A journey in search of our future

This book came to me as a gift from Fred Melcher, who was dying of bone cancer. A journalist and activist, he was greatly impressed by the environmental message of Earth Odyssey. His concern for the future of the world that his 12-year-old daughter would inherit led him to purchase 20,000 copies of the book to be distributed to activists, teachers and policymakers. I was one of those fortunate people to receive a copy.

The book's author-who has written several books and teaches writing at Johns Hopkins University-took a unique approach, too. The book is the product of a wandering, nearly decade-long voyage that took Mark Hertsgaard to 19 countries to better understand the environmental health and future of planet Earth. As he made plans to travel the globe, he shared his ideas with a good friend and literary advisor William Shawn, a former editor of the New Yorker magazine. Shawn encouraged him, pronouncing it "the most important book anyone could be writing." Unfortunately, Shawn died early in the author's world travels.

Wars, drought, famine
Hertsgaard found China to be a vast country with 1.2 billion people that encourages rapid economic development. He observed a nation with five of the world's 10 most air-polluted areas. In Africa, he visited large cities with growing populations. Wars, drought and famine brought people to already overcrowded towns, where one of every 11 infants will not survive their first year of life.

He traveled by boat, bicycle, horse, foot and train, especially in Africa and China. People in many countries considered owning a car one of their highest priorities. Hertsgaard compares this desire to his addiction to cigarettes, and sees the automobile as having the greatest effect on the industrial age. This section of the book challenges us to redirect our complex but manageable efforts, and force the automobile industry to contribute to a cleaner, improved environment.

Hertsgaard attended the 1992 Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro, where he felt there was no serious discussion and the United States was not a committed participant. "The American way of life is not negotiable," he overhead one U.S. official say during the summit.

Political unrest
He also was in Russia when Mikhail Gorbachev was replaced. Hertsgaard saw how Russian cities had decayed, the plight of its people and unbelievable damage to the environment. He also spent time in Thailand where the huge population of Bangkok is operating with almost no sewage system.

The chapter, "How Populations Matter," should be required reading if you're concerned about the environment. Hertsgaard reminds us that the world's population has doubled in the last 40 years, but that industrialized nations in western Europe and North America consume the most energy and natural resources. But what stuck with me was this quote from Cornell professor Dave Pimentel: "Soil erosion is arguably our single greatest environmental hazard because 99 percent of human needs come from the land."

I am most impressed with the research that went into Earth Odyssey. Hertsgaard traveled at his own expense and saw firsthand the people and our fragile environment of land, air and water. He studied and read widely, quoting E.O. Wilson, Wendell Berry, John Muir and many others. He also interviewed V‡clav Havel, Al Gore and Jacques Cousteau. Most importantly, his writing shows that he cares greatly for our planet.

In the final chapter, Hertsgaard gives the reader his vision of a cleaner, more friendly environment. He also describes his plan, the "Global Green Deal," that points out opportunities amid the crisis.

Dave Williams

Aldo Leopold would have agreed with many of the conclusions made in the book: we have a lot of repair work ahead of us.

I see two principal reasons for hope. First, most people want to do right by the environment and if given the chance, they will as long as they are not penalized economically for it. Second, far from being enemies, economic and environmental health can reinforce one another. In fact, if humans are smart, repairing the environment would become one of the biggest businesses of the coming century - a huge source of profit, jobs and general economic well-being.

The dictionary defines odyssey as "an intellectual or spiritual wandering or quest." In that respect, Mark Hertsgaard found his purpose and sets us all out on our own journey. Aldo Leopold would have agreed with many of the conclusions made in the book, and that we have a lot of repair work ahead of us. But even the biggest journeys start with the first step. - Dave Williams, Leopold Center Advisory Board member and farmer, Villisca