Environment and Nature Books

The loathing our current Administration and its corporate powers have for the United States as exposed here will shock anyone believing they are "fighting for America" or have the slightest interest in anything outside power and personal gain. What we find through their repeated and flagrant disregard is proof they would rather sacrifice the nation for profit than pay any cost, however small, for honesty. They have mastered sound-bite word games by merely naming their intents to suit the media and opposition, such as the "Clean Skies Program" (allowance for industry to pollute our atmosphere), the "Healthy Forest Initiative" (written to clear cut old growth forests), or "Wise Use" resources (slash and burn polices meant to reward millions in political contributions). All under the guise of "reform" and "streamlining" the law, from a president who thinks Constitutional law mandating oversight of the Executive by Legislature is a mistake. (Even now we find tomatoes poisoned with salmonella cannot be tracked to their source because Bush et. al. gave its nod to agribusiness wanting to avoid such practice as it takes time and money. Is it tomatoes? FDA can't even tell that. FDA warned of such incidents a year ago due to Bush's restrictions and trimming of their inspection and enforcement arm in order to satisfy his agribusiness contributors. Weeks after nearly 1000 infections, our White House decided it might be a good idea to track produce for the moment.) RFK lists the names, corporations and how many millions changed hands to get these "initiatives" written by lobbyists from the very companies they're meant to regulate, based on their understanding of "sound science". By an administration manipulating scientific data from national labs or merely suppressing it, and a president who thinks religion should be taught in science class. RFK's book only treats these health and environmental crimes, not rampant Constitutional violations, not Iraq, not open border policies meant to enrich commerce. The Founder's would roll in their graves were they to see at what depths their creation has been corrupted. The disdain, hypocrisy, and betrayal even to the precepts of their own religion as shills for the moneychangers reveals our White House has no boundaries. Sleaze and vulgarities of the Clinton Administration seem now as feckless childhood memories.

RFK lists operatives hired from oil, gas and coal appointed to control EPA, Interior, the Forest Service and any organization once meant to insure our health and future of the landscape. Instead all is to be razed as quickly as possible before the next administration, which "might" not be so reckless. Opposition has been silenced, transferred, their offices ransacked and forced to acquiesce or else. Nixon-like break-ins, once riveting the nation, aren't noticed as our media, now owned by corporate giants (NBC/GE, ABC/Disney, CBS/previously Westinghouse) refuse to report anything implicating their paymasters or comrades in the White House. Without investigative reporting on corruption, harried Americans don't know about it as corporate profits soar (good) because they're no longer required to clean up their mess (bad). Instead, citizens pay for it though elevations in mercury, arsenic, BPA poisoning, higher asthma rates among children and loss of streams, landscapes and forests habitable by nothing but stumps, mining tailings and pathogens. (And after all this big business pandering, our economy is still in the tank.) Consider what differences exist between Bush / Cheney's plutocracy in which the populous is patronized and ignored, mass wealth is funneled to corporate giants, the environment is trampled with reckless abandon, and that of totalitarian "Communist" China today.

RFKs shortcomings are his clichés like "right wing bigot"; his hillbilly comparison of red to blue states in his last chapter (which should have been deleted) on why Bush won his second term (with Gore 0.5% over Bush in popular votes all states were purple); Reagan's release of the Fairness Doctrine, while ignoring Clinton nailed the coffin on this plan (he does note this in personal lectures); and other such slants making his book appear directed to a Liberal audience, when this is a text for everyone regardless of our usual excess emphasis on party dogmas.

While it might be argued that as a Liberal RFK would rather over-regulate, it's clear from his book and external references (many if not most of his references are sympathetic) that leaving regulation up to business is like leaving the fox to police his hen house. Even after 9/11 and the "War On Terror", at time of writing, chemical facilities, oil refineries, and nuclear plants noted as prime value targets to terrorists have no security measures as the Administration is leaving that up to companies that run them. So much for national security. Such corruption is as old as time, repeated on so many occasions throughout history as to be passé, but few if any have done it so well as Bush / Cheney. Perhaps these two will be remembered for something after all.

If you are passionate about our "commons", this book is for you. Under George W. Bush, our natural resources are for sale to the highest bidder with the profits going to the privileged few. One of the great things about being an American is the legacy we all share in the form of our commons; clean air, clean water, open spaces, forests, mountains, streams, lakes etc. These belong to all of us to share and enjoy. The "ownership society" wants to strip us of our national treasure, sell it off and keep the profits. This is the most daring crime ever committed and we are hardly aware of it. Read this thought provoking book.

I can only spot one glaring error:

On page 2, the author states, "I want to be very clear here: This book is not about a Democrat attacking a Republican administration."

If I had a dime every time he used the phrase "right wing," the book would be free.

Nothing's "left wing" just right wing. He seems to lay all blame for all time at the hands of George, Jr. Hey, the guy's made some terrible environmental blunders but I don't recall any radical environmental improvements during Bill Clinton's eight (8) years. In fact, I'll go record saying that the Clean Air Amendments of 1990 (signed by George, Sr.) have been the most significant air regulations in the last 17 years. Why didn't Clinton mandate and phase in all the CAFE standards during his tenure? Probably, because both parties of Congress have to address the economy first, the environment second.

Kennedy takes his environmental stance too far when he quotes a constitutent on page 85, "With a president who doesn't believe in evolution, it's hard to imagine what kind of scientific evidence would suffice..." By making the environment his religion, his arguments start sounding like fanatical ramblings.

Is Bush really responsible for Hurricane Katrina? For the polluted Hudson River? For all of America's pollution problems? Was all the environmental degradation done only on his watch? What about the failures of past president's and their lack of environmental leadership?

True, Bush has passed on his chance to wean us off foreign oil while improving the environment (primarily by addressing auto pollution and alternative technologies) but so has every president up to now.

I gave this book 5 stars, because this book opened by eyes to things that I had no idea were happening. I knew some of the things that were happening, but not to the extent that it is happening. I know in my heart that Robert Kennedy Jr is telling the truth about the true condition of this country.

