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Earth Odyssey: Around the World in Search of Our Environmental Future
Like many of us, Mark Hertsgaard has long worried about the declining health of our environment. But in 1991, he decided to act on his own concern and investigate the escalating crisis for himself. Traveling on his own dime, he embarked on an odyssey lasting most of the decade and spanning nineteen countries. Now, in Earth Odyssey he reports on our environmental predicament through the eyes of the people who live it.
Earth Odyssey is a vivid, passionate narrative about one man's journey around the world in search of the answer to the essential question of our Is the future of the human species at risk? Combining first-rate reportage with irresistible storytelling, Mark Hertsgaard has written an essential--and ultimately hopeful--book about the uncertain fate of humankind.
Earth Odyssey is a vivid, passionate narrative about one man's journey around the world in search of the answer to the essential question of our Is the future of the human species at risk? Combining first-rate reportage with irresistible storytelling, Mark Hertsgaard has written an essential--and ultimately hopeful--book about the uncertain fate of humankind.
384 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1998
16 people are currently reading
241 people want to read
About the author
Mark Hertsgaard
16 books23 followersMark Hertsgaard is an American journalist and the co-founder and executive director of Covering Climate Now. He is the environment correspondent for The Nation, and the author of seven non-fiction books, including Earth Odyssey (1998) and Hot: Living Through the Next Fifty Years on Earth (2011).
He has covered climate change, politics, economics, the press, and music since 1989. His best-known work as an author is On Bended Knee: The Press and the Reagan Presidency (1988), which described the way the Reagan White House "deployed raw power and conventional wisdom to intimidate Washington's television newsrooms." He has also written for magazines and newspapers such as The Guardian, Vanity Fair, Scientific American,Time, Harper's, and Le Monde. He has been a commentator for the public radio programs Morning Edition, Marketplace, and Living on Earth, and taught writing at Johns Hopkins and the University of California, Berkeley. Hertsgaard lives in San Francisco.
He has covered climate change, politics, economics, the press, and music since 1989. His best-known work as an author is On Bended Knee: The Press and the Reagan Presidency (1988), which described the way the Reagan White House "deployed raw power and conventional wisdom to intimidate Washington's television newsrooms." He has also written for magazines and newspapers such as The Guardian, Vanity Fair, Scientific American,Time, Harper's, and Le Monde. He has been a commentator for the public radio programs Morning Edition, Marketplace, and Living on Earth, and taught writing at Johns Hopkins and the University of California, Berkeley. Hertsgaard lives in San Francisco.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 35 reviews
February 5, 2015
Somewhat dated by the time I got around to reading it but his insights about political inaction in the face of any crisis that appears to threaten the status quo and economic bottom line seems apropos off into infinity as far as I can puzzle out. His hands on research was very interesting, his skewering of Gregg Easterbrook made me wince and laugh simultaneously kind of like Matt Taibbi does all of the time. While I think his suggestions for solutions in his conclusion build up quite a head of steam and seem grandiose I do take his point about "doing nothing is well...going to get you nowhere so at least make the effort and adjust when necessary". And he does offer suggestions and ideas for solutions - most people don't- they just endlessly define the problem. And the reading caused me to look up Armory Lovins (again) in Wikipedia just to see what he is up to now which pointed me to the BMW3i which further pointed me to the just released Super Bowl commercial with Katie Couric and Bryant Gumbel discussing the Internet/and the new Beemer. I laughed... My son said it was humor for the easily amused...I prefer to believe that I appreciate people that can laugh at themselves and not take themselves too seriously. Mr. Hertsgaard has written a serious book though and I appreciate that too. Give it a look ...just for the places you go in your own head.
Favorite quotes: "you can stand on a mountaintop with your mouth open for a long time before a roast duck flies into it"
"Try again. Fail again. Fail better". Samuel Beckett in Worstwood Ho
Favorite quotes: "you can stand on a mountaintop with your mouth open for a long time before a roast duck flies into it"
"Try again. Fail again. Fail better". Samuel Beckett in Worstwood Ho
January 5, 2009
We are going through a drought here in Northern California. Since this summer we've been asked to use no more than 100 gallons of water per day. We took the request seriously and let the summer heat kill our patio garden. One hundred gallons still seems like an extravagant amount of water but according Mark Hertsgaard in Earth Odyssey, the typical American household uses 186 gallons a day, nearly twice what we've been asked to cut back to!
