¶ … Cassandra
Believing Cassandra: An Optimist Looks at a Pessimist's World is a book about the environment, its blunderings, and the sustainability of our world. This is a book for people trying to understand our intricate world and how it is failing and succeeding. I found the approach this book takes to the environment to be entertaining and worthwhile, for not just the information it provides, but the fresh perspective it offers on environmental issues. The author restores the reader's optimism in the world and explains how we can do even better for our future. The people who have predicted the end of the world, AtKisson says, "have been proven wrong, and have served to relegate all environmentally concerned comments to the fate of Cassandra's mutterings: They are ignored. And so they should be." (p. 12) He says, the earth is not a lost cause. And that's why he's written the book.
According to AtKisson, "the definition of sustainability is neither vague nor abstract; it is very specific and is tied to measurable criteria describing how resources are used and distributed. Some of what currently gets called 'sustainable development' is no such thing, but that does not mean the concept should be dismissed, any more than the concept of democracy should be dismissed when it is misappropriated by a dictatorship. Sustainability, like democracy, is an ideal toward which we strive, a journey more than a destination." (p. 200) This quote probably summarizes the whole theme and opinion of the author and his book. The author not only explains what we should dismiss and what we should investigate about our environment, but encourages us to face every concept and problem with honesty and optimism.
The book spends much of its time explaining this concept of sustainability and putting it into terms the average environmentalist can understand. "Sustainability' is dying of misuse, and dryness, and reduction to a buzzword. It is dying because it is attached...
Environmental Politics There are several reasons why countries find it difficult to reach an agreement on climate change. These are the ecopolitics of oil, the ecopolitics of the atmosphere, the ecopolitics of land and water, and the fact that national leaders tend not to make choice that will be perceived as harming their countries, a point related to the sort of individual selfishness that leads to the tragedy of the commons. The
Water" by David James Duncan which commends the author in his elaboration of the importance of the ecological system in lieu of our human needs. The words of one reviewer as she commended this book said, "I thank David James Duncan for putting into words the profound idea that the salmon's presence is a breathtaking reminder of the rightness of the earth's own plan." And theses words are thus the
" (Carson, 2) That the correlation between these collected symptoms and the use of pesticides in our predominantly agricultural towns had yet to be recognized at this point in history is important to consider. Though today it still receives troublingly little acknowledgment, the exponential rise in the consumption of organic produce in recent years is indicative of a graduating cognizance of that which Carson's work brought to the forefront of
Environmental Sciences Obama Turns to Web to Illustrate the Effects of a Changing Climate This article discusses how the use of technology and the internet can aid in the overall global warming education process. The article explains how President Obama is using a mobile app to depict the effects of global warming in local communities. Through technology, Obama hopes to create awareness of the overall global warming issue, and its impact on
Citizen Groups Shaping Environmental Policy The environmental issues have of late been a subject of concern to many people and many organizations. Governments all over the world have been under persistent pressure to implement policies and also enact laws that are friendly to the environment or are intentionally formulated to safeguard the environment. The Kyoto protocol was a pace setter in many aspects concerning the environmental care and conservation, hence many
Environmental Science Environmental fundamentals Defining environmental science: The quest for sustainability Environmental science or environmental studies are defined as the "study of a range of environments, from the bodies we live, to the physical structures, institutions and industries we build, to the politics, languages and cultural practices we use to communicate, and to the earth and its complex multitude of animals, flora and bio-physical elements and processes" (What is environmental science, 2012, York
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