I would encourage all people who are interested in the truth to read this book. I know that many people will feel that Republicans are being attacked, but I don't think that is the intent at all, but RFK jr is exposing the reasons why we as Americans are being mislead to voting for people who lie to us. When is the last time Americans were encouraged to be the best they could be and put what was best for this Country first and make a positive change? Now we have Americans who are being scared and out of fear approve of policies that have led to America being hated across the world. For those who would think I am a die hard liberal Democrat I am an Independent. I just believe in shining the light on the darkness and believe that America is fighting for her very soul and I want to see America saved for future generations. So yes, I agree with RFK jr on his accessment and encourage this book to be read and passed on so that more people will be awaken to the truth.

My Nephew is in Law School and will be an Enviromental Attorney in Hawaii and that is just one reason I have started to really look into the issues of global warming, the enviroment, etc. I wanted to be informed so I could with knowledge encourage my nephew to choose a path that makes a difference for good. I hope that when my nephew is graduated that he will follow in the footsteps of Robert Kennedy Jr who is fighting for the American people. I do not want my nephew join the energy companies or others who have no concern about the future of this country. Anyway, I plan to give this book to my nephew which I hope will inspire him to choose the right direction when he graduates next June.

This book also answered questions about the Media. I know in my heart he is telling the truth about that as well. With the end of the free press we are in danger of loosing our Democratic Republic. We no longer have an informed citizentry who votes from knowledge of the facts, but bases their decision on misinformation and sound bites.

It takes great courage to be willing to shine the light on the darkness. Robert Kennedy is doing that, not only with this book but with his life long work.

I look forward to reading more books on this issue and passing them on to my nephew while he is in Law School as he is making up his mind as to what direction he will go when he graduates this June.

One of the things I find most disturbing in this, book is that Mr. Kennedy describes a strange and creepy right wing character that at one time had been following him around the country while he lectured. This freaky individuals behavior amounted to stalking and harrasing Mr. Kennedy. Not until this right wing individual was arrested and confined to his state of residence, did he stop harrasing Bobby Kennedy Jr. Considering the horrible and evil way in which Mr. Kennedy's father and uncle Jack were killed it sickens me to think of a someone stalking and harrassing him.


With class and dignity Mr. Kennedy emphasizes that his book has nothing to do with Republican versus Democrat. He states that the environment belongs to all of us. Not just one political affiliatation. In fact in his book he mentions several occasions where Republicans and Democrats work together for environmental causes.

Crimes Against Nature was a real eye opener for me. You have to read this book. After reading this book I felt betrayed by the Bush administration. This administration is responsible for over 400 major implemented or proposed environmental rollbacks. This administration has accepted over 100 million dollars from the energy industry, and has in turn rewarded them by putting polluter lobbyist in key government positions that were meant to protect our natural resources.

If I were to have named this book, I would have named it "Organized Crimes against Nature". No innocent blunders have been mistakenly made by the Bush adminsitration with regards to over 400 environmental rollbacks. They were all intentional.

Richard Louv makes many great points in his book, Last Child in the Woods. I love that he discusses the fact that nature can help people to be less socially awkward and more confident. All in all, nature can just make people into healthier beings. It is also really neat that he talks about how important it is to stay in touch with nature because it brings us closer to God. If people keep ripping out the nature that God puts there, it is like we are saying that what we create is better than what God can create. In essence, we are making ourselves out to be above God by ripping out His creation and putting our own in its place. There have been times in my life where I have had the opportunity to just sit back and enjoy nature for what it is. This sounds cheesy, but I could simply listen to the birds chirp and wind rustle through the leaves of the trees. This helped me to relax, unwind, and forget about all of the worries that I have. If people work and work all the time, then they will just snap under the pressure. It is so important to have those times in your life to reflect upon the issues that matter the most to you. I strongly feel that nature is the best outlet for this and can heal so many things. People should realize that the connection with nature needs to start with childhood because that is the time when you develop the most. Parents are so afraid to let their children out into the woods for fear of things such as strangers, dangerous vehicles, and nature in general. In all reality, it is very improbable that these factors will harm children. The only reason we think that this stuff is so prevalent is because these are the things that the news teams cover. But really, the pros outweigh the cons when letting children explore and enjoy nature.

Whether you're an avid outdoor parent or family, this is an important read. If active in nature and its various outlets, it will validate your commitment with your family. If not, it will serve as a primer and, certainly, important motivation to incorporate the natural world in your child's upbringing. Nature, albeit remarkably complex, can also be taken in with simplistic beauty. I would recommend, first, a read of Rachael Carson's "A Sense of Wonder." Then Louv's narrative will provide the road map. His book is destined to be tagged with "classic" if it hasn't already. I cannot imagine a more important book for a family library.

This may very well be one of the most important books I have read this year ... or the past few years.

I purchased "Last Child in the Woods" right after I heard Richard Louv interviewed on a local radio program. I was so moved by his message and impressed with the breadth of his knowledge and depth of experience. And it all translates well in the book.

"Last Child..." feels more like a conversation than a text(book). It's just that comfortable and open. Yet it very strikingly paints a picture of what is currently happening to children and our world as well as what may yet happen if nothing is done to reverse "nature deficit disorder". But, more importantly, there are also bright examples of hope and suggestions as to what we can do, as individuals and in larger groups, to cultivate appreciation of -- and cooperation with -- the natural world.

Anyone who wants to awaken a love of nature in their kids, or simply deepen their own nature walk, should give this inspiring book a chance.

I whole-heartedly recommend this important book. Richard Louv's book sparked a movement that had been simmering under the surface for some time -- with the rapid growth of technology in recent years, our children are spending less and less time outside.

I work with Green Hour, a campaign of the National Wildlife Federation, that aims to inspire parents to encourage their kids to turn off the computer, IPod and TV and GET OUTSIDE! Check out www.greenhour.org to find the tools you need as a parent to help fight nature deficit disorder.

Childhood obesity, ADHD, and basic developmental problems have been associated to this broken link with the outdoors.

