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The Earthscan Action Handbook

Litvinoff, Miles
Publisher:  Earthscan Publications, London
Year Published:  1990  
Pages:  337pp   ISBN:  1-85383-062-3
Book Type:  Handbooks/Manuals

Dewey:  332.72
Resource Type:  Book
Cx Number:  CX4503

A compendium of the world's major ills with suggestions for remedial action.

Abstract:  The Earthscan Action Handbook for People and Planet is a compendium of the world's major ills with suggestions for remedial action.
The book is divided into two parts: Part 1, Human Needs and Part 2, The Planet. Litvinoff points out that this division is purely for the sake of clarity because " separation of the planet's problems from those of the human race is artificial (neither can be eased without the other)".
Part 1 contains chapters titled Food: The Right to Eat, Wealth: Greed Versus Need, Population and Health, Women: Present Burdens and Future Role, and Human and Civil Rights, part 2: Working the Land to Death, Water: the Most Precious Resource, The Atmosphere: The Sky's the Limit, Habitats and Species: Nature Under Seige, and A World Without War?
Litvinoff begins each chapter with a quotation, Lloyd Timberlake on hunger and poverty; Simone de Beauvoir on equality for women; the World Watch Institute on improving energy efficiency and therefore improving the atmosphere; Archbishop Desmond Tutu on war and Rachel Carson on water quality. These quotations serve as excellent introductions to the problems which follow. As each ill is identified, it is followed by suggested solutions. Litvinoff recognizes that these remedies will rarely be "simple, swift or conflict free", none the less, "where possible, the book tries to link long-term solutions with action we can take as individuals by adjusting our consumption and lifestyle and participating in campaigns and political life."
Litvinoff urges individual involvement. "Consumer pressure can be effective" he says, citing how thousands of Exxon customers cancelled their credit card accounts when the company "failed to act quickly to clean up its disastrous oil spill off the Alaskan coast." If you care about human rights, Litvinoff says, join Amnesty International, lobby MP's and write letters, all are effective ways to register protest.
Action is quite definitely a very operative word in this book for people and planet.

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