Earth in the Balance: Ecology and the Human Spirit (Paperback)

by Al Gore (Author)
Key Phrases: shadow our future, dysfunctional civilization, global water system, United States, Third World, Global Marshall Plan (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description

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.

About the Author

Former Vice President Al Gore is chairman of Current TV, an independently owned cable and satellite television nonfiction network for young people based on viewer-created content and citizen journalism. He also serves as chairman of Generation Investment Management, a firm that is focused on a new approach to sustainable investing. Gore is a member of the Board of Directors of Apple Computer, Inc., and a senior advisor to Google, Inc.

 

Gore was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1976 and the U.S. Senate in 1984 and 1990. He was inaugurated as the 45th vice president of the United States on January 20, 1993, and served eight years. He is the author of the 2006 bestseller An Inconvenient Truth.

 

Al Gore and his wife, Tipper, live in Nashville, Tennessee. They have four children and two grandchildren.

Product Details

• Paperback: 432 pages
• Publisher: Rodale Books (October 31, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1594866376
• ISBN-13: 978-1594866371
• Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 6 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars See all reviews (20 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #165,033 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

25 of 33 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Comprehensive overview of our impact on the environment, December 9, 2006

By	G-Cubed (Granville, Ohio USA) - See all my reviews

Al Gore has compiled a comprehensive overview of our impact on the environment. You may not agree with everything he says, but it is clear that he has thought broadly and deeply about the subject. He makes a good overview of the science and where we are today, and provide a broad plan get us to sustainability.

30 of 40 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 "Green power" (New York, USA) - See all my reviews

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.

12 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars This is not a book about environmentalism, January 31, 2007

By	Michael Bacarella (Flushing, New York United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Don't get me wrong, it features a well referenced, lucid, healthy treatment of environmental trouble. However, the scope of the book is far broader; it wonders about the potential of the human species. Climate crisis is not a disease of the earth, but a symptom of our still novice ability to control power which develops faster than we can understand it.

Mr. Gore explores these challenges with shocking clarity and objectivism (impressive for a then-Senator!) and proposes solutions that not only preserve our economic and technological position but open opportunity to advance the state of the art.

The bibliography, a veritable gold mine of fascinating stuff to explore is worth the cover price alone.