The new edition is great -- there are ideas in the back for getting kids outdoors...

Anne Keisman
Green Hour

I'm young enough that I still get called "kid" by my friends' parents, and when I saw the cover of this book in the store, with the kid holding a frog, I instantly felt like this book was about someone just like me. When I started reading, I felt so even more.

I've lived in forests and next to creeks all my life, but today, I look around at my friends and I see that most of my generation wasn't as lucky as me. They're all scared of bugs, (even moths!) they adamantly refuse to swim in the lake, (won't even touch salt water) they pick their way slowly and clumsily through the bushes trying not to touch anything... one friend brings an entire fold-out kitchen with her whenever we go camping. (At least she actually goes.) They call me "extreme", when all I did to become this way was catch some frogs, build some stick forts and flip over a few rocks to see what lived underneath.

It took the contrast of moving to the city to show me that there was a problem. I'm not a parental person, but looking around at my friends and peers and seeing them nature-handicapped.. it sucks. I don't want more people to have this problem. And though I haven't finished the book, every sentence has really resonated with me. This is extremely valuable information.
Kids have to know what frogs smell like, where to find snails and snakes, how to hop down a wet trail without getting muddy, or climb up a steep slope in the forest; they have to feed squirrels in the park and learn to fall down and not notice they've scraped their elbow. They should be learning to build things out of branches and leaves and rocks. They should be watching the animals. They need a secret place.

The memories I have of playing on the wilderness are some of the best I have. If they don't learn how now, they'll be too afraid to try later! And then Wall-E happens.

Loved the content but found the style of writing to be better suited to essays. This booked seems like it was rushed to print before Preston had come up with a suitable way to tell this story. When it gets to the part where he is involved directly with the characters it is more coherent but the chapters that tell the story of each character is better as a stand alone essay. It just seems like a book that is half baked....not crazy...just not ready. Where was the editor?

This is a really wonderful book. Rather than repeat all the accolades and special details, I'll just relay my personal experience.

My then-girlfriend and I read this book together in the summer of 2007 and fell in love with the book and the people and the trees. It inspired us to seek a redwood grove to get married in.

On August 2, 2008, we were married inside an ancient, living redwood tree hollowed out by fire. It was a small, intimate ceremony - we and our 14 invited guests fit inside the tree with room to spare. We had a fantastic time!

I got this book as a gift and was non-plussed. A whole book about people climbing trees? But once I started I couldn't put it down. Terrific writing, great characters and a really compelling story to tell. It was almost enough to make me want to go climb a tree myself. The only complaint I have is that I would have loved to see a few more sketches, or a few pictures, or something to really make plain just how large the trees are for those of us who can't just head off to California to see for ourselves.

This is a fabulous account of the search for the tallest trees and the resulting studies of the canopy ecosystems. This may sound dry but it is so beautifully written that it is a book you cannot stop reading.

Unless you really really really love botany and tree climbing, I'd skip this one. Instead I recommend 'The Golden Spruce: A True Story of Myth, Madness, and Greed' by John Vaillant.

I expected a book that would move me emotionally as well as intellectually, like Abby's Desert Solitude. That's not what this book is all about. It is well written, yes, but it only shoots for the intellect, not the heart, or at least it did for me. It is still an important read.

A classic. As we rush into brave new environmental worlds where angels fear to tread, and as our kids grow up plugged in rather than playing in the dirt, this should be required reading in all schools (and required for the parents, too). Besides presenting a compelling and important argument, it's also a very good book.

The book was in great condition, at a great price! I got it within just a few days. I would def. buy from this person again.

The earlier reviewer is wrong.The Ballantine edition is not censored.I have a Ballantine edition and there are at least three uses of the word "evolution" and the name Darwin is used at least twice.So don't let the paranoid pronouncements of an evolution worshiper stop you from enjoying this great book.All who love the outdoors and the natural world should read this classic work.

I re-read Leopold's Sand County Almanac every couple of years or so. It's not just a beautifully poetic celebration of the land. Its defense of a new sense of moral responsibility to the environment, spelled out in the book's "The Land Ethic," is a bracing tonic against the modern temptation to take the biosphere for granted. In these days of global warming, fossil fuel depletion, and escalating degradation of the land, water, and atmosphere, Leopold's 60-year-old plea for a new environmental ethic is both prophetic and urgently immediate.

In "The Land Ethic," Leopold argues for a new understanding of the moral community. Earlier ethical models focused on interpersonal and social relationships between humans. But given the interconnectedness of all members of the biosphere, we need to extend the moral community to include earth, sky, water, and all species--the biota. At least since the dawn of the modern age, human have tended to prize the biota only in terms of what we could get out of it. It had a purely economic, utilitarian value. But this way of thinking has resulted in environmental (not to mention economic and political) crisis.

What we must do now, argues Leopold, is to recognize our "vital" relationship to the biota, acknowledging that the well-being of our species is intimately connected to the well-being of the whole. This calls for a new standard of valuation that runs counter to the older, economic model. "Quit thinking about decent land-use as solely an economic problem," writes Leopold. "Examine each question in terms of what is ethically and esthetically right, as well as what is economically expedient." And if we do that, he concludes, we'll adopt the following ethical principle: "A thing is right when it tends to preserve the integrity, stability, and beauty of the biotic community. It is wrong when it tends otherwise" (p. 262). And part of what this means is that humans should strive to leave relatively light footprints on the earth, because the lighter our impact, the more likely the biota can successfully readjust to maintain integrity, stability, and beauty.

Good, important advice.

This book starts out with an interesting conversation between Wilson and Thoreau at the Walden cabin. While this only takes place in Wilson's imagination, it goes a long way towards showing how the study of life has changed since the mid-1800s and how much further our understanding of the complexity of life has come. We now know about all of the microscopic forms of life that larger forms of life (such as us) are dependent on.

The final chapter of the book gives his recommended solution along with a progress report of how various governments and non-govermental agencies are doing to save the existing natural spaces that contain so much undiscovered life. There is cause for some hope as well as concern.

