Daniel D. Chiras - Voices for the Earth: Vital Ideas from Americas Best Environmental Books (HTML)

The titles selected for inclusion in Voices for the Earth were nominated by a national committee. The views expressed by the authors in their summaries or excerpts do not necessarily represent the views of the Sustainable Futures Society.

All author royalties will be paid to the Sustainable Futures Society.

Copyright 1995 by Daniel D. Chiras and the Sustainable Futures Society All rights reserved.

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Cover design by Bob Schram/Bookends

Cover photograph by Bill Ross/Westlight

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

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1880 South 57th Court

Boulder, Colorado 80301

Humorist Ogden Nash once quipped, "There has been lots of progress during my lifetime, but I'm afraid it's heading in the wrong direction." Except for those individuals who live with blinders on, most people would agree with this view. Most would concur that although our lives may be getting better, our long-term prospects are eroding. Dirty air, crowded cities, lost species, and vanishing open space seem unsustainable. Economist Herman Daly put it best when he wrote: "Most nations are treating the Earth as a corporation in liquidation."

Many of us wonder, often out loud, if society can find a path that provides for our needsallowing people to reach their full potential, permitting us to live comfortably, and permitting our culture to flourishwithout creating deserts and toxic waste dumps in our footsteps or without turning our skies into grimy smears across the horizon.