Rating: 
Summary: Risky Environment Scheme
Review: Earth in the balance will no doubt please those readers who are of like mind with the author. The premise of this book is a product of 1960's Harvard University pop-psycology. This is simply one of the later versions of the 'end of the world' predictions that failed so miserably in previous apocolyptic books of the 60s and 70s ('Famine 1975', The Population Bomb', 'Limits to Growth', 'Small is Beautiful', 'The Genisis Strategy'). The author wants to save America from itself: "The more deeply I search for the roots of the global environmental crisis, the more I am convinced that it is an outer manifistation of our inner crisis that is, for lack of a better word, spiritual." If that weren't scary enough the author makes an argument that the resurgence of religious fundementalisms and new age weirdness as EVIDENCE of "a spiritual crisis in modern civilization that seems to be based on an emptiness at its center and the absence of a larger spiritual purpose." The author challenges Americans to "become partners in a bold effort to change the very foundation of our civilization" and "make the rescue of the environment the central organizing principle of our civilization". I can't help but picture the author, in Johnny Appleseed fashion, at the head of millions of under-educated American children wandering the land planting trees or American soldiers deployed to the far reaches of the globe ensuring the safety of water, trees, air, and rocks. Readers who are truly interested in obtaining all sides of this story can search the data base for counter views to 'Earth in the Balance' and investigate the reasonable scintific arguments of many prominent climatologists of the day (Fred Singer for one). Oceanographer Roger Revelle introduced the author to the idea of a man-made "greenhouse effect' and also wrote that man-made global warming is "too uncertain to justify drastic action at this time." Anyone who does something as simople as watch The Discovery Channel will find that there is EVIDENCE to support climatic change throughout earth history. I offer an opinion that will no doubt doom my eternal soul to the ranks of the non-thinking, poltically biased, and illiterate earth haters who were so eloquently described in the last Gore campaign ad by our earth brother John from the environmental super power of New Zealand. Both candidates for US President have their own web site and it would probably be better (in the name of book reviewing) if we posted our political comments in the appropriate arena.
Rating: 
Summary: An Enlightened Political Manifesto on the Environment
Review: If we all cared as much for the environment as Al Gore does, this world would be in much better condition. His analysis of the environmental crisis the world faces if we do not act, is excellent. He would have made an astute scientist if he had not gone into the political arena. EARTH IN THE BALANCE captures his quest to understand the environment, and his need to make others aware of its fragile nature. As a father and grandfather, he cares deeply for the condition the world will be in for his family and ours.
Rating:
Summary: Very Important Book
Review: This is a very important book for what Gore has to say about the environment. The environmental problem is mainly caused by the western world's reliance on a consumer lifestyle. Most of our products are causing environmental havoc. A quick look at Nigeria, Sierra Leone, and Sudan, and Downtown Los Angeles shows how our need for diamonds and oil has a direct negative impact on the people and environment in those regions. And our need to eat so much meat via the fast food chains are wreaking havoc upon the rainforests. Gore's book is very well-intended, but we need to look at our consumerism and product-based lifestyle in order to discover how our lives effect the environment. I give Gore 5 stars just for caring enough to try to figure this all out and writing this book.
Rating: 
Summary: Useful but misleading
Review: The issues Gore (his ghost-writer) raises are legitimate. In fact there is an environmental crisis. Gore's contribution is to inject these contentious questions into a largely disbelieving mainstream. The trouble is that the rhetoric from this politician is sappy and banal. Moreover - as could be expected - he dodges the main issue underlying environmental crisis. Namely, how can we expect an economy based on commodities, accumulation, and an aggressive exploitation of our natural environment to solve the problem that it has largely created. No mention is made of this underlying paradox. To do so, however, would end Gore's political career, a sacrifice that neither he nor the two-party monopoly he represents are prepared to make. Readers would be better advised to step up to the many better books on this urgent topic.
Rating:
Summary: Wow! 69 reviews of the book version & this is the first...