I would recommend this book to anyone interested in the vast diversity of life on this planet as well as how its most successfull animal (humans) have done great damage to it. If we and the life around us are to survive the bottleneck that he mentions, we all need to read a book such as this and take action to make as much life passes with us to the other side of the bottleneck or the future of life will be bleak indeed.

Shocking. I wonder if this book has made anyone think twice about having (more) children? It seems to me that most of what he is saying comes down to human overpopulation...

But I think Wilson could be more flat-footed early on. He attempts to give both sides of the story, when most of his readers (who've read Consilience before, at least) already know exactly where he stands.

After a lifetime of basic research and cogent theorizing, entomologist E.O. Wilson has turned his attention to the broadest issues in his recent writing. CONSILIENCE: THE UNITY OF KNOWLEDGE (Knopf, 1998), published in 2000, offered his view that just as physics and chemistry have deepened biologic understanding, so biology is poised to inform the social sciences and the arts, to bring all human knowledge into one coherent world view. One way to characterize the new work would be as applied consilience--how use of what we know might save the planet. Wilson is optimistic. He believes that sane heads will prevail, that the non-government organizations working to save the biosphere will be successful, and that science will pull our rumps out of the Á fire before we are too badly burned. While his arguments are potent, his science knowledge vast, and his reputation sterling, my sense is that his optimism may be colored by overlong immersion in academic broth. Wilson believes that people will choose to act for the common good. While that motive is not entirely absent from the world I inhabit, acting for short term personal gain is more the norm. At the same time, his view of science sometimes seems too gee-whiz and uncritical. His embrace of genetically modified food crops (GMOs) clearly reflects these biases. Wilson believes that GMOs will boost food production enough to exceed not only today's deficiencies, but to provide for the avalanche of humanity which will inundate the world by mid-century. He asserts that GMOs will permit this without utter despoliation of the natural world, and believes that preservation of biological hotspots can ensure significant preservation of biodiversity into the future. Missing from his argum >ent is the fundamental observation of ecology that species tend to expand to meet and slightly exceed their long term food supply. For this reason the billion-fold increase in food since humans invented agriculture has resulted in a steady increase in the number of hungry humans. The fabled green revolution that occured after WWII, and which Wilson says GMOs will permit us to better, only accelerted population growth and, predictably, hunger. At the same time, one of the GMO benefits he extolls--the development of crops which can tolerate defoliants--seems curiously short-sighted. Use of Round-Up and similar products has already resulted in the presence of the defoliant chemical atrazine in all water worldwide (that's right, all water). Recent findings show that atrazine causes deformation of limbs and reproductive failure in amphibians at extremely low concentrations. We are only beginning to understand how such chemicals might affect the rest of the web of life. ?Wilson's cheerful embrace of chemical agriculture seems oblivious of the real world effects already observed, let alone the presumptive outcome of expanded reliance on those compounds. Nothwithstanding Wilson's myopia in some quarters, his knowledge about and explanation of the problems life faces under the dominion of humans is breathtaking. This slim book speaks volumes about the state of the world as we enter the ecologic luge of the 21st century. An excellent read.

You can tell that Wilson is a talented sceintist, but if you are somewhat versed in ecology you won't learn much new. It might be just that this 2001 book is (gasp!) already a bit dated.

This remarkable volume is one of a series of books in which Wilson sets forth the nature of life on earth, the preciousness of biodiversity and the significance of its loss to the planet. He also tries to suggest value systems and pathways for humanity to surmount its present environmental crises and achieve sustainability.

E. O. Wilson has won many prizes for his scientific accomplishments. He is the creator of entire scientific fields and a discoverer of new species. Wilson discovered 341 new species of ants, thereby more than doubling the number in the genus and increasing the known fauna of ants in the Western Hemisphere 10 percent.

But the subjects Wilson is getting into now are not quite science, not quite ethics, not quite politics, but rather exist in a realm of thought that blends all of them and even touches upon religion.

One of his most interesting ideas is the notion of biophilia--a sense of genetic unity, kinship, and deep history that bonds us to the living environment. Wilson even poses the notion that biophilia is a survival mechanism for ourselves and our species. To conserve biodiversity is an investment in immortality.

Wilson sees habitat selection as a prominent component of biophilia. People prefer to be in natural environments, and especially in savanna or parklike habitats. While there's no direct genetic basis of the human habitat preference, its presence is suggested by a consistency in its manifestation across cultures. In this we are no different from other species--every species that moves under its own power, from protozoans to chimpanzees, instinctively seeks the habitat it must occupy in order to survive and reproduce. If biophilia is truly part of human nature, if it is truly an instinct, we should be able to find evidence of a positive effect of the natural world and other organisms on health.

We have a deeply felt need not just to be in nature, but to preserve it because we need nature, and particularly wilderness. For Wilson, it is the alien world that gave rise to our species, and the home to which we can safely return. It offers choices our spirit was designed to enjoy.

The biophilia hypothesis would certainly explain certain elements of human behavior: our need for the pleasantness of landscapes like Central Park, for example, or the pleasure that we feel around waterfalls and lakes, or the desire to surround ourselves with houseplants, or the giving of floral arrangements as gifts and to mark special occasions. It could even be at the root of the pastoral element in our literature, the love of natural scenery, and the underlying attractiveness of landscape paintings. The implications of biophilia for preventive medicine are substantial. Loss of connectedness to the biosphere might be seen as productive of stress and causative of stress-derived illnesses.

Together with a small group of biologists Wilson is responsible for creating concern about the dramatic biodiversity loss or decline in the number of species that earth is now undergoing -- a loss that equals and may even exceed the biodiversity loss when dinosaurs went extinct due to a cataclysm on the magnitude of an asteroid striking the planet.

In this little book Wilson offers an explanation for why we are drawn to the natural world and why, for some of us at least, every entrance into a wild environment rekindles awakening, awareness and excitement.