In 1991 Mark Hertsgaard traveled around the world to see what people thought of environmental problems. What he found out is people universally find it hard to see beyond their own immediate needs. It doesn't seem to matter if it's a family in a war ravaged Sudan, a Thai family in traffic clogged Bangkok or a family living in the toxic clouds of Beijing, the response was the same: "we're used to it." That didn't mean they were happy, just able to cope. The bigger environmental picture never seemed to play a part in the responses Heartsgaard received.
Heartsgaard sets the stage by describing the environmental crisis each place is facing: famine, heavy metals in the air and water, nuclear waste freely dumped in the rivers and so forth. Then he introduces the people he interviewed and worked with. Earth Odyssey is a surprisingly fast read for all the depressing facts. The book doesn't offer much in the way of solutions for the problems faced by the environment and the specific places Heartsgaard visited.
In 1991 Mark Hertsgaard traveled around the world to see what people thought of environmental problems. What he found out is people universally find it hard to see beyond their own immediate needs. It doesn't seem to matter if it's a family in a war ravaged Sudan, a Thai family in traffic clogged Bangkok or a family living in the toxic clouds of Beijing, the response was the same: "we're used to it." That didn't mean they were happy, just able to cope. The bigger environmental picture never seemed to play a part in the responses Heartsgaard received.
Heartsgaard sets the stage by describing the environmental crisis each place is facing: famine, heavy metals in the air and water, nuclear waste freely dumped in the rivers and so forth. Then he introduces the people he interviewed and worked with. Earth Odyssey is a surprisingly fast read for all the depressing facts. The book doesn't offer much in the way of solutions for the problems faced by the environment and the specific places Heartsgaard visited.
August 29, 2019
Employing a refreshingly anthropological approach with just a few statistical crumbs couched between the cracks, Herstgaard explores international environmental concerns in context of socioeconomic and political cultures throughout the world. He introduces us to many faces and places whose contributions to environmental degradation are all too human, while casting dark shadows on the few institutions which have the means, but fail to lead the way out. Sometimes heart-wrenching, frequently paranoia-inspiring, and only sporadically mundane, Earth Odyssey speaks for humanity as much as it does for the planet, and makes clear just how fragile the relationship is between the two.
March 20, 2017
This book is an older book, published in the late 90s, about global environmental problems as told through the author's travels around the world. What I found most interesting about it were the various governmental / corporate promises made and estimates about how the environmental trends would pan out by or around 2010. Some have turned out better than expected, but most promises have been broken and most trends have turned out to be worse than expected.
May 7, 2014
This is one of the best books that I have ever read and the very best environmental book even though it was written in the 90's. It was a very well documented first hand look at the world issues, and beautifully written.
March 15, 2017
Great book, but outdated.
May 5, 2021
Wow apparently I wrote this review years ago (by that I mean 2012) on Amazon. Transferring it here. Lol
I picked up a book called Earth Odyssey by Mark Hertsgaard at a thrift store last year. Finally had time to read it during my summer at the Jersey Shore, and not a moment too soon. This book is deeply disturbing! It shook me up more than anything I've read in at least the last 6 years. I was already far more informed than the average lay person, now I am also far more upset.
You would have to be inhuman to read about the huge human populations who live in toxic or horribly degraded environments and feel powerless to have a better life. The vicious cycle of wars in Africa that has degraded the environment, causing people to starve, causing more wars is heartbreaking. The description of how developing countries like China are paralyzed to limit their vast contributions to deadly pollution and CO2 emissions because they must place economic concerns first is depressing. The lackadaisical attitude of Russian, U.S., and other governments about the hundreds of thousands of people exposed to nuclear radiation is infuriating. Irreversibly poisoned crops, rivers that catch on fire, impoverished people who inhale toxic fumes 24/7, all caused by a desperation to survive that overrides wise environmental policies.
I think I instinctually knew that economic disparity is a huge driver in the runaway train of the global environmental crisis. This book brought everything home. We can't expect developing countries to do anything about rampant environmental degradation while they are naked, starving, sick, or even freezing. Each of us wealthy Americans MUST face how our runaway materialistic lifestyle contributes to this situation, and force our government to have accountability to addressing these problems before it is too late.
I picked up a book called Earth Odyssey by Mark Hertsgaard at a thrift store last year. Finally had time to read it during my summer at the Jersey Shore, and not a moment too soon. This book is deeply disturbing! It shook me up more than anything I've read in at least the last 6 years. I was already far more informed than the average lay person, now I am also far more upset.
