If You Love This Planet: A Plan to Heal the Earth (Paperback)

by Helen Caldicott (Author) "I first visited the United States in 1966, when I was a conservative young mother with three babies and a new medical degree..." (more)
Key Phrases: United States, Soviet Union, Persian Gulf (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Review
Caldicott is extraordinary.

(Seattle Times )

Caldicott’s role in the movement has always been to ring the alarm bell, and her charisma remains undimmed. . . . The doctor is in.

(East Bay Express )

God bless Helen Caldicott and her troops.

(Los Angeles Times )

Helen Caldicott has been my inspiration to speak out.

(Meryl Streep ) --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

Product Description
"Helen Caldicott has been my inspiration to speak out."—Meryl Streep

Our planet is desperately ill and must be healed. If the human race does not change its present behavior, the ecosphere may be doomed within the next ten years. A renowned anti-nuclear activist for twenty years, Helen Caldicott here turns from the arms race to the race to save the planet, laying out the grim details of ozone depletion, excess energy consumption, pollution, and global warming. The causes: public apathy, corporate greed, and the cynical manipulation of political leaders.

To save the planet we need to change the way we think and behave. Closer contact with, and appropriate reverence for, nature will help to provide simple answers to seemingly complex problems.

If You Love This Planet describes in easy-to-understand language the scientific and medical consequences of the greenhouse effect, ozone depletion, deforestation, species extinction, toxic chemical pollution, nuclear waste, food contamination, and the ever-present threat of nuclear war.

Caldicott, a physician by training, also gives us a prescription for cure—and a cause for hope. We must learn energy efficiency, we must organize politically (voting, she suggests, should be compulsory), and we must hold corporations and governments accountable for their actions. Above all, she says, our fight for the planet will draw its greatest strength from a love for the Earth itself.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 232 pages
• Publisher: W.W. Norton & Co. (March 17, 1992)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0393308359
• ISBN-13: 978-0393308358
• Product Dimensions: 8.2 x 5.5 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.1 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #681,569 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

22 of 23 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Every American needs to read this book, October 12, 2000

By	Doug Pearl (San Jose, CA USA) - See all my reviews

You might assume from the title that this book is devoted to environmental issues and solutions. You'd be partially right, but this book is much more. Caldicott also goes into the birth and development of the American corporate machine and of the equally significant public relations industry. Instead of just explaining what's wrong with the planet and what you can do about it, she educates us about how we got where we are, and how our culture of conspicuous consumption came to be.

This book is a real eye opener and will cause you to question some of your most basic ideas about American society.

3 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars OK on the Problem; Looney on the Solution, May 19, 2007

By	Environmental Realist - See all my reviews

All thinking persons now recognize that the deepening crisis of climate change requires urgent action to transform the global economy to a condition whereby most energy is supplied without carbon. All serious energy analysts, including the International Agency Agency (in the public sector) and the World Energy Council (in the private sector) recognize that this clean-energy revolution cannot conceivably be accomplished without nuclear power as a leading and expanding source of such clean energy. All around the world, governments representing some 80% of humankind are comprehending and acting on this reality. Indeed, Ms. Caldicott's own country, Australia, which for decades has been content to burn coal for its electricity, is now moving rapidly to embrace the use of nuclear power. Unfortunately, Ms. Caldicott, long known for her hysterical and myth-ridden anti-nuclear tirades, cannot possibly grasp this truth. Thus, she couples her well-founded concerns about the planet's future to unrealistic prescriptions, which if followed, would propel us into the very catastrophe she fears. This doctor may have diagnosed the disease, but no one should listen to her foolish nostrums concerning the cure. This must be said without qualification: When it comes to climate change, Dr. Caldicott is a quack.