AUTHOR:Jack M. Hollander
PUBLISHER: University of California Press
DATE: 2003
PAPER: Virgin fiber
PAGES: 201
PRICE: $27.50
If the poor and oppressed were rich and free, the world would be a cleaner place. Or so
says Hollander in this book sure to stir emotions in the green community. In a challenge to
the doom and gloom sound bites of many environmental talking heads, this optimist asserts that
wealth and democracy in the Third World will increase the demand for clean air and water--rather
than bury us in the trash and smog of crass consumerism.
Hollander’s got a point when he wonders whether the 525 million people who are chronically
undernourished will ever care about climate change and overfishing. If you’re fighting to survive,
you don’t take time to ponder paper versus plastic. Of course, this is all worlds away from those
of us with supermarkets, digital cable and SUVs, who are quickly scaling Maslow’s hierarchy of
needs and want our outer world to reflect our inner beauty.
Citing examples of improving environmental quality in the U.S. and Europe, he shows how the
growth of the conservation movement parallels the rise in our standard of living. At the same
time--and here comes the controversy--he says Americans and Europeans have been misled on such
hot button issues as DDT and global warming and claims nuclear power and GMOs are not as bad as
we think. Hollander, a professor emeritus of energy and resources at the University of California
Berkeley, views media coverage of most environmental issues as alarmist and often down-right wrong,
but he’s quick to say he doesn‘t advocate inaction.
Instead he wants to make the world’s huddled masses richer, so they too can demand an end to
pollution. Activists will take his attacks on sacred environmental cows as fighting words. Which
means you should look for the book on reading lists from environmental studies courses and
conservative think tanks.
--Avery Yale Kamila
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