You would have to be inhuman to read about the huge human populations who live in toxic or horribly degraded environments and feel powerless to have a better life. The vicious cycle of wars in Africa that has degraded the environment, causing people to starve, causing more wars is heartbreaking. The description of how developing countries like China are paralyzed to limit their vast contributions to deadly pollution and CO2 emissions because they must place economic concerns first is depressing. The lackadaisical attitude of Russian, U.S., and other governments about the hundreds of thousands of people exposed to nuclear radiation is infuriating. Irreversibly poisoned crops, rivers that catch on fire, impoverished people who inhale toxic fumes 24/7, all caused by a desperation to survive that overrides wise environmental policies.
I think I instinctually knew that economic disparity is a huge driver in the runaway train of the global environmental crisis. This book brought everything home. We can't expect developing countries to do anything about rampant environmental degradation while they are naked, starving, sick, or even freezing. Each of us wealthy Americans MUST face how our runaway materialistic lifestyle contributes to this situation, and force our government to have accountability to addressing these problems before it is too late.
June 13, 2017
Read this book about 2000 i think. There's some very thought provoking areas on industrial pollution. One i'd like to read again to see if it's stood the test of time. At the time an excellent read.
March 6, 2018
Interesting read. Though now dated, much of the information and forecasting has come to pass.
March 10, 2023
A blend of travel writing and discussion of environmental policy. It was written long enough ago that some of the latter is outdated, but it also interesting to see how much things have changed.
December 27, 2010
In the 1990s, an American journalist visited many environmentally blighted places: a refugee camp in South Sudan, Russian villages downstream of Kombinat Mayak, Bangkok, Chinese and Brazilian countryside, and many more. The air and water are terribly polluted, and people are sick. For several years, not a single boy from several villages around a heavily poluted river in North China has been able to pass the army physical examination; in a village in Amazonia, children routinely die of dehydration and dysentery, especially children from very large families and children of unwed mothers; Soviet doctors routinely lied to the residents of villages around Kombinat Mayak about the cause of their various radiation-related illnesses. Hertsgaard implies that if radical measures are not taken, the entire world will live like this. Among environment-disrupting technologies, he is particularly fond of automobiles and nuclear energy. Hertsgaard calls for a "Global Green Deal" that would "renovate human civilization from top to bottom in environmentally sustainable ways".
The narrative is interesting, and it is good for one's mental health to be occasionally reminded, how the less fortunate live. Yet while reading this book (and Laurie Garrett's Betrayal of Trust: The Collapse of Global Public Health, which is also a slumming book, and quite a few more), I kept getting the feeling that there is more to the story than we are being told. There has been a war between Sudan's Arab North and black African South for most of Sudan's independence, causing enormous suffering - who made these two areas one country, and why? If many environmental problems of the Third World have political causes, then how can we blame the UN and rich countries for not doing enough to address them? Imagine Martian peacekeepers and aid workers descending on Europe in 1943.
Hertsgaard writes, "The claim that high-efficiency cars are impractical was publicly mocked when Greenpeace activists "kidnapped" a Renault Vesta-2 prototype in 1993 and brought it to the International Car Show for spectators to test drive. The Vesta-2 had a maximum speed of 140 miles an hour but got 107 miles per gallon in highway driving. Toyota, GM, Ford and Volkswagen had produced similar prototypes but, like Renault, had not put them on the market, claiming they were uneconomical". A Google search shows that the Renault Vesta-2 weighed 475kg. A Honda Insight with a 5-speed manual transmission and air conditioning weighs 848kg. Will anyone venture to guess, why Vesta-2 was not put into production? He also repeats the GM-destroyed-public-transportation-in-Los-Angeles canard that has been refuted so many times (when will it ever die? Probably the day the story about Prince Grigory Potemkin constructing fake villages and the story about Polish cavalry attacking German tanks kick the bucket). When I read things like this in a book, I ask myself the question: in what other areas, which I do not know as well, is this book as true to the facts as here?
The narrative is interesting, and it is good for one's mental health to be occasionally reminded, how the less fortunate live. Yet while reading this book (and Laurie Garrett's Betrayal of Trust: The Collapse of Global Public Health, which is also a slumming book, and quite a few more), I kept getting the feeling that there is more to the story than we are being told. There has been a war between Sudan's Arab North and black African South for most of Sudan's independence, causing enormous suffering - who made these two areas one country, and why? If many environmental problems of the Third World have political causes, then how can we blame the UN and rich countries for not doing enough to address them? Imagine Martian peacekeepers and aid workers descending on Europe in 1943.
