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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 ninteen 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 Dnka
tribesman whose response to Sudan's famine shows the difficulty
of building an environmentally unsustainable future without
bridging the gap between rich and poor. Drawing on interviews
with Vaclav 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.
Mark Hertsgaard is the author of three
previous books, including On Bended Knee: The Press
and the Reagan Presidency and A Day in the Life:
The Music and Artistry of the Beatles. He has contributed
to the New York Times, The New Yorker, the
Atlantic Monthly, Outside, Vanity Fair,
the Nation, and numerous other publications at home
and abroad. He teaches nonfiction writing at Johns Hopkins
University and lives near Washington, D.C.
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