Customer Reviews

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

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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.

I discovered the previous edition of this book (If You Love This Planet) by Dr. Helen Caldicott and quickly found her writing style to be rather engaging, despite the unsettling topic of an environment under attack on all fronts.

I agree this book should be read by all Americans and really, all citizens of the globe!

I don't agree with the reviewer who says she (Helen) is crazy for suggesting some energy other than nuclear be used for electricity. On the contrary, it is crazy to embark on any other nuclear pursuits at this time for a number of reasons. The biggest is the danger factor which is very real and has been underestimated and underplayed for decades. Just read about Canada's now polluted Ottawa River from a 51 year old reactor and you will know how serious this is. And this type of risk is not only very real, it is all too common. Another reason it is a bad idea to commission additional nuclear power plants is the very real known fact that uranium is becoming increasingly more and more scarce and it is estimated that our usable supply will likely be exhausted by as early as 2025.

I will say that so far this new edition of Dr. Caldicott's book is a bit too technical (chapter 2 for example has just too many references to percentages, years, amounts of co2 being released by cows, etc) for my taste and consequently the book is proving to be a bit more laborious to read than I recall the previous edition being which seemed to me to be more personal as the author reflected on her own life, how she was affected and so on.

I would highly recommend this book, however I encourage reading the earlier edition, copyright 1992, as well.

This one is rational as she sticks to areas where she has some knowledge. Does a good job of highlighting problems without offering effective solutions.
All of her work is affected by her hysterical fear of clean reliable nuclear energy.

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.