Earth in the Balance: Ecology and the Human Spirit [Paperback]

Al Gore (Author)

Book Description

Release date: October 31, 2006

Re-released on the heels of Al Gores #1 New York Times bestseller, An Inconvenient Truth, comes the paperback edition of his classic bestseller, Earth in the Balance. First published in 1992, it helped place the environment on the national agenda; now, as environmental issues move front-and-center in the public consciousness, the time is right to reflect deeply on the fate of our planet and commit ourselves to its future. While An Inconvenient Truth closely examines one menace to our environmentglobal warmingEarth in the Balance takes a broader approach, focusing on the threats that everyday choices pose to our climate, water, soil, and diversity of plant and animal life. A passionate, lifelong defender of the environment, Gore describesin brave and unforgettable termshow human actions and decisions can endanger or safeguard the vulnerable ecosystem that sustains us.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

What's most inspiring about Earth in the Balance is who wrote it. It's a big deal, after all, that a sitting senator was willing to write, "We must make the rescue of the environment the central organizing principle for civilization." And that's not all. In his 1992 book, Al Gore also wrote:

I have become very impatient with my own tendency to put a finger to the political winds and proceed cautiously.... [E]very time I pause to consider whether I have gone too far out on a limb, I look at the new facts [on the environment crisis] that continue to pour in from around the world and conclude that I have not gone far enough.... [T]he time has long since come to take more political risks--and endure more political criticism--by proposing tougher, more effective solutions and fighting hard for their enactments.

And the buzz on the street is that Gore actually wrote those words himself.

When Earth in the Balance first came out, it caused quite a stir--and for good reason. It convincingly makes the case that a crisis of epidemic proportions is nearly upon us and that if the world doesn't get its act together soon and agree to some kind of "Global Marshall Plan" to protect the environment, we're all up a polluted creek without a paddle. Myriad plagues are upon us, but the worst include the loss of biodiversity, the depletion of the ozone layer, the slash-and-burn destruction of rainforests, and the onset of global warming. None of this is new, of course, nor was it new in 1992. But most environmentalists will still get a giddy feeling reading such a call to action as written by a prominent politician.

The book is arranged into three sections: the first describes the plagues; the second looks at how we got ourselves into this mess; and the final chapters present ways out. Gore gets his points across in a serviceable way, though he could have benefited from a firmer editor's hand; at times the analogies are arcane and the pacing is odd--kind of like a Gore speech that climaxes at weird points and then sinks just as the audience is about to clap. Still, at the end you understand what's been said. Gore believes that if we apply some American ingenuity, the twin engines of democracy and capitalism can be rigged to help us stabilize world population growth, spread social justice, boost education levels, create environmentally appropriate technologies, and negotiate international agreements to bring us back from the brink. For example, a worldwide shift to clean, renewable energy sources would create huge economic opportunities for companies large and small to design, build, and maintain solar panels, wind turbines, fuel cells, and other ecofriendly innovations.

Gore doesn't mince words when describing just how hard it will be to get out of this jam. Real hope is contingent on a swelling up of concern among the public--and fast. A year into the vice presidency, in an interview with writer Bill McKibben, Gore paraphrased a key passage in his book, "The minimum that is scientifically necessary far exceeds the maximum that is politically feasible." Ah, a political out. Some readers will ask of Gore: what has he done since publishing his book to advance the political feasibility of decisive environmental action? --Chip Giller --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

From Publishers Weekly

Vice President-elect Gore explains the necessity of enviromentalism and offers bold initiatives for change in this thoughtful, compelling primer, a QPB selection and PW bestseller. Illustrations.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 407 pages
• Publisher: Rodale Books (October 31, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1594866376
• ISBN-13: 978-1594866371
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 6.1 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (138 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #780,872 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Former Vice President Al Gore is co-founder and chairman of Generation Investment Management. He is also a senior partner at Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, and a member of Apple, Inc.'s board of directors.

Gore spends the majority of his time as chairman of The Climate Reality Project, a non-profit devoted to solving the Climate Crisis.

Gore was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1976, 1978, 1980 and 1982 and the U.S. Senate in 1984 and 1990. He was inaugurated as the forty-fifth Vice President of the United States on January 20, 1993, and served eight years. During the Administration, Gore was a central member of President Clinton's economic team. He served as President of the Senate, a Cabinet member, a member of the National Security Council and as the leader of a wide range of Administration initiatives.

He is the author of the bestsellers Earth in the Balance, An Inconvenient Truth, The Assault on Reason, and Our Choice: A Plan to Solve the Climate Crisis. He is the subject of an Oscar-winning documentary and is the co-recipient, with the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, of the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize for "informing the world of the dangers posed by climate change."

