This Moment on Earth (1 of 3 free samples)

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COPYRIGHT
This Moment on Earth by Kerry and Heinz Kerry. Copyright 2007 by John Kerry and Teresa Heinz Kerry.
All Rights Reserved. Sharing not permitted.

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THIS MOMENT ON EARTH
Today's New Environmentalists and their Vision for the Future

John Kerry
Teresa Heinz Kerry


DEDICATION
http://www.dailylit.com/books/this-moment-on-earth/dedication

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
http://www.dailylit.com/books/this-moment-on-earth/acknowledgments


INTRODUCTION

We were inspired to write this book during the 2004 presidential campaign. In community after community, state after state, we encountered Americans who were concerned about the environment and hopeful that together we could reverse our downward course. This book is a reflection of that grassroots enthusiasm as well as our own long-term commitment to these issues.

When we first started our research for the book, the environmental movement was reeling. A lot of pundits in Washington were writing the movement off, even going so far as to declare it dead. The science of global climate change, though already certain, was under attack, and Al Gore's An Inconvenient Truth had not yet been released. But since then, thankfully, there has been a significant awakening. An Inconvenient Truth, a brilliant book and film, has reached people globally, expanding the sense of urgency about climate change and significantly moving the debate forward. Former Vice President Gore deserves all of the credit he has received for his most recent contribution in a life of public service.

In this book we reconfirm the urgent threat of global climate change, while celebrating the efforts of citizens across the nation who are taking steps to combat this problem and elude catastrophe. We also examine other environmental challenges, such as toxins in the environment, environmental justice, the health of our waterways, and energy policy: issues that are attracting a new breed of activists to the grassroots movement for change. In describing the scale of the danger, we hope this book reveals the breadth of opportunity for those whose innovation and creativity can rise to meet the threat. Exciting new market opportunities are staring us in the face. There is enormous potential for us to create jobs, enhance security, improve the health of all Americans, and even make money, if only we seize the moment.

We explore the reasons for the heightened crisis as well as the ways we believe Americans can and must respond, both as individuals and as a nation. The past 150 years of industrial progress have stretched the capacity of human beings and the planet beyond anything our great-great-grandparents could have imagined. We have harnessed natural resources in positive ways--not just to feed, clothe, and house rapidly growing populations, but to increase the length and quality of life for hundreds of millions of people. But there's also no question that the careless exploitation of these same resources has begun to threaten the very foundations of life. Science and technology brought about tremendous progress, making our modern society possible; but now, science and technology can enable us to accurately measure the unintended downside to that progress as well as to assess the threats that environmental problems pose to the quality of life that we often take for granted.

We devote considerable space in this book to a sober narration of those measurements, their implications, and their management. After all, the contemporary American debate over the environment has become so politicized that the basic facts have often been lost in the noise of partisan and ideological conflict, particularly over the past six years. But aside from presenting the facts, this book has one principal objective. Langston Hughes wrote a famous poem in which he talked of the need to "make America America again." Though he was writing more than half a century ago, his poem still challenges us to live up to our values. The people you will encounter in this book seek to restore a very traditional sense of responsibility for environmental stewardship to our way of life today. The status quo poses enormous dangers to the Earth, to our lives and the lives of our fellow citizens, and most of all, to our children and grandchildren.
This book will introduce you to Americans with innovative, pioneering spirits who are already discovering solutions for our environmental problems.

Why is their work so important? Because they are proving we don't have to sit quietly by while doomsday environmental scenarios play out. Their initiative is living testimony that no one has to surrender to pessimism or scare tactics. They tell us that instead of empty slogans and long laundry lists of bite-sized ideas tinkering at the edges of outdated debates, we can embark on a revolution that will put our future back into our own hands. All of this--a whole world of opportunity--is possible if we face facts, innovate, adapt, and lead, just as Americans have again and again in moments of great challenge.

No one is saying that it will be easy. Change will not come overnight. One big obstacle to mobilizing Americans to meet this challenge is that so much of the modern conservative movement, and so much of the leadership of today's Republican Party, have chosen to make any and every environmental cause "enemy territory." Given the rich environmentalist tradition in the GOP, from Teddy Roosevelt to Richard Nixon (who signed the Clean Air Act and the Clean Water Act), this sea change has been very damaging, especially when echoed in a rightwing political culture that has demonized every conceivable environmental proposal. The decline of bipartisan support for environmental issues has also stemmed from broader attacks on environmentalism as a special-interest cause: as elitist, alarmist, antigrowth, impractical, overwhelmingly white, costly, and irrationally uncompromising.

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