Description:
Philip Shabecoff, a science writer for The New York Times for three decades, has reported on hundreds of environmental battles and controversies, bringing them to the attention of millions of readers. But his good work and that of his fellow environmental journalists has, Shabecoff suggests, gone unheeded--not by the citizenry, who are overwhelmingly in favor of legal measures to protect the environment, but by the forces of industry, commerce, and the mainstream media, which have enormous financial stakes in preserving the status quo. Environmental reportage, Shabecoff says, can only do so much in any event. After all, he notes, in the nearly 40 years since Rachel Carson warned in Silent Spring of the deadly effects of pesticides, "the use of synthetic substances that can sicken or kill people and wildlife has increased threefold." What is wanted, he urges in the pages of Earth Rising, is a well-coordinated "fourth wave" environmental movement that can bring aggressive political maneuvering, money, and irrefutable information to play against an array of foes. "Well-coordinated" is a key word, Shabecoff continues, for if at least 25 million Americans are involved in some way or another with environmental issues, either as grassroots activists or as dues-paying members of organizations from the Audubon Society to Earth First!, their efforts are not usually in concert, with the result that divide-and-conquer tactics on the part of, say, the logging and mining industries have often been successful. "We yet have the capacity to forestall destruction," Shabecoff writes. But a more resourceful, more diverse, and stronger environmental movement must rise to prevent the destruction of the biosphere in this time of seemingly infinite, ever-expanding economic activity. That movement, Shabecoff continues, will need to do a better job of reaching out to labor, progressive industries, legislators, and the citizenry to forge the powerful alliances that are needed to assure clean air and water, healthy food, and other desiderata in the new century. His book offers plenty of practical advice on how such a movement can be formed, and activists and organizers will find plenty of ammunition in its well-reasoned pages. --Gregory McNamee
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