Earth Day, 2002: The Return of Gore

Earth Day (Monday, April 22) came and went, and -- at least here in the USA -- the whole affair looked like a dress rehearsal for the 2004 election. In a speech given in Nashville, Al Gore attacked President Bush for supporting drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and accused him of allowing oil- and chemical-industry insiders -- including former Enron officials -- to dictate government energy policies. Meanwhile, Bush touted his Clear Skies initiative as he helped repair a hiking trail in New York's snowy Adirondacks

Elsewhere, the rest of the world celebrated Earth Day with less political grandstanding. In Indonesia, environmentalists planted trees and staged a substantial traffic jam. In Thailand, some 15,000 Buddhists prayed for the earth, and in the Philippines, cyclists filled the streets of Manila.

In other environmental news, The Supreme Court -- in a case centered on a controversy concerning the Lake Tahoe area -- ruled that the government can prevent development on private land without paying land owners for their loss. Also, the East Coast continues to suffer from one of the worst droughts in over 100 years, while a drought in Western states has sparked a number of severe forest fires.

Thankfully, however, there's never a drought of outstanding environmental literature (or brilliant segues!). Here are a few standouts we wholeheartedly recommend.

The Future of Life
by Edward O. Wilson
More frightening than anything in Stephen King's oeuvre, The Future of Life is an educational wake-up call from Pulitzer-winner and Harvard naturalist Wilson. Armed with a load of scientific data, a knack for beautiful writing, and a burning desire to unite capitalists and environmentalists, Wilson reveals how an enormous share of the natural world is on the edge of extinction --we're destined to lose half of our planet's species if we continue doing business as usual -- and argues that the key to reversing the tide of destruction lies in taking an informed and ethical stance in favor of protecting our biosphere. While the short-term consequences of such Earth-saving actions may not be beneficial economically, Wilson contends that such measures are necessary to ensure our long-term prosperity. Hardly as polemical as it may sound, The Future of Life is marked by Wilson's hopeful outlook and lyrical, evocative prose in a work full of intelligence and imagination.

Noah's Garden: Restoring the Ecology of Our Own Back Yards
by Sara Stein
Proving that refashioning yourself as an eco-warrior can be fun and fairly easy, Noah's Garden will give you plenty of ideas about how to be earth-friendly in your own backyard. Following Stein's "ungardening" efforts, the book shows how she managed to restore her lawn to its natural state and live harmoniously with a myriad of local critters. Along the way, she includes a number of hard facts that support her efforts, and even gives us an ecological history of suburbia. Throughout, Stein never hides the passion that underscores her love affair with her slice of wilderness, and trumpets her newfound wisdom as the solution to her one-time gardening woes. A highly enjoyable account that's sure to turn you into a burgeoning field ecologist in no time.

The Eternal Frontier: An Ecological History of North America and Its Peoples
by Tim Flannery
To John and Jane Q. Reader, the idea of understanding the multi-million-year ecological history of North America is an incomprehensibly head-spinning task. That's where renowned paleontologist Tim Flannery comes in. Starting off by recounting the asteroid collision that annihilated the dinosaurs, Flannery then moves on to discuss how glaciers were melted, mountains sprouted, and forests covered our land. And that's all before humans came around to mess things up -- decimating the buffalo, deforesting the Northeast, and spreading the Industrial Revolution from sea to sea. Given the book's scope, it's a testament to Flannery's writing skills that The Eternal Frontier maintains a lively narrative while making paleontology, geology, climatology, and anthropology accessible to non-academics. A marvel of a book that certainly puts our own existence in the Earth's vast timeline in proper perspective.

Desert Solitaire
by Edward Abbey
A nature-writing classic, Desert Solitaire captures Abbey's two seasons as a park ranger in the canyonlands of southeastern Utah, experiencing nature in all of its austere glory. The work of a poetic gadfly, this is Abbey's first book, and arguably his best -- reflecting both his love of the natural world, as well as his abhorrence of the actions that desecrate it (especially the efforts of oil and mining interests, as well as those of the tourist industry). Originally published in 1968, Desert Solitaire remains just as relevant today as Abbey's voice -- full of rough eloquence, humor, and outrage -- continues to intrigue a wealth of readers. A masterwork from the man who Larry McMurtry called the "Thoreau of the American West."

Cradle to Cradle: Remaking the Way We Make Things
by Wiliam McDonough and Michael Braungart
Radically re-envisioning environmentalist strategies, architect McDonough and chemist Braungart -- partners in an eco-design firm -- have created a fascinating manifesto for a veritable design revolution that would attempt to eliminate waste. Arguing that current environmental policy measures such as recycling and emissions-reduction programs will not ultimately ensure the long-term health of our planet, McDonough and Braungart's proposals are eco-effective and cost-effective, and could conceivably make more of an impact than many of the strategies that environmentalists often pursue. Cradle to Cradle is itself a wonderful representation of their philosophy: The nontoxic ink on the book's pages -- which are made of plastic polymers -- can be washed off through a simple and safe chemical process, allowing a publisher to re-use the entire product. The other ideas contained in this cleverly designed volume are equally intriguing combinations of environmental utopianism and real-world results. Written clearly and passionately, Cradle to Cradle will certainly appeal to anyone interested in industrial design and the cutting edge of environmentalism.