Hertsgaard writes, "The claim that high-efficiency cars are impractical was publicly mocked when Greenpeace activists "kidnapped" a Renault Vesta-2 prototype in 1993 and brought it to the International Car Show for spectators to test drive. The Vesta-2 had a maximum speed of 140 miles an hour but got 107 miles per gallon in highway driving. Toyota, GM, Ford and Volkswagen had produced similar prototypes but, like Renault, had not put them on the market, claiming they were uneconomical". A Google search shows that the Renault Vesta-2 weighed 475kg. A Honda Insight with a 5-speed manual transmission and air conditioning weighs 848kg. Will anyone venture to guess, why Vesta-2 was not put into production? He also repeats the GM-destroyed-public-transportation-in-Los-Angeles canard that has been refuted so many times (when will it ever die? Probably the day the story about Prince Grigory Potemkin constructing fake villages and the story about Polish cavalry attacking German tanks kick the bucket). When I read things like this in a book, I ask myself the question: in what other areas, which I do not know as well, is this book as true to the facts as here?
June 5, 2018
This is an important book. I gave it 4 out 5 star for primarily two reasons: 1) Some chapters, like the ones about China, are at times repetitive and meandering. 2) SOME of Hertsgaard's claims do not stand up to the test of time and now seem so exaggerated, they cause the reader to question the truth in what Hertsgaard writes. This shadow cast over his writing is unfortunate, since there is so much important information in this book.
November 17, 2008
I read this book because it is by a guy who spent seven years traveling the world to write a book about the environment.
Mark is a good writer, and I admire many passages in this book. Likewise, he has fantastic passages about some of the people he meets. I also really like the section where he takes the long-run perspective, talking about the history of the earth and how we find ourselves at this point in civilization. In general, when he talks about history, I like it.
His organizing question, though, "Will humans survive our environmental destruction," is not a very good one. The question is about the quality of life.
The book is organized thematically, not chronologically or by country. In the end, I almost feel that it has too much analysis and not enough travel. Sometimes I get a sense of the places he is, but then he launches into pages of researched statistics, and, while all is interesting, gets away from the place he is visiting.
The book is dated, now ten years old, so many of the facts he presents are old news to me, so maybe that is part of my displeasure with the book.
The book simultaneously has too much of the author and not enough. I don't learn about what his travel experiences were like, and I don't have any idea of his personality, other than I have an impression that he's kind of a boring person to hang out with. But it is hard to say -- there is very little full travel narrative here. But on the other hand, he expounds for a long time in each chapter. Most of this is substantive research on the topics at hand--but I feel like it is too much. There are other books for that.
Of course, Time said it was "one of the best environmental books in recent years."
Mark is a good writer, and I admire many passages in this book. Likewise, he has fantastic passages about some of the people he meets. I also really like the section where he takes the long-run perspective, talking about the history of the earth and how we find ourselves at this point in civilization. In general, when he talks about history, I like it.
His organizing question, though, "Will humans survive our environmental destruction," is not a very good one. The question is about the quality of life.
The book is organized thematically, not chronologically or by country. In the end, I almost feel that it has too much analysis and not enough travel. Sometimes I get a sense of the places he is, but then he launches into pages of researched statistics, and, while all is interesting, gets away from the place he is visiting.
The book is dated, now ten years old, so many of the facts he presents are old news to me, so maybe that is part of my displeasure with the book.
The book simultaneously has too much of the author and not enough. I don't learn about what his travel experiences were like, and I don't have any idea of his personality, other than I have an impression that he's kind of a boring person to hang out with. But it is hard to say -- there is very little full travel narrative here. But on the other hand, he expounds for a long time in each chapter. Most of this is substantive research on the topics at hand--but I feel like it is too much. There are other books for that.
Of course, Time said it was "one of the best environmental books in recent years."
April 18, 2008
I read this book a few years ago but, with the recent discussion on global warming and especially George Bush's recent (April '08) global warming goal nonstatement, I have been thinking about issues raised in this book. This is a great introduction to the global environment and issues facing the global community. I want to reread the book and then write a real review. Right now I want to recommend the book to anyone who cares about people, the Earth or both! We should ALL be environmentalists. What we do (or do not do) does have an impact on the quality of life for human beings -- that's US, folks; we need to care! The author adeptly invites all to participate at whatever level is comfortable. Too many times I hear "Oh, I can't, as one person, make a difference." Wrong! Without the "One" there can never be the "Many!" Come on, people, let's get going!
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July 12, 2007Skipped ahead to the Russia chapter -it's very interesting to me -esp. since Dr. Natalia Mironova and some other Russians are mentioned in this chapter and we just had an international nuclear accountability workshop with Natalia and others in April 2007.
