Description:
That most of the world's environments are in bad shape is by now well known. They need not remain that way, insists veteran environmentalist Denis Hayes, a coordinator of the first Earth Day in 1970 and now CEO of the International Earth Day Network. Many animal and plant species have been brought back from the brink of extinction since the dawning of the environmental movement, and more and more people are aware of the ecological consequences of their actions. But then, Hayes notes, more and more people are buying gas-guzzling SUVs, using energy-thirsty halogen torchieres, consuming fossil-fuel-squandering foodstuffs grown far from home out of season, and otherwise behaving as if the good times will never end. The cost of that behavior is mounting: witness the greenhouse effect, by which gases trapped in the atmosphere prevent solar heat from escaping, thereby warming the earth. "Within a few decades," Hayes warns, "you will breathe air containing twice as much CO2 as the air your grandparents breathed unless we radically change our use of carbon fuels such as coal and fuel." There is much we can do, counsels Hayes. We can change our habits of energy consumption and develop sources of clean energy. We can agitate for the protection of air-cleansing forests--especially the vast boreal forests of North America and Asia, which, while less rich in biodiversity than the better-publicized Amazon rainforest, are far more effective at filtering poisons out of the air. We can try to leave a smaller footprint, ratchet up our consciousness just a little bit more, elect "green" politicians and boycott "brown" corporations. The list goes on. Thoughtful and well written, The Official Earth Day Guide to Planet Repair is a fine sourcebook for anyone willing to get started on the perhaps quixotic but just as certainly necessary task of fixing all the damage we have done. --Gregory McNamee
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