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Book analysis for "Earth in the Balance: Ecology and the Human Spirit" By Al Gore

Introduction

For those concerned scientists who have grown increasingly frustrated in a span of over ten years of business as usual in the face of growing environment implications, the Earth in the Balance: Ecology and the Human Spirit book by Al Gore can be classified as a source of optimism. Twenty-five years of research and world travel resulted into a well-written conclusion of his findings on the earths ecological challenges during his campaign for the United States’ Vice president. Additionally, as a member of a congressional system that depends largely on the legislative staff, news media and second-hand reports as the sources of information, it is acknowledged that Al Gore is to be commended for devoting much of his personal time to evaluate the implication of the earth’s ecology on the environment.

Book summary and analysis

While vying for the president position in the united states in the year 1998, the then Senator Al-Gore tried as much as possible to make environmental sustainability as one of the most crucial issues of the presidential race. Nevertheless, both the public and the people of the press were focused on other relevant matters. After a span of four years after the election, it was acknowledged that the public had commenced to develop an increasing concern about the environment. Gore during the next election year had published a well-written book with insights that probe the causes of environmental crisis and in the process; it offers a baseline on which the environment could be saved.

The senator brings a wealth of experience and ideas to the book. Additionally, he has served as a leader of the environment at Capitol Hill in which he co-authorized the legalization of the super-fund regulation that required individuals to clean-up all the hazardous dumpsites and in the process, he set up the first congressional meeting on the concept of global warming. In the course of the book, he discusses his journey to some of the most troublesome areas around the globe such as the Antarctica, Aral Sea and the Amazon rain forest. Besides, he never refuses to acknowledge the works of scientists such as luminaries Richard Leakey, Oceanographer Jacques Cousteau, and astronomer Carl Sagan.

Al-Gore is of the opinion that the attitude of wait and see towards the issues facing the environment is a recipe for the impending disaster. In his book, he declares that those individuals who assert that we should do nothing until more research has been completed are shifting the proof burden in the wake of the deepening crisis. In this case, the point postulated by Al Gore is very crucial since a choice to implement nothing towards the mounting evidence is actually one of the ways of encouraging the mounting destruction of the environment further hence creating the impending catastrophe at hand.

After the provision of the convincing scenario of the severity of the environmental crisis, he went ahead to look at how the environmental adverse implications has happened. In this case, the reasons behind this existence range from a short-listed technological hubris and political system supported by an economic system that is connected to the costs of nonrenewable –resource consumptions. In fact, Al Gore goes ahead to draw quite a number of intriguing parallels psychologically between a dysfunctional functional and dysfunctional civilization.

Gore is of the opinion that, individuals must be able to make environmental sustainability or environmental rescue mission the primary organizing principle towards civilization. In so doing, he makes a proposal that a global Marshall Plan that is purposed to stabilize world population, reforming economics, developing appropriate technologies, educating, and training the world and reaching global agreements on environmental protection should be established. In other words, according to Gore, healing the world would require individuals to heal their spirit first. In simple terms, this basically means reestablishing a linkage to the real natural world and in the process, renewing individuals belief in the future .Without doing so, it is accepted that individuals addiction to consuming the resources of the earth to realize their short-term needs could make a disastrous future.

Conclusion

The title of the book is perhaps go down in history as one of the most comprehensive statement that a politician has ever made. Additionally, Al Gore claims that the global nature is deteriorating because of the growing hard surface of the human civilization. In this book, he calls for an overall effort towards the dangerous confrontation of the environment to meet our short-term needs. Moreover, it is a bold objective appeal in which all the aspects of the problem are dealt with and potential solutions are stipulated. However, while some of his critics may try as much of possible to paint Al Gore as an alarmist, this will only build his desire to make environmental issues a critical theme in the next campaign. Therefore, any opponent who would like to avoid getting embarrassed on the issues of the environment should start practicing and doing their homework on environmental issues now since Al Gore has a big starting influence.