Really a three minus... I have a good vocabulary but still found I required a dictionary close at hand to make it through this book. Although there is much good information here, it can be read in a number of other books that are more accessible and deliver the data in a more concise manner. I love exact words and have no problem with learning more, but when used more to impress than elucidate, as it seems here, I am underwhelmed.

And who said "no one saw it coming?" I find that underwhelming hyperbole - maybe Paul failed to see it coming, and maybe he is in the majority, but it is preposterous to slam those who toil in these fields with that broad brush. Some activists have worked consciously to support and even create the blessed unrest that Paul purport's to announce to us as invisible. This problem continues through the length of the book: what Paul describes as a hidden phenomena and unabashedly rips away the veil for us, the supposed blind, might be HIS epiphany, but it is not universal. Paul has discovered a true thing of beauty, it's just several years after the fact. (Do not misread me: This IS a beauteous and wonderful thing and it IS exciting and we DO need to acknowledge we are on the very lip of an abyss that needs our attention NOW. I do not quarrel with this.)

I review books for Touch the Soil magazine (touchthesoil.com) and so I wade through a number of books in this general genre monthly. Blessed Unrest is the kind of work that belongs on reference shelves everywhere because the catalog of organizations he has compiled is a marvelous snapshot in time. But it is not 'required reading.' Nor did I find it compelling reading.

The web of connections made in this book IS lovely. He does have some points to make; it is not a worthless book, nor do I believe the author consciously misleads. I believe however that you can find the same information in other books (which are authored by writers who presumably saw 'it' coming) and are a much better read.

If you want vocabulary, however...

david

First, the book promoted me to think about what the social change would have been in the past for different cultures if it was carried out in peace.

To help you understand what I mean, let me elaborate a little. With technology breakthrough, the whole planet is becoming smaller and thus different cultures come closer to each other. A lot of collision happened when different cultures "discovered" each other. In reality, it had been a very bloody history. In the past, you won if you were better at killing people. The history of mankind was mostly driven by this force. Because this destructive force was so dominant, other peaceful forces (for example the force of knowledge or skills) cannot be fully functioning. That is why we don't need any war, and we should live by peace. Thus I try to imagine how the history would have been if people had dealt with each other peacefully when different cultures came closer to each other.

In peace time, history is driven by the real essential human needs. And it is from grassroots level, instead of being dictated by a few people (who get the power by being better at killing people). Imagine how different cultures (the Native Americans, the Africans, the east, the west) might have communicated and learned from each other if all the changes are happening during peace time. (The Native Americans' agriculture society don't have t be totally destroyed.) It is too bad that we went through a very bloody period when different cultures encountered each other. I believe it is possible for different cultures to learn from each other and adapt for its own interest if people are empowered (instead of letting the direction of the history being dictated by a few people who are just better at killing other people).

In this sense, Internet and web are helping making the peaceful force more powerful.

How this implies for China's current social change? China is now going through a process of modernization. This process, for a large part, is also a process of westernization. Although you can say the process is mostly happening under peace (for example, there is no war), in reality non-peaceful force is still dominant in the society, thus preventing real peaceful forces from functioning. For example, let individuals decide what is best for themselves, what they want to learn. In this sense, it is not about eastern or western. It is about how to live better as a human being.

Other than these thoughts this book provoked, here are some good things I noted down about the book when I was reading along.

The book takes a more holistic view, treating the whole planet as an organism. This is very right. And I regard this as a self-reflection of the western culture.

The book uses biology as its major inspiration and draws a lot of analogies between human society and biology. This certainly should be appreciated. When I was studying biology, I was always fascinated by the wonder of nature and its implication for human being's social life. For example, there are many kinds of cells in the body. What kind of cell a cell becomes is totally dependent on the environment it is in and all the stress and stretch that is applied to the cell.

The book pointed out the PLAYING is what this is about. (page 187). "Play is infinite game. Competition is finite game." It is a weird way to put it, and really not very logical. But anyway.

It also points out LOVE too, saying this should be what human life is about.

I think he should add BEAUTY too. Playing, love, and beauty are the kind of forces that I referred above as the peaceful forces.

In general, I don't feel this book is deep enough. It is kind of a mess in its logic. There are a lot of numbers, but not much making sense of the numbers. However, it would be useful to get to know some events that happened in each movement and some names of the people. The book is more like a summary of thoughts and ideas instead of providing something new, a coherent view or framework. I had expected more.

For people who work in the same field, this book should provide a lot of info that you can look into to help build a complete picture. There are a lot of useful information in this book, and this book shouldnot be overlooked.

I would give this book 3.5. But considering it touching such an important topic, I will give it 4 to encourage more people to read such kind of books.

Paul Hawken has a wonderful gift of pattern recognition that enables him to draw from diverse sources and sew together a patchwork of information that is compelling in its message: We must work together if life on this planet as we know it today is going to survive the threats of devaluation of individual life, depleted resources, pollution and global heating. (Heating is my term. I feel that `warming' is an unacceptable euphemism!)What is most appealing to me after the excellent summary of facts and issues is Hawken's positive spin on the situation.

When asked at colleges if I am pessimistic or optimistic about the future, my answer is always the same: If you look at the science that describes what is happening on earth today and aren't pessimistic, you don't have the correct data. If you meet the people in this unnamed movement and aren't optimistic, you haven't got a heart. What I see are ordinary and some not-so-ordinary individuals willing to confront despair, power, and incalculable odds in an attempt to restore some semblance of grace, justice, and beauty to this world. (p. 4)

Healing the wounds of the earth and its people does not require saintliness or a political party, only gumption and persistence. It is not a liberal or conservative activity; it is a sacred act. (p. 5)

In total, the book is inadvertently optimistic, an odd thing in these bleak times. I didn't intend it; optimism discovered me. (p. 8)

Hawken points out that the roots of our problems lie in our concepts and attitudes about our world. For instance, production and acquisition of material goods has become the primary focus and goal of the modern world, to the point that they are more important than people. This has shaped our mentality in self-destructive ways. Mass production and distribution of products become more economical and profitable through uniformity. Living systems thrive best on diversity, which provides a gene pool that can adapt to external challenges. However, in the name of enhancing efficiency of food production, distribution and sales, our diversity has been sacrificed and the biological pool of genetic resources has been systematically whittled down to the cheapest and most marketable varieties of edibles. This mind-set is core to the struggles of our modern world between the interests of business and industry and the interests of people and the environment.

