cover image A Moment on the Earth: 9the Coming Age of Environmental Optimism

A Moment on the Earth: 9the Coming Age of Environmental Optimism

Gregg Easterbrook. Viking Books, $27.95 (768pp) ISBN 978-0-670-83983-4

At last, an optimistic view of environmental progress! On the 25th anniversary of Earth Day there is cause for celebration, argues the author; we have achieved solutions for many problems. There has been vast improvement in air and water quality, industrial pollution has lessened and we have virtually stopped ocean dumping. A contributing editor for Newsweek and the Atlantic, Easterbrook offers a comprehensive survey of ecological progress since 1970; he suggests that pollution in the West has already peaked and will be satisfactorily ameliorated within decades. He first looks at earth history, noting that the planet has always recovered from cataclysm. Part two analzyes the major issues: acid rain, toxic waste, radiation, global warming, air, water, land, economics, population and politics. Easterbrook finds some problems less severe than predicted, with corrective measures less expensive than expected owing to unanticipated technical discoveries and free-market innovation. He chides doomsayers of the environmental movement for their scare tactics and calls for activists to move from toxin-ringing to rationality. (Apr.)