Recommended Books

From: Mark Hertsgaard's blog

Posted on December 14th, 2007 by Mark Hertsgaard

As the world awaits news from the crucial climate talks in Bali, here are some books worth buying and some charities worth supporting this holiday season.

First, the charities. I hope you’ll consider helping the valiant people of Bangladesh, who have endured two disasters this year–mega floods in the summer and Cyclone Sidr in the fall–that remind us that it is the poor who are hit first and worst by climate change. Bangladesh can be considered Ground Zero of our globally warming world, threatened by both cyclones and sea level rise from the south and floods and, years from now, droughts from the north, where the Himalayan mountains send snowmelt down to the sea. I visited Bangladesh in February to research my forthcoming book, Living Through the Storm: Surviving the Next 50 Years of Climate Change, and was impressed by two NGOs in particular: Oxfam and Practical Action. Each works at the local level, with rather than for the poor, while also pursuing a larger agenda of changing the global practices that maintain the status quo. If you would like to offer a donation, go to these links:

Oxfam: http://www.justgiving.com/oxfambangladeshappeal

Practical Action: http://practicalaction.org/?id=personal_donation

Now, the books–three on environmental matters, one non-fiction thriller and one funny/sad novel. Of course, I urge you to buy from an independent book shop. If you want to order on line, please visit the site of the estimable Powell’s of Portland, which has supported me and so many other authors over the years: www.powells.com.

1. Earth Under Fire, by Gary Braasch (University of California Press), is the best book on global warming I’ve read this year. Braasch is an intrepid and accomplished photographer who has spent years traveling to all parts of the world to document, in stunning images and well-researched accompanying text, how global warming is changing our planet NOW. Even global warming experts can learn from this book, but it’s perfect for newcomers to the topic too. Plus, it looks great on a coffee table.

2. Fight Global Warming Now, by Bill McKibben and the Step It Up Team, (Holt), is the essential handbook for the essential task now facing us: taking organized political action to achieve major cuts in greenhouse gas emissions. As Bill points out in the book, many people know global warming must be fought, but they don’t know what to do or how to go about it. This book tells you, in very accessible, non-intimidating and even, dare I say, fun ways. Go get ‘em!

3. Exposed, by Mark Schapiro (Chelsea Green) is an environmental scoop that sends a message not only to American consumers but businesses: U.S. law allows all kinds of nasty toxic chemicals in the most common daily products (toys, cosmetics, etc.) that are banned in Europe; and because Europe is taking the environmental high road, it is gaining, not losing, global market share. (Disclosure: I offered a blurb to this book but, dammit, receive no royalties.)

4. The Informant, by Kurt Eichenwald (Broadway Books) is the true but almost unbelievable inside story of the rampant price-fixing and other ... conduct undertaken by Archer Daniels Midland, the agri-business giant .... Told by a New York Times reporter who clearly had amazing access to all parties involved.... A great read, too.

5. A Long Way Down, by Nick Hornsby (Penguin) is well-timed for the holiday season. The opening chapter, set on New Year’s Eve, portrays four very different individuals who find themselves, to their collective surprise, atop the same London rooftop with the same purpose in mind: jumping off and ending it all. Somehow, Hornsby manages to turn this into a brilliant, insightful, hilarious but never easy or sentimental meditation on what makes all of us tick, and how to keep going despite the despair that occasionally tempts each of us.

Happy holidays to all and let’s hope for peace and a cooler planet in 2008.

Mark Hertsgaard

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