Sustainable America: America's Environment in the 21st Century--The U.S. Agenda 21
Envision a world where everyone has enough to eat, biodiversity thrives, and energy sources deliver clean fuels for generations. It may seem a bit outlandish, but so was a balanced federal budget just a few years ago.Frankly, the global environmental and economic situation is not much different than that of our federal budget. We have basically two options regarding our future: status quo operations and impending environmental/economic disasters or a global reshaping of operations to ensure a sustainable way of life. And like balancing the budget, it's something that can be done-without draconian measures.Sustainable America describes the situation and various options in detail. Based on several report's issued by the President's Council on Sustainable Development, Sustainable America's primary failure is that it reads like a government document. Beginning with sixteen pages of doom and gloom, I had the sudden urge to drive cross-country at high speeds and drown my sorrows in a Fast Burger-and I'm on their side!Each chapter centers on a main theme such as population, natural resources, or transportation and is further broken down into problem identification and recommended actions. Unfortunately the text sounds very authoritarian with extensive uses of "must" and "should." The most engaging sections are the "Initiative" portions that discuss successful examples in action. As a summary of the President's Council, Sustainable America reads like most other policy statements and is no help to the general public. If Sitarz had reversed the tables and begun with the case studies and described in more detail how these efforts improved people's lives, then Sustainable America would have engaged and motivated the people who must choose a different way-you and me. --FromIndependent Publisher