Healing the Planet

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly

This catalogue of global gloom is pierced by few solutions worthy of the authors' stature as leading environmentalists. Healing on a planetary scale, the Erlichs ( The Population Explosion ) demonstrate, will require worldwide management of population, energy consumption and technology by scientists and political economists. The thesis is well argued, with 65 pages of references and notes--but the reader is left grasping for places to begin the treatment. The Erlichs, however, are more concerned with rigorous, almost academic analysis of ``the more general problem of assuring the continuance of ecosystem services'' and its counterpart, ``the human predicament.'' Readers are given a course on the biological crisis zones, including summaries of global warming, ``unsustainable'' agriculture and a compact chapter on energy and the environment. For most readers, these alarms will seem like an echo of many other recent books. (Oct.)

Library Journal

Biologist and demographer Paul Ehrlich is a professor of environmental studies at Stanford, where Anne Ehrlich is a research associate in biology. Since the publication of their book The Population Bomb ( LJ 10/1/68), they have been in the forefront of the overpopulation/environment controversy. This new book is designed as a companion volume to the Ehrlichs' Population Explosion ( LJ 4/1/90), which focuses on the population factor in the environmental crisis. This work concentrates on energy, global warming, the ozone layer, acid rain, pollution, and a host of other problems. Provocative, engrossing, and readable, it is recommended for all libraries.-- Richard Shotwell, Berkshire Museum, Pittsfield, Mass.

Booknews

The Ehrlichs make a clear, accessible statement of the human predicament 20 years after the first Earth Day in 1970: time and effort have been mistakenly confined to dealing with the symptoms of pollution at the expense of addressing the underlying problems--over- population and the inequalities between rich and poor countries--and their environmental impact. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)