Earth Rising: American Environmentalism In The 21St Century - Hardcover

Shabecoff, Philip

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1559635835 ISBN 13: 9781559635837

Publisher: Island Press, 2000

Synopsis

"The mission of environmentalism is to mobilize society at all levels to confront the danger and disorder into which human activity has propelled us and guide us to a safer, saner way of living on the planet.... Environmentalism has never been about catastrophe. It is about alternatives, about changing course, about transforming the future." --Philip Shabecoff, from Earth Rising Philip Shabecoff, America's preeminent environmental journalist, has spent more than two decades thinking and writing about the environment and related subjects, as a reporter for The New York Times, as publisher of Greenwire, and as the author of two books, including the critically acclaimed A Fierce Green Fire. In Earth Rising, he draws on that experience to offer a pointed and thought-provoking critique of the current state and future prospects of the American environmental movement.Based on extensive interviews with a wide range of individuals both within and outside of the movement, Shabecoff elucidates the issues and problems confronting today's environmentalists and analyzes the movement's strengths and weaknesses. Viewing environmental threats as symptoms of flaws in our society and its systems, he considers the urgent need for a broader, more inclusive environmentalism, and examines the role environmentalists can -- and must -- play in: reforming the education system taming the global economy and making it an instrument of human needs working for political reform, including reducing the influence of corporate spending on the electoral process directing the course of the scientific enterprise as well as making use of its results helping develop a new moral center for people throughout the nation and the world Throughout, Shabecoff emphasizes the need for national organizations to link together with grassroots groups and to become more responsive to local concerns, and argues that the environmental movement has not yet adequately prepared itself to meet current and coming challenges. He makes a compelling case that another wave of environmentalism is needed -- more powerful, diverse and sophisticated, visionary and flexible. Earth Rising offers a detailed road map that can guide environmentalists toward that new and reenergized place in society.

About this title

Review

Philip Shabecoff, a science writer for The New York Times for three decades, has reported on hundreds of environmental battles and controversies, bringing them to the attention of millions of readers. But his good work and that of his fellow environmental journalists has, Shabecoff suggests, gone unheeded--not by the citizenry, who are overwhelmingly in favor of legal measures to protect the environment, but by the forces of industry, commerce, and the mainstream media, which have enormous financial stakes in preserving the status quo.

Environmental reportage, Shabecoff says, can only do so much in any event. After all, he notes, in the nearly 40 years since Rachel Carson warned in Silent Spring of the deadly effects of pesticides, "the use of synthetic substances that can sicken or kill people and wildlife has increased threefold." What is wanted, he urges in the pages of Earth Rising, is a well-coordinated "fourth wave" environmental movement that can bring aggressive political maneuvering, money, and irrefutable information to play against an array of foes. "Well-coordinated" is a key word, Shabecoff continues, for if at least 25 million Americans are involved in some way or another with environmental issues, either as grassroots activists or as dues-paying members of organizations from the Audubon Society to Earth First!, their efforts are not usually in concert, with the result that divide-and-conquer tactics on the part of, say, the logging and mining industries have often been successful.

"We yet have the capacity to forestall destruction," Shabecoff writes. But a more resourceful, more diverse, and stronger environmental movement must rise to prevent the destruction of the biosphere in this time of seemingly infinite, ever-expanding economic activity. That movement, Shabecoff continues, will need to do a better job of reaching out to labor, progressive industries, legislators, and the citizenry to forge the powerful alliances that are needed to assure clean air and water, healthy food, and other desiderata in the new century. His book offers plenty of practical advice on how such a movement can be formed, and activists and organizers will find plenty of ammunition in its well-reasoned pages. --Gregory McNamee

About the Author

Philip Shabecoff was the chief environmental correspondent for the "New York Times" for fourteen of the thirty-two years he worked there as a reporter. After leaving the "Times", he founded and published Greenwire, an online daily digest of environmental news. He has appeared on Meet the Press, Face the Nation, Washington Week in Review, CNN News, C-Span, National Public Radio, and the BBC. For his environmental writing, Shabecoff was selected as one of the Global 500 by the United Nations Environment Programme. He received the James Madison Award from the American Library Association for leadership in expanding the public's right to know. His previous books include "A Fierce Green Fire: A History of the American Environmental Movement."

Edition details

• Publisher: Island Press
• Publication date: 2000
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1559635835
• ISBN 13: 9781559635837
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 258