Steve Ratzlaff
A pacifist’s timely and passionate manifesto addressing the issue of global warming. Utopia, as Ratzlaff explains, is not some unattainable oasis but rather a world without war and with a balanced global habitat that can sustain future generations. '[R]ank and file Americans need to be able to comprehend what global warming is all about,' the author writes, 'in order to grasp what will happen if we fail to take immediate steps to combat it.' The book is not a scientific treatise bogged down with academic language, but rather a pacifist’s simple approach to solving one of the world’s most difficult dilemmas. Employing a minimum of hard data to explore melting ice caps, rising sea levels, changing weather patterns and ocean currents, Ratzlaff effectively illustrates the cause-and-effect relationship between human activity and the planet’s well-being. While Al Gore answered the hows and whys of global warming in An Inconvenient Truth, Ratzlaff illustrates the imminent need for vast governmental and political changes, and he explains the consequences of ignoring the obvious threat to our planet. The author states that one of the biggest problems with the current approach to global warming is the tendency of advocates to ignore the significant role of population growth. Additionally, at the roots of global warming lay nationalism, religious wars and the military-industrial complex - Ratzlaff outright blames governments and corporations for the current situation. After demonstrating the various successes of the United Nations in heading off global conflicts, the author concludes that the UN is the only organization capable of becoming a fully empowered international governing body. Yet handcuffed by its current structure, it can do nothing more than cast environmental resolutions that are often ignored. Unlike other books that attempt to tackle major global issues, rather than pointing out the problems and offering no solutions, Ratzlaff rounds out each of the seven steps with definitive alternatives in his 'If I Were President' summaries. A thorough yet easy-to-comprehend take on global warming. - Kirkus Review 3
