From Publishers Weekly
Ward (
Canaries on the Rim), a longtime environmental activist and successful grassroots organizer in the field, focuses on a refreshingly optimistic future for the earth. However, this hope-filled future is dependent on those with political authority adopting what the author believes are enlightened practices and theories in environmental science. With personal anecdotes and a conversational style, Ward provides the reader with a wealth of knowledge about contemporary environmental gurus and their teachings. He provides well-spun tales about critters like voles, coyotes, wolves, grasshoppers and oysters, and easily informs readers about such esoteric topics as deep ecology and the proposed rewilding of North America. He then delves into the causes and consequences of environmental catastrophes as diverse as the Aswan Dam, in Egypt; Lake Powell, Ariz.; and Chernobyl. However, Ward does not help to make his political case with his casual cheap-shot rhetoric against those he perceives as enemies of the environment. Additionally, he seems a fish out of water when he makes flip comments about geopolitics and the war on terrorism. These minor faults aside, this is an engaging and informative ecology book with a rare positive outlook.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
From Booklist
At a time when even the very sky we gaze upon can no longer be viewed as benign or benevolent, it is easy, perhaps unavoidable, to be overwhelmed by the magnitude and extremity of the diverse ecological dangers facing our planet. Although dire headlines of bureaucratic barricades and violent opposition tactics are more familiar than success stories about conscientious legislation and cooperative initiatives, Ward has discovered a new cadre of environmental advocates, pioneers in proactive, rather than reactive, approaches for reversing these trends. Identifying three key movements--reconnection, restoration, and abolition--Ward profiles charismatic and committed individuals and agencies and the causes they champion. From alliances working to reunite America's native habitats to people dedicated to deconstructing the dam that flooded Glen Canyon in order to create Lake Powell to Native American elders educating nuclear engineers about the dangers of and alternatives to this threatening technology, Ward paints an encouraging, if cautionary, portrait of the movement toward a more responsible ecological paradigm.
Carol HaggasCopyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
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