Earth Odyssey: Around the World in Search of Our Environmental FutureLike many of us, Mark Hertsgaard has long worried about the declining health of our environment. But in 1991, he decided to act on his concern and investigate the escalating crisis for himself. Traveling on his own dime, he embarked on an odyssey lasting most of the decade and spanning nineteen countries. Now, in Earth Odyssey, he reports on our environmental predicament through the eyes of the people who live it. From the gilded boardrooms of Paris to the traffic-clogged streets of Bangkok, we travel from the deep human past to our still unfolding future. Much of the story revolves around people like Zhenbing, Hertsgaard's charismatic interpreter in China, whose desire to escape poverty leaves him indifferent to his country's horrific air and water pollution. We also meet Garang, a proud Dinka tribesman whose response to Sudan's famine shows the difficulty of building an environmentally sustainable future without bridging the gap between rich and poor. Drawing on interviews with Vaclav Havel, Al Gore, Jacques Cousteau, and numerous other prominent figures, Hertsgaard offers fresh insight into such complex issues as humanity's growing addiction to the automobile, the insidious spread of nuclear technology, and the inevitable tension between unfettered capitalism and the health of the biosphere. Earth Odyssey is a vivid, passionate narrative about one man's journey around the world in search of the answer to the most important question of our time: Is the future of the human species at risk? Combining first-rate reportage with irresistible storytelling, Mark Hertsgaard has written an essential--and ultimately hopeful--book about the uncertain fate of humankind. |
Contents
Prologue | 1 |
We Are Still Here | 17 |
Bicycles Churchill and Evolution | 49 |
Copyright | |
10 other sections not shown
Other editions - View all
Earth Odyssey: Around the World in Search of Our Environmental Future Mark Hertsgaard Limited preview - 1999 |
Earth Odyssey: Around the World in Search of Our Environmental Future Mark Hertsgaard Limited preview - 2009 |
Common terms and phrases
activists Africa air pollution American Amory Lovins author's interview auto Beijing birth building capital carbon dioxide cars cause Chelyabinsk Chernobyl China Chinese Chongqing Churchill climate change Clinton coal consumption corporations cost countries Dinka Earth Summit ecological economic growth ecosystems electricity energy environment environmental problems environmentalists especially factories forest fossil fuel Garang global warming Gore greenhouse gas greenhouse gas emissions Greenpeace Guangdong Guangzhou Havel Hong Kong human hundred increase industry investment journalist Kyoto land Leggett less levels live Lovins Mayak ment miles million nations nuclear weapons official one-child policy ozone peasants percent plants Pochala political poor population growth poverty production quote rates reform reported river Rocinha seemed sequoias solar South Soviet Sudan sustainable development things thousand tion told traffic trees United village Washington waste workers World Bank World Resources York Zhenbing