In the pursuit of industrial and economic growth that has assumed the proportions of an ideology, natural resources have been over-exploited to the point that they are depleted. Our fish, trees, land and waters have been wantonly exploited, with little if any thought to the needs of tomorrow, much less to those of future generations. Similarly with people:

Slaves, serfs, and the poor are the forests, soils, and oceans of society; each constitutes surplus value that has been exploited repeatedly by those in power, whether governments or multinational corporations. (p. 22)

Trade is not the salient issue; the critical question is, Who sets the rules and who enforces them? There can be no sustainability when institutions whose primary purpose is to create money are dictating the standards. (p. 135)

As a uniform trading system sweeps over the world, the monetary gains are called GDP, but the losses that are suffered, even in the industrialized West, much less in the Third World, are not tallied, as if one were recording sales at the cash register but ignoring thefts at the back of the warehouse. (p. 118)

The World Trade Organization (WTO) seeks to establish commerce as the basis for governing the world. It is set up without checks and balances, as a dictatorial institution that can override local populations' wishes and needs.

The purpose of the organization could not be simpler: the eliminations of constraints on the flow of trade, including how a product is made, by whom it is made, or what happens after it is made. By doing so, WTO removes individual countries; and regions; ability to set standards, to express values, or to determine what they do or do not support if those standards conflict with WTO rules. (p. 120)

In all WTO rulings one common denominator prevails, and the denominator is money. (p. 129)

The severity of the challenges has spawned both awareness and action groups. Hawken gives brief discursive summaries of several dozens of these, and many more as annotated references.

The exponential assault on resources and the production of waste, coupled with the extirpation of cultures and the exploitation of workers, is a disease as surely as hepatitis or cancer. It is sponsored by a political-economic system of which we are all a part, and any finger-pointing is inevitably directed back to ourselves. There may be no particular they there, but the system is still a disease, even if we created and contracted it. Because a lot of people know we are sick and want to treat the cause, not just the symptoms, the environmental movement can be seen as humanity's response to contagious policies killing the earth, while the social justice movement addresses economic and legislated pathogens that destroy families, bodies, cultures, and communities. (p. 145)

Action groups work at different levels to promote a saner, sustainable world:
· Watch organizations - monitor governmental institutions, corporations and geographically sensitive areas
· Keeper groups - advocate for the preservation of waters and all their users
· Networks - combine the information, knowledge and action focus of like-minded groups

For example:
· The US Green Building Council (USGBC) promotes awareness of, use, and distribution of building materials that do not deplete or harm the environment.
· "Slow Food (alimento lento) is the long overdue response to dead food, processed food, fast food, agribusiness..." (p. 155)
· Microloans help to bring hardworking people out of poverty. Kiva.org brokers loans on line.

Hawken points out that every one of us bears a responsibility to participate in addressing these problems. The two basic rules to guide us must be the Golden Rule and the Sacredness of All Life. We must aim for a `zero-waste society" or better, a restorative one.

We will either come together as one, globalized people, or we will disappear as a civilization. To come together we must know our place in a biological and cultural sense, and reclaim our role as engaged agents of our continued existence. (p. 165)

I cannot recommend this book highly enough - to anyone interested in contributing to healing our modern societal illnesses and insanities and saving our world.

This is a wonderfully documented guide about groups working for social justice and for bringing balance and restoring our planet's seriously damaged environment.

Among many issues, Paul Hawken tells us that fighting for those important objectives, ideology or partisan politics play a secondary role, because civilization survival is on the balance and people's direct involvement is vital.

Saving Earth and bringing social justice to all must have priority over short term goals, such as profit maximizing via externilizing costs to society.

The road for the largest social movement in history is long and full of powerful obstacles. That is why social and ecological education along with democratic participation are crucial. After all, real democracy is built from the bottom up and not the other way around, as the political establishment wants us to believe.

Some of my friends found this book really inspiring. I tend to look for things like detailed and balanced analysis of issues, in-depth descriptions of the work of political groups, and sophisticated understanding of the way in which voluntary organizations interact with elite politics and economic factors. This book is weak on all of those - but it DOES have a lot of inspirational rhetoric.

This book will change the way you look at your impact on the world. Whether you consider the environment to be an important issue or not, it is well worth your time to read this short yet powerful book. The world is changing, fast, and it is becoming impossible to reasonably deny that fact. News reports are consistent: the world is warming faster than expected, and the results are found everywhere we look. More powerful hurricanes, ancient glaciers melting, ice caps shriveling, animals extinct and behaviors changing, more powerful storms and floods, longer droughts, incredible fire seasons. These are the signs of a changing climate.

In her Field Notes, Elizabeth Kolbert carefully walks the uninitiated through the spin and bias commonly found when discussing climate change, and sticks with the facts. Though she begins with anecdotal evidence, the claims stack one upon another to create a neat picture, one which clearly shows the many different impacts the warming climate has already made. She quickly reviews other data, from studies which cover a broader scope, but it's the anecdotes--people watching ancient glaciers in their backyards melting away--that will leave an impact and understanding. We are already experiencing the effects of global warming, and those effects will only become more pronounced as we continue down this dangerous path.

My one complaint with this book is that it leaves you with little guidance on what the reader can do to help. What steps can we each take to lessen our impact on the planet?