Review: for the audio. That confirms it. Nobody will ever read this review. The audio is a real time saver. It also proves that The vice president is a nerd. That is not bad. It proves he has brains. But he is a cure for insomia. It is a shame too because he may be the brightest presidential canidate ever & easily the best friend the environment has ever had. You'll be snoozing if your not interested in an anthropology lecture or the mind numbing figures on temperature variants in different years. But I was engaged & learn quite a few facts I may never use. He talks at some length about the global community. The degradation of the environment in one area may wreck disaster in another, thousands of miles away. Some of his thoughts are flights of fancy. Others could be done by presidential fiat, inother words, without the meddling of a Republican congress. It would also require a president with the courage of his convictions. On the environment at least Albert Gore has that. Clinton doesn't & neither does Bush. Considering that alternative, the way Gore gets elected almost justifies the ends. He wrote this book he says as an epitahny of sorts when he son almost died in a severe accident. What was his place in the world, the meaning of it all etc. This book/tape is his record, nobody else could have witten it. I'm glad he did.
Rating:
Summary: Boring, but a must read for any concerned voter
Review: Anyone, Republican, Democrat, or otherwise, must read this book to learn how Al Gore really thinks and what might be in store if he is elected President. His Global Marshall Plan includes bureaucratic nightmares like a "virgin materials fee" imposed on products at the point of manufacture or imporation (prepare for a lot of bribery and corruption over what the definition of "virgin" is). He also proposes "an Environmental Security Trust" where petroleum based energy producers must pay "incremental payments of the CO2 tax according to the carbon content of the fuels produced" (Watch out soccer moms! If you thought the gas bills for your SUV's and minivans are high now.....). (By the way, Mr. Gore's aversion to petroleum based energy is odd, given his long relationship with Occidental Petroleum.) Many of his other proposals are similarly intrusive and would require a larger federal or even world government to implement. Mr. Gore's book is rife with tiring prose, question begging, non-sequitirs, and wildly unsubstantiated statements of "fact". There are very few places in the text where he backs up a claim with a citation. While he does list other sources in the "Notes" section, I did not find a single footnote anywhere in the text, leaving the reader go guess which claims Mr. Gore culled from his sources and which ones he drew from his "spiritual gyroscope that spins in its own circumference in a stabilizing harmony with what is inside and what is out". Overall, I found his arguments uncompelling and his proposals disturbing.
Rating:
Summary: what seemed radical before seems pretty mainstream
Review: I have heard this book badmouthed at so many places that I feltcompelled to write something in defense. I read the book right when itwas published, and it was one of those earth-changing books forme. Everybody knows that ecology is good and corporations are bad, orso we thought. Gore portrays the dilemma of trying to solveenvironmental problems and possible solutions. It would be unfair topin the blame on Gore for certain of the proposals mentioned (althoughthings like the ill-fated carbon tax now is beginning to seem moreuseful as time goes by). Republicans have attacked the book for itsdraconian solutions, but they conveniently ignore the fact that Gorewas an early proponent of free market solutions to environmentalproblems. But the purpose of this book was not to make certainpolicy recommendations (although Gore mentions quite a number). Thepurpose was to change your way of thinking, to help you understand therelationship between a society's action and the obligations itentails. This book is almost a meditation on history and how we canovercome the problems our generation has caused. I remember manyanecdotes vividly from the book, but one stands out. Gore talks aboutnewer fuel-efficient lightbulbs and how much energy they would saveover a lightbulb's lifespan (a ton of coal! ). Despite the fact itcosts only pennies more than the incandescent lightbulb, old habitsand entrenched interests make it unlikely that this lightbulb woulddominate the market (although things have been changing). He alsopoints out the moral dilemmas that a person faces when trying to dothe right thing. He recounts incidents where he is criticized fordriving a car, eating a meat, investing in the wrong companies,etc. Nobody can be perfect, he says, but before humans can make theirecological choices, they must first be aware of the consequences oftheir actions. This book provides some of facts, but more importantlyanalyzes how we can live with our choices. As I reread parts of thebook, I am struck by how literary and well-written the prose is. Hisexperience as a journalist and divinity school student shows. Leaveaside the fact that this guy might be prez sometime; he writes as ahistorian or a philosopher would write, and is able to write to ageneral audience exceedingly well. I am still amazed that he foundtime away from his time as senator to write such an intelligent andwell-researched book. Perhaps Gore will be the American Churchhill--apolitician whