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Around the World In Search of Our Environmental Future
Abacus
April 2000
On Sale: April 6, 2000
272 pages ISBN: 0349111820 EAN: 9780349111827 Trade Size (reprint)
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Non-Fiction
Like 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 Václav 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.
No awards found for this book.
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