Books & Ideas

What’s an Eco Baron?  It is sort of like a robber baron, only much better.  Here’s how Ed Humes describes them:

“In an era in which government has been either broke, indifferent or actively hostile to environmental causes, a band of visionaries — inventors, philanthropists, philosophers, grassroots activists, lawyers and gadfl ies — are using their wealth, their energy, their celebrity and their knowledge of law and science to persuade, and sometimes force, the United States and the world to take a new direction.”

Sounds like some of our ELAW partners, right? Well, although it could be about some of the ELAW partners, Eco Barons is a book about other visionaries, men and women who look at our planet in peril and act.  They “are writing the next chapter in the story, and theirs is a message of hope: The world can be saved,” writes Humes.

The men and women described in Eco Barons range from controversial to mainstream; from rich to poor, from celebrities to obscure unknowns.  But they all have one thing in common – they have seen environmental devastation and are acting to prevent it.  Doug Tompkins began to buy up the rainforests of southern Chile in order to preserve them from deforestation; Kierán Suckling and Peter Galvin began using the Endangered Species Act to protect the forests of the American southwest and went on to found the Center for Biological Diversity; single mom Carole Allen has spent her entire life working to save the endangered Kemp’s ridley sea turtle; Roxanne Quimby, who started Burt’s Bees, has used her fortune to preserve the Maine woods.  And then there is Andrew Frank, who has championed electric cars for decades; Terry Tamminen, promoter of California’s Global Warming Solutions Act, one the nation’s most comprehensive environmental laws; and Ted Turner who, well, has lots of money and uses it to do good things.

Despite its inherent flaw – there are way more Eco Barons than Humes could ever describe, and therefore he leaves out too many of them – it is a wonderful book, an easy read, a hopeful script about what people are doing, and what can be done to protect the planet.  It is an optimistic and timely reminder that individuals can make a difference.

Early in March, Thomas Friedman spoke to a sold out audience at Portland State University about his latest book, Hot, Flat and Crowded: Why We Need a Green Revolution - And How it Can Renew America.  He focused his lecture – which was really just an hour-long description of his book – on the big, broad theme of ‘the Energy-
Climate era’ in which we live.

In the book he describes five big problems – energy supply and demand, petrodictatorship, climate change, energy poverty, and biodiversity loss.  He explains – in great detail, over many chapters of the book – how each of these problems has been growing more serious for many years, and how they have reached a ‘critical mass’ or a ‘tipping point’ in the last few years.

Friedman is very America-centric.  He seems to believe that America – and only America – can solve the world’s environmental problems.
But he does recognize (and illustrates it rather humorously) that the rest of the world does not always agree with him.  He started his lecture the way he starts his book: with an advertising slogan appearing on a billboard in South Africa by Daimler promoting the Smart “forfour” car.  “German Engineering, Swiss innovation, American nothing.”

Friedman ended his lecture the way he ends his book: with a story from a eulogy given by Amory Lovins at a memorial service for the environmental pioneer Dana Meadows.  Lovins describes an email that he received from Dana about a father home alone with his daughter.  “He was trying to read the paper but was totally frustrated by the constant interruptions.  When he came across a full page of the NASA photo of the Earth from space, he got a brilliant idea.  He ripped it up into small pieces and told his child to try to put it back together. He then settled in for what he expected to be a good half-hour of peace and quiet.  But only a few minutes had gone by before the child appeared at his side with a big grin on her face.  ‘You’ve fi nished already?’ he asked.  ‘Yep’ she replied.  ‘So how did you do it?’ ‘Well, I saw there was a picture of a person on the other side, so when I put the person together, the Earth got put together too’.”

It’s a good story and it reflects Friedman’s optimism that we humans can solve these global problems.  It also reflects the beauty of the ELAW global network: Connecting people – putting people together – might be the best way to protect our planet.