Review by Choice Review
For those familiar with the authors' extensive environmental writing, this well-written and authoritative volume offers few surprises. As articulate spokespersons about our plundered planet, the Ehrlichs continue to sustain a well-deserved attack on inappropriate use of human resources. Perjorative diatribes on key political figures aside (and these do occasionally detract from an otherwise straightforward and impassioned plea for reasoned and reasonable use of Earth), the book's currency and focused targeting is compelling. Abundantly illustrated, the book is both physically attractive and intellectually stimulating. Starting with a primer on the origin of Earth and the evolution of its biotic component to Homo sapiens, the treatment moves to a section on Earth's predicament (population growth and pollution) and general disruption of the biosphere. The final section describes the conservation/preservation movement, particularly in the US, and moves to a critique of foolish human behavior toward Earth. The thrust of this treatise, written for the general reader and hence essentially jargonless, is that we have the power to preserve the Earth that everyone wants-yet we have to be willing to exercise it. For all libraries.-E.J. Kormondy, University of Hawaii at Hilo
Copyright American Library Association, used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
This beautifully produced large-format book is a work of urgent and inspired ecoevangelisma volume whose text and pictures warn that Western technological civilization is ravaging Earth's finite resources while the world's burgeoning population spells disaster unless controls are implemented quickly. The Ehrlichs, currently at Stanford University, are esteemed biological scientists, and Paul Ehrlich is remembered for The Population Bomb and The End of Affluence. Here, underpinned by scientific, social and political facts and insights that cohere with undeniable power, is the long-familiar Earth-celebrating message of such groups as the Sierra Club, Friends of the Earth et al. Richly and with authority, the Ehrlichs trace humans' progressively destructive use of nonrenewable energy resources into our own age of acid rain and deforestation, and spell out our choices as we face a ``bang or whimper'' end. Even women's liberation falls into their purview as a key to population control. Photos. Major ad/promo. (April 6) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by Library Journal Review
Acknowledged experts on population, resources, and environment, the Ehrlichs present an inventory of Earth's resources and how they have been used and abused over the millennia. Earth and humankind can coexist satisfactorily only up to a certain point. As they put it, the human family ``is simultaneously using up its capital and destroying its income.'' The problem is that there are more humans than Earth can sustain comfortably. The technologically advanced societies are the most wasteful. The solutionslow down population growth and conserve resourcesis difficult to attain due to political, religious, and cultural factors. The authors use the most current statistics and theories in exploring the possibility of a less environmentally destructive future. Highly recommended. Sondra Brunhumer, Western Mich. Univ. Libs., Kalamazoo (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Choice Review
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
Review by Library Journal Review