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars environmental politics at its optimistic peak January 5, 2003

By Brian Miller

Format:Paperback

I am unsure what frightened me more, the ominious environmental facts presented in this book or the dangerous impermeability of several Amazon reviewers. If one enters this book with an open mind, the result will be a re-evaluation of how one relates to the natural world. Gore is not pushing for the destruction of the American economy but instead a more fair juxtaposition of today's benfits versus future consequences. For someone to curse this book without even remote heed to what it states scares the living daylights out of me. I am not saying this book should be converted into American policy verbatim. However, if we do not use the knowledge and experience of this book as part of an international effort to achieve balance between the present and the future, then we are in trouble. Or let me rephrase that, our kids are in trouble.

36 of 48 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars An Olympic-level Reality Check November 23, 2006

By Al Gore's Buddy

Format:Paperback

This work sets an incredible standard for what the overprivileged and uninitiated might call "alarmist" environmental literature. It is a definitive work that comprehensively addresses the state of the environment, tracing its historical aspects and examining its societal dynamics, even to the level of modern psychotherapeutic psychology. He is meticulous in presenting the facts and images without veering into untenable predictions of non-essential disasters, as plagued Paul Ehrlich's early books. He refers carefully to scientific information, and the unavoidable consequences of foreseeable conditions. Global climate change, for example, will likely make some areas uninhabitable. Gore makes a profound analogy by incively comparing the tragic environmental situation with the unprecedented nature of the nuclear arms race, citing how it has changed from a "fight- to a process of destruction." Industrial civilization and world ecology have reached a similar stage, he indicates.

His solutions are strong given his level of perception and analysis as a government policymaker. They are not much good for rapid change, however, or for grassroots action. While health food stores already existed back in 1992, it is amazing to witness how many efforts have lead to more sustainable products since then. Unfortunately, the green business trend is new, and, perhaps protectively, he appears to leave out any significant mention of environmentalists and entrepreneurial efforts, especially the initiating of Greenpeace by its Sierra Club founders, health food stores and food cooperatives, Anita Roddick and the Body Shop, and Greenpeace's promotion of non-chlorine bleaching techniques. Since then, of course, have come windpower, hybrid cars, organic clothing, Hawken's and Lovins' Natural Capitalism, Interface and CEO Ray Anderson, Greider's Soul of Capitalism about the ownership crisis in capitalism and the need for employee and cooperative reform, and so on. In conjunction with these grassroots constructive efforts, Gore's work continues to provide an excellent source to remember exactly what is occurring, what is at stake and why learning to take multiple consumer, entrepreneurial, technological, educational, protest, and legislative action are all the more crucial all the time.

8 of 10 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Did Earth in the Balance Achieve Its Purpose or Not? May 22, 2007

By Jack Harich

Format:Paperback

The angle to appraise this book from is the one the author intended: Did it achieve its stated purpose?

Al Gore is "in search of a true understanding of the global ecological crisis and how it can be resolved." Because the book was written in 1992, when awareness and understanding of the sustainability problem was low, Part One, "Balance at Risk," focuses on that. Al gets it precociously right with "It is this problem--global air pollution--that presents the true strategic threat to which we must now respond." This was long before the climate change problem reached center stage, or was even in the wings, due to lack of conclusive data.

Part Two opens with the greater question of "If our relationship to the ecological system is no longer healthy, how did we make so many poor choices along the way?" Then, in the very next paragraph, Al hits pay dirt with "For part of the explanation we must look to politics. ...there is also a fundamental problem with the political system itself. ...our political system itself has now been exploited, manhandled, and abused to the point that we are no longer making consistently intelligent choices about our course as a nation." This is explored, and the underlying cause is found to be "greed, self-involvement, and a focus on short term exploitation at the expense of the long term health of the system."

But Al goes no deeper than this. Exactly what is it about the political system that makes it so easily exploitable? Where are the exact points in the system that are being exploited? This is like asking a professional pool player to explain how he or she makes a certain difficult shot, when none of the amateurs can do it. How does the professional exploit the particular arrangement of pool balls? There must be an underlying pattern, and a technique to spot it and exploit it.

Because the root cause of why the political system is so easily exploitable is never reached, the book cannot deliver on its promise of "a true understanding of the global ecological crisis and how it can be resolved." After all, if you have not found the root cause, then how can you rationally resolve the problem?

Thus in Part Three when Al pulls out the big guns and presents the climax of the book, "A Global Marshall Plan," he is unable to convincingly say why the human system would accept the plan. It did not. Why? Because of lack of a proper diagnosis of the root cause of the problem.

But this is perhaps a subtle point, and should not detract from the book's great achievement: At a time when civilization had other priorities on its mind, Al Gore said in so many words, "Hey, wake up. The future of the earth is in jeopardy, because due to our own hubris and misbehavior, we have wrecked the delicate balance that all species must achieve with their ecological niche, if they are to flourish indefinitely."

Now, 15 years later, the world has at long last agreed. But it has yet to act, to put the earth back into balance.

Jack Harich