Worse than Chernobyl is Mayak, another little known nuclear facility in the Urals in Russia. Before glasnost (and "open" sharing of information) there were 4 accidents at Mayak -accidents that were WORSE than Chernobyl but aren't known because of the closed system at the time.
(not even the Russians were told)
So many people have suffered -and still are -because of these accidents.
I'm completely digressing and this isn't so much a review as a "what I find interesting right now as I read". :)
Worse than Chernobyl is Mayak, another little known nuclear facility in the Urals in Russia. Before glasnost (and "open" sharing of information) there were 4 accidents at Mayak -accidents that were WORSE than Chernobyl but aren't known because of the closed system at the time.
(not even the Russians were told)
So many people have suffered -and still are -because of these accidents.
I'm completely digressing and this isn't so much a review as a "what I find interesting right now as I read". :)
September 6, 2008
I read this book when i was pretty young, right when it came out, and i think it is what sparked my activism, just the stories of his travels and the hardships and realities of the rest of the world compared to white north americans.
i recently re-got this book and debate about reading it again because i probably wont like it as much. I think this came out in 1996 or something and he said then that the world was already ten years late on turning back the clock on global warming and if we stopped all of the discharge of harmful emissions in the next five years, we *might* have a shot at survival. C'est la vie.
i recently re-got this book and debate about reading it again because i probably wont like it as much. I think this came out in 1996 or something and he said then that the world was already ten years late on turning back the clock on global warming and if we stopped all of the discharge of harmful emissions in the next five years, we *might* have a shot at survival. C'est la vie.
September 26, 2012
A very blunt report of the environmental outlook of humanity and commentary on our global gamble with long-term planetary health. I think it was overall optimistic - we as a species have all the right tools to establish a health progress to fixing our environmental footprint, but thus far markets remained skewed, and we lack the political will to put these tools into action. This book was written in 1999 and still remains relevant today. I believe anyone interested in environmental issues should read this book. It did, and still can, teach much.
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May 20, 2009They need a category for tried to read and failed. What is it about this book? Highly recommended by Sievert Rohwer, who I respect enormously and who actually went so far as to provide a free copy to all attendants of the 2001 AOU meeting. I admit to having found myself self-righteously espousing ideas from the first chapter (and only chapter I read). Just couldn't get any further. Suspect it might have to do with the inexcusably hideous cover.
May 30, 2016
What Mark Hertsgaard uncovers here is just really coming to light in the mainstream press (over the past three years or so),he was revealing back in 1999!
This read is not dated, as you can use the time of it's release (1999) and compare the writers warnings to what you see happening around you today. I like the way the writer deals patiently and respectfully with the people that he meets in his travels. The backgrounds of the nuclear research facilities in the US and in Russia is chilling.
This read is not dated, as you can use the time of it's release (1999) and compare the writers warnings to what you see happening around you today. I like the way the writer deals patiently and respectfully with the people that he meets in his travels. The backgrounds of the nuclear research facilities in the US and in Russia is chilling.
April 1, 2008
The title sounds like a "green" annoying preaching type - but it is to the contrary and almost reads like a fiction in that his tales of discovery and people that he encounters is quite entertaining. His thoughts combined with extrememly interesting information that is unknown to most is intruiging and balanced.
October 7, 2007
Wonderful book. Author writes about first hand experiences in third world countries while simultaneously digging deep into the problems that people face in each country due to environmental problems, what has been done to mitigate them, and what should be done. Inspired me.
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May 15, 2011The environmental problem is two-fold: the poor focus on survival and advancement more than preserving the environment, and the rich are unwilling to curtail their overconsumption - focuses on China, little bits on Sudan and Brazil
March 11, 2013
A quest for answers to the questions that really matters. Makes you think closer about your own daily actions. Action makes reaction. You know. Chapter three is one of those that is right on the painful spot!
August 5, 2007
Good first-hand account of how the rest of the world lives and uses resources.
November 20, 2007
I learned that technology is both a blessing and a curse in terms of the environment
November 28, 2007
This book is interesting because the author travels around the world and interview individuals about the greatest environmental issues in their country. It's a wake-up call with hope.
February 25, 2008
This book will make you a better person. It opens your eyes to what it truly means to be a good steward of this Earth. It is depressing at times but the author has some great ideas for changes.
February 27, 2008
An entertaining read on a most disturbing subject.
May 14, 2009
Read this, please. Well-written,fascinating, scary
May 16, 2009
Shocking book about a one man's journey around the globe, describing the state of the planet where ever he goes.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 35 reviews