While "Top 10" lists of steps to lower your CO2 emissions are common online and in print, it takes more than a switch to CFLs or a hybrid car to really make a difference. It takes a conscious effort to reduce, conserve, reuse. Energy efficiency is more than switching one inefficient device for a more efficient one. These steps help, but more is necessary to reduce, if not reverse, the damage that will be done over the coming decades. It's time to consider alternatives. Instead of air conditioning in the spring or fall, why not open a window and use a ceiling or desk fan? Instead of buying that hybrid car you've been eying, why not keep your current car and start bicycling for all trips within 3-4 miles? Turn off your computers at night! Keep your tires inflated to the proper PSI, and your engine properly tuned! Buy less meat (the average American eats far too much as it is) and buy more local produce. These are some real steps, among many more, that you can take to reduce your negative impact on the environment. We do not have to turn back the industrial clock 100 years to reduce our impact on the environment...we only need to be more efficient in how we use the new technologies of the last century. In time, new developments such as renewable energy will catch up with the problem of global warming, but it's up to us to ensure the impact of our current lifestyle does not leave an unnecessary burden for future generations.

This book came to us in very good condition and earlier than we expected. Thanks!!

My grandson mentioned this fascinating and informative book which was a must read for incoming freshman last year at Tulane. I was so impressed when I read it that I have been giving and recommending it for high school graduation gifts.

This is another famous book on global warming. It is not as lightweight as Al Gore's book, which is basically a rock video put down on paper. This book is a series of stories and vigenttes. It certainly reads easily. Kolbert is a talented writer, and has produced a very easy to read book.

But this is not really a subject where we need more easy to read books. Kolbert's underlying assumptions are the same as Al Gore's. First, global warming is an absolute fact, it is caused by human CO2 emissions and, if we do not stop it, life as we know it will come to an end. Second, the reason that we do not act to stop this danger is that people are idiots, who can not understand science. So, if we talk real slow, and have lots of pictures, maybe we can teach these idiots to save themselves.

Kolbert does not go to Gore's coffee-table extremes. While she does not have any honest to goodness footnotes, she does actually cite us to eight pages of sources at the end. If Gore's book is basically a comic book, her book is about the level one would expect in a middle-brow monthly magazine. It is serious, but not very.

Here is the problem, Al and Ms. Kolbert. Many of us are not persuaded that the world is coming to an end. Many of us would like to see hard, well-reasoned science on the subject. Many of us would like to see the thoughts of skeptics taken seriously instead of brushed aside or mocked. This book does none of those things. It basically tells a bunch of stories, and makes no effort to make a serious, sustained and logical argument. It is possible that Gore and Kolbert are right, but it is going to take a much more serious scientific argument to persuade me.

I am less persuaded then I might be, because, even with my scanty knowledge on the issue, I can see her consciously tilting the evidence her way. Example. At one point, she talks about Greenland. She gives us a very short history of Greenland, noting that there were Norse settlers there for 400 years, who "scraped" out a living and then just kind of disappeared for reasons that Kolbert does not attempt to explain. These Norse settlements were founded at the height of the Medieval Warming -- when conditions were fairly nice -- and they died out due to the Little Ice Age, when it got so cold they could not survive. Kolbert knows that, because she refers to both the Medieval Warming and the Little Ice Age at other parts of the book. BUT she also knows that these non-people caused climatic changes undercut her argument. Global warming skeptics say that the current warming is consistent with the prior pattern of natural change, and the Medieval Warming is Exhibit A. Thus, by carefully not mentioning the real reason why the Norse settlements died out Kolbert has on her thumb on the scale. This does not inspire much confidence.

Climate change is THE issue of our time. Any book that raises public consciousness about it is a good thing. To its credit, "Field Notes From a Catastrophe" does help the cause by educating lay readers about the basics of climate change. However, it never really makes the transition from a series of New Yorker articles to a full-blown book. It consists mostly of human interest stories about climate researchers and the impact of global warming in places like Alaska and Iceland. These vignettes would be easily digestible on a subway or in a doctor's waiting room, but we expect more from a book. The reading non-science-educated public (which includes me) can handle more than this.

One good chapter tells how scientists discovered that carbon dioxide levels can raise or lower the global temperature equilibrium. There's another good chapter on the incredible mendacity and short-sightedness of the Bush Administration (may it rest in peace forever). Every American should read these sections, since America is the largest emitter of greenhouse gases in the world and the greatest obstacle to international action. The rest of the book, however, is little more than disposable science journalism.

This book is like a Michael Moore movie. Like it or hate it, you'll find that the topics this book poses are worth exploring in conversation. Additionally, it'll bring you to look at the media in a different way.

Read this to learn about the "darker side of PR". Great and easy read.

iKnow

It's hard to be an idealist in an age of corporate spin, where everything bad is now good for you. Fortunately for the public at large, John Stauber and Sheldon Rampton have written a meticulously researched, hard-hitting, cynical look at the PR (public relations) industry and how its influence sometimes works against the public good. I found myself particularly surprised at the duplicity utilized by The Body Shop (a store I used to frequent), as well as other notable American corporations. I also highly recommend their other book, "Trust Us, We're Experts!"

In addition to the fact that this book reads like a thriller, the content and specific examples that are used in this book are so eye opening that it might make you depressed or even nauseated.

Americans are flooded with a propaganda campaign so efficiant that it would make the NAZIs jealous. This book expalins in vivid detail the actual manipulation tactics that are used by the energy, pharmacuetical and tobbaco industries (among others) to blind us into submission and hypnotize us into believing their products are not only safe but are intimately tied to your youth and vitality.

An earlier post for this book made the comment that the authors shouldn't explain the actual manipulation strategies, but the dangerous PR firms allready know how to use them. The rest of us should know these strategies so we can recognize their tactics when we are confronted with them.
Highly recomended book.

Once again, John Stauber has written a book that tells it like it is, and this one ought to be a bestseller. Readers who can accept these truths may also want to read a couple highly detailed yet fascinating exposes of toxic sludge that is supposed to be good for us. First, "Fluoride Deception" by Christopher Bryson. Yup, that fluoride in your water and toothpaste is a poisonous wasteproduct turned to profit through shrewd public relations strategies. Secondly, read "The Whole Soy Story" by Kaayla Daniel. This is even more of a shocker. It's on how we've all been sold on the idea that soy is good for us. Did you know that soy protein and lecithin are waste products -- toxic and sludgy leftovers from vegetable oil and margarine making that the soy industry decided to make profitable? Because no one other than a few vegetarians and hippies wanted to eat that toxic sludge, we all had to be manipulated into believing that they are good for us. And now soy's in so many foods that it's hard to escape it. Thanks to John Stauber's books including "Trust Us, We're Experts,"I'm wary of experts and now know enough to follow the money.

