface; picture of sky-water, vertical, darker greened-bronze colors - a real collectors item, fab. shot. If you can buy any of his original work, do it now. Get to Duluth.

Superior Images of Lake Superior
How many superlatives can I heap on this "coffee table" size compilation of Craig Blacklock's stunning photographs? Let me count the plates: there are 154 - taken at various times of the year, while journeying by kayak around Lake Superior. Each "chapter" is a segment in the journey and each plate is attributed to a point on the map. My favorites: plate 77, "Small island east of Rossport, December, 1985; and plate 94, "Devil's Chair (center island) Lake Superior Provincial Park,(Canada,) July 1991.

There's a message in these beautiful photos and essays. We must preserve natural balance. As Linda Benedict-Jones says in the Introduction: "...One of the specific wishes of Blacklock... is that the remaining undeveloped lake shoreline be kept for open access. When he silently glides for months on end around the periphery of the lake, he does it with the hope that his pictures will convince others to appreciate the lake as he does. Lake Superior is simply too profound as a spiritual resource to be guarded by a privileged few. Should these last open stretches be developed, they will forever be out of reach by the general public. We have learned precious little from the examples set for us by the Navajo (Dineh), the Dakota and the Anishinabe. We all know that Native Americans lived in harmony with the earth and believed that land could be neither bought nor sold since it belonged to all. Perhaps it is not too late to apply their wisdom to relatively small, yet hugely important, areas of land bordering the Great Lakes. Perhaps these Blacklock photographs will help preserve public access to Lake Superior's shores, as certain photographic efforts of his 19th Century predecessors helped to convince (the U.S.) Congress to establish national parklands of the Yosemite, Yellowstone, the Grand Tetons and others." Pass it on!

Unmatched natural splendor portrayed by peerless technique

In a roughly 8 year period, the author made several kayak trips along various parts of the Superior shoreline, hauling photographic equipment along and immersing himself in those wild, unspoiled scenes so spectacularly portrayed in the 154 plates that appear in this book. The results are well worth every penny of the 40-odd bucks this book costs, and then some. As a fellow photographer of nature, I can attest to the way one can use ground glass and film to convey his deep appreciation -- yes, even a spiritual bond -- with the outdoors as God made it. Blacklock's collection of 4x5 format images (with one 35 mm slide thrown in) of the Big Lake is not only visually vivid, but spiritually moving in a way few other published photo collections can perform.

Nowhere have I seen water, rock, ice, forest, fog and sun so splendidly blended and starkly contrasted at the same time, across an entire plate set. [Plate 33 is the most stunning portrayal of ice and sky together which I have ever seen -- National Geographic's Arctic photos included -- and easily in my top 5 favorite photographs of all time.] Most admirably, nowhere in any of the photos appears a man-made object that I could see. The author takes his efforts a step further by fully revealing his techniques -- right down to the camera, film and tripod brands, and his CMYK post-processing in Photoshop (not to alter, but instead to clean up, the imagery).

Having been all around Lake Superior, its rugged vastness revealed to my eyes but only feebly captured on film by comparison, I am in awe of the job Blacklock has done. The sky, rocks and waves there have such a rich story to tell; and this book masterfully allows that story to begin. It makes me determined to return someday, camera again in hand and Blacklock's methods in mind, to get far removed from the tracks of people, and to experience Superior at its raw, unrestrained best.

Some of the finest landscape images ever captured
From a photographer's view, this book contains many beautiful images found in Northern Michigan and Canada. The colors are impressive, the composition is both thoughtful and precise. I wish I had just a small portion of the authors talent and technique.

Beautiful images of the Lake Superior area
I grew up in the Thunder Bay, Ontario at the Northern tip of Lake Superior. The photos in this book really capture the ever changing beauty of Lake Superior and it's shore. Not very often can a book transcend image and evoke the wonder of nature, this one does. ... Read more

Book Description

Adam Werbach is the youngest and most visible general in the battle for America's environment. His youthful energy and boundless enthusiasm have mobilized the slumbering Sierra Club, fired the imaginations of the media and fueled a grassroots environmental movement among Gen Xers that most people would have thought impossible.

He began his activist career 15 years ago, when he organized a petition drive at school that called for the dismissal of then Secretary of the Interior James Watt. He was only eight years old. At 13, he founded the Sierra Student Coalition, a student-run adjunct to the Sierra Club that now boasts 30,000 members. Today, he is the youngest president the Sierra Club has ever had.

Act First, Apologize Later  shares Werbach's thoughts on a wide array of subjects in such chapters as Ferns and Cougars: Why We Need Nature; The California Desert Protection Act: The Anatomy of a Victory; Eco-Thugs: Profiles of Members of Congress Who Are in the Pockets of Polluters; and Solutions: Beyond "Band-Aid" Environmentalism. Written with the passion and zeal that has already inspired hundreds of thousands of people, it is an important call to arms in a war America must not lose. ... Read more

Reviews (14)

Enjoyable Anecdotes, a Philosophical Welter-weight, but FUN!
This book is a light read. It's chock full of inspiring stories illustrating how environmental action can succeed. It's weak on establishing either a philosophy or political theory for environmental action, and has little concrete advice for organizing. The writing style flows nicely and is not difficult. This would be a great book for a Jr. High/High School level environmental club to read and discuss.

Although not systematically organized, most of his stories illustrate useful strategies for environmental action, such as:

"We only need to provide people with the facts that enable them to make up their own minds and empower them to act on their decisions. We need to be savvy, but we don't need to employ scare tactics and misleading information to communicate our message." (p. 218)

He provides a number of examples of corporate greed gone haywire, such as the Pacific Lumber story (p. 118), the cost of timber roads in our National Forests (p. 208), and the impact of Wallmart (p. 247+).

His stories are entertaining and informative, even at his own expense. It's a great book to read between something by Ruether and something by Bookchin--a light break between heavies.

(If you'd like to discuss this book or review in more depth, please click on the "about me" link above & drop me an email. Thanks!)

Pass Now, Wonder Later
Man, this book could have been so much better. Adam Werbac