Product Description

An inspiring celebration of courageous American innovators who are transforming the way we protect and care for the world we live in.

The environment, and the movement that grew up to protect it, is under attack--concerted and purposeful. Yet the need for solutions to pressing environmental problems grows more urgent each day. Teresa Heinz Kerry and Senator John Kerry traveled across the country in a national campaign to see at first hand how these issues unite people across party and ideological lines. From the San Juan Basin to the Gulf of Mexico to the South Bronx, from mothers on Cape Cod to Colorado ranchers, they found a vibrant coalition of people and communities deploying ingenuity, technology, and sheer will power to save the world they know and love. Now, in this passionate and personal book, Senator John Kerry and Teresa Heinz Kerry shine the spotlight on an inspiring crosssection of these new environmental pioneers.

The book combines intensive research with keenly observed personal experiences to present a portrait of Americans devoted to the natural diversity and spectacular uniqueness of our country. It also includes an extensive guide on where and how readers can get involved.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #387671 in Books
• Published on: 2007-03-26
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 240 pages

Features

• ISBN13: 9781586484316
• Condition: USED - VERY GOOD
• Notes:
• Click here to view our Condition Guide and Shipping Prices

From Publishers Weekly
Environmentalism isn't dead; it's just being reborn declares the Massachusetts senator and his philanthropist wife. The individuals and groups that the couple profile embody a no-nonsense spunk that defies tired old tree-hugger stereotypes. Deirdre Imus, a children's health advocate and wife of recently dethroned radio personality Don Imus, successfully pressured public schools in the New York City area to switch to nontoxic janitorial products. An apple grower in Washington State forced industrial dairy farms in her community to stop contaminating the water supply with fecal waste, while residents of Louisiana formed bucket brigades to test air quality in their towns. The citizen success stories, especially as voiced by three-time Audie winner Dick Hill, never fail to inspire, but unfortunately the authors veer into conventional public policy polemics just when their grassroots journey begins to hit its stride. Granted, their conclusions about failed leadership in the current political climate stand on solid scientific ground, but a little more focus might have rendered a more cohesive listening experience.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Review
"a forceful new book...which could serve as a primer for how to stop bitching and start a green revolution." -- politico.com

"a taut, compelling, well written little book that inspires confidence in Kerry's depth of understanding." -- FireDogLake.com, April 25, 2007

"inspiring" -- dailygotham.com

About the Author
John Kerry has served four terms as Senator from Massachusetts. As ranking member and Chairman of the Fish and Marine subcommittee, he was able to write or rewrite laws affecting national fisheries, flood insurance, marine mammals, coral reefs, the Gulf of Mexico dead zone and to engage very directly in the battles over global climate change, alternative and renewable fuels and fuel efficiency standards.

Teresa Heinz Kerry is chairman of The Howard Heinz Endowment and the Heinz Family Philanthropies, and a winner of the Albert Schweitzer Gold Medal for Humanitarianism for her work protecting the environment, promoting health care and education and uplifting women and children throughout the world.

Customer Reviews

Was disappointed briefly, then greatly inspired
I was surprisingly inspired by John and Teresa Heinz Kerry's new book, This Moment on Earth. This inspiration snuck up on me around the third chapter. Prior to that, I found the book good, well worth reading, but a little bit like just one more book outlining what humans are doing wrong. Starting around the third chapter I realized I was referring to the book in several conversations and several blog diaries and that several of the people and organizations featured in the book I mentally filed away as worth looking into for future political connections, diaries and general research.

In short, almost without my realizing it, John Kerry's book was getting into my brain and inspiring me. The book starts a bit dull but by the end is excellent.

The book was billed as the next step in the evolution of the environmental debate. I was ready for a book that took as given the problems and focused primarily on solutions. And, on exactly the same day I started This Moment on Earth I was reading the February 9th issue of Science, America's most respected scientific journal. And in that issue, the scientific community was doing exactly what John Kerry seemed to be proposing...The overwhelming consensus of scientists, as reported in Science, is that anthropogenic (human-caused) warming is happening and the most optimistic scenarios are not the most likely scenarios. We are in for a rough ride and the time is now to accept the problem and move on to solutions. Shift the debate, people. Let's talk what to DO ABOUT IT.

I was ready for John Kerry's book to carry the same theme...it is time to take as given the problem and move on to solutions.

That isn't quite what I got. And at first I was disappointed. As I read the first two chapters I felt I was reading yet another book that outlined the problem with perhaps a little more emphasis placed on solutions and how individuals and small groups are empowering themselves to fight back.

But by the third chapter I found I was taking the most notice of exactly what the Kerrys WANTED me to notice the most: the people who are fighting back. I think it was the case of Majora Carter and Sustainable South Bronx that finally made me realize that this book was inspiring me because I immediately decided she'd be perfect as an invited speaker for a political group I am involved with. The example of Riverkeeper, where ex-marines decided to patrol our nation's waterways to protect them from polluters, was another "wow" moment. Even radio personality Don Imus and his wife, Deidre, come off inspiring in This Moment on Earth, something I never imagined I'd say. And Chapter 7, discussing energy policy, is the best chapter, showing how right here and now, using existing technology, the city of Portland, OR, as well as companies like Texas Instruments and DuPont are doing EXACTLY what needs to be done to reduce carbon emissions...and doing it while creating jobs and saving money. Chapter 7 shows us that there remain NO EXCUSES for America to continue to avoid taking a leadership role in stopping global warming. All that we lack...is the political leadership on a national level. Kerry shows us that locally there has been considerable leadership by both Democrats and Republicans. But nationally Bush has led us down a path that leads nowhere and that has ceded economic ingenuity to other nations.

Put all this together and you may not have the next step in the evolution of the environmental debate, but you certainly have one more important step forward and one that might have a wider appeal than previous books in this genre.

[...]

If you review it, try reading it first!
I am constantly amazed at the vitriol whenever a politician writes a book. Opnions come down on ideological extremes wanting to praise it instantly if the politico is liked, or panned with acid reviews if he's in the other party.

Face it, this is an interesting book. Not the best book on the subject of the environment, but Kerrys' opinions do reflect intelligent thought. To be condemned for their lifestyle and ignore what they are trying to say shows that the reviewer hasn't read the book. i think there is a hypocritical envy of the wealth the Kerry's have because they are democrats and the reviewer is a rightwing ideologue. But if this was a book by, say Cheney, he'd be praised and his obscene wealth and plutocratic politics will be ignored.

Be fair, read the book for the opinions and ideas, weigh them with your own thoughts and beliefs and in all honesty a serious reader and reviewer can always find something worthwhile.

The environment is becoming a more and more important issue and it shouldn't be viewed through soley political ideology. As a country, together we can make progress, but if we are constantly arguing because the idea comes from the other side of the aisle nothing good will ever happen. Compromise, discussion and reason should win in the end.

Great book
Well put together, bipartisan book. It covers far more than just global warming, and stresses the importance of fixing the problem ASAP. It includes solutions everyone can use. Everyone should read this book.