Where oh where do I begin? Toxic Sludge... takes a jaded look at the public relations industry, and exposes more than a few objectionable practices perpetrated on behalf of (mostly) corporate America's pursuit of the Almighty Buck.

I say 'mostly' because, however distressing it may be to informed and intelligent citizenship, even the United States Government and more than a few foreign regimes solicit the services of these most nefarious snake oil salesmen. Let's face it, you really do not consume the services of PR firms in order to foster good relations with your customers, you go to them when you have done something bad, and you want it covered up, or at least 'spinned' in the 'right' direction. You solicit the help of PR flacks and keep them on juicy retainers in order to look good, and not to be good. When the doo-doo hits the fan, whose a corporate ne'er do well gonna call? The PR company, that's who.

Toxic Sludge... contains twelve chapters of absorbing reading. From countermeasures directed at censoring information thoroughly in the public domain, keeping books off the bookshelves and dissenting voices from being heard, to infiltrating shoe-string activist organizations, fomenting criminal insurgency and subverting (and ultimately perverting) any and all attempts to relay the facts, the authors provide example after example of very well-financed government and corporate interests actively frustrating (and quite often foiling) intelligent and inormed democratic participation in the political and economic process. As Mark Dowie, the author of the introduction says, in an environment rife with PR, facts can not survive, nor can the truth prevail.

Some of the strategies and tactics PR firms used with giddy abandon on often unsuspecting targets truly shocked me, for many tools and tricks from the PR Playbook share an eerie resemblance to CIA methods and operations. In fact, more than a few PR players and heavy hitters get their inspiration from millitary strategists such as von Clauswitz, and cross-fertilization between PR firms and the upper levels of government and corporate America impart a uniquely acidic aggressivity and practiced slickness to their campaigns against their opponents. Some of their more colorful operations reminded me of the FBI's use, via its infamous COINTELPRO initiative, of agent provocateurs against student groups, anti-Vietnam war protestors and civil rights activists during the late sixties and early-mid-seventies. This unholy alliance between government, corporations and PR firms, combined with their incestuous linkages to the ad industry, make for one formidable and thorougly intimidating opponent.

The book contains a veritable smorgasbord of eminently quotable quotes and delightful (and very distressing) anecdotes. In this vein, my personal favorite is the story of how PT Barnum, of circus fame, got his start. He put on display an old, black slavewoman, and billed her as 'George Washington's childhood nursemaid', and get this- he claimed that she was one hundred and sixty years old. Barnum made certain that he got the woman in the news as often as he could, and it did not matter what the papers said, as long as his name was spelled right. Of course, Barnum made a killing, the woman died, an autopsy was performed for the benefit of more than a few skeptics, and gee whiz, it turned out that she could not have been more than eighty.

Barnum, of course, handled the situation like the PR pro he was. When the truth was finally revealed, he went public, and said he was shocked, truly shocked, at the way the woman had deceived him!

And that anecdote, in essence, describes the modus operandi of the PR professional. PR pros turn the truth inside out. While they greatly prefer subtlety, they will stoop to other, more brutish tactics in service of their cause. PR groups can obtain favorable coverage of their worldview, much like Barnum did, and can readily obtain the willing cooperation of government agencies, as well as current and former high ranking government officials and politicians to do their questionable bidding.

The PR firm has proven itself to be at times a sinister, vicious octopus with many tentacles in some of the most unlikely places. As such, it behooves any concerned citizen to read this book and take notice of this beast as he or she participates in the marketplace of ideas.

I'm pretty sure that after you've read this book, you'll feel the way I do: that this in the one book that everyone in the world should read. If there is a more eye-opening book on the same topic than this one out there, I have yet to read it, but it doesn't matter. That's because this book will do a sufficiently good job at shedding our ignorance about the most important, most dangerous issues of our time. It shows the very roots of the problems surrounding our treatment of the environment, not only from a scientific perspective, but from the perspective of what is fundamentally, intrinsically wrong with how our whole society is arranged, on a multitude of levels (not only commerce as the title implies). It shows exactly why inaction has been the status quo until now. It also shows the real nightmare-inducing dangers of continuing business as usual regarding how we treat the environment, on a scientific level. This doesn't mean that it's a book purposely architected to incite fear, uncertainty and doubt. It is simply one of the most profound, honest, right-to-the-point accounts of the problem facing us.

How do I know this? I don't. Therefore I'll now set off on a mission to read all of the other books by Amory Lovins and Paul Hawken, and possibly other books of the same caliber and on the same topic, and then decide if I want to revise this review, but I'm rather confident I won't have to :-)

I don't really want to allude to the content of the book in further detail, since anything not akin to stellar praise would not do it justice. What I can merely tell you is that you won't be disappointed by reading it. In fact, you will be enthralled by coming across a such an excellent verbalization of what has been bothering you all along.

Paul Hawken's book "The Ecology of Commerce" is one of those books one never forgets because it changes the way you think. I first read this book back when it came out in 1994 and just re-read it.

The author doesn't squawk about how bad humans are, but rather offers a sensible, deliberate perspective on how we can change our economic systems to accommodate our relationship with the rest of Nature.

To avoid being an ignorant, knee-jerk reacting activist ( or at least deciding to go down that route) read this book!

Looking for a book to explain how capitalism and environmentalism can coincide? This is it.
For years we've been led to believe that if we want progress and technology advances we should learn to accept there's a price---> pollution. Mega-Corporates keep polluting our world, poisoning the water we drink and the air we breathe, destroying habitats so thoroughly that our children will probably only see wild animals at Zoos. And it's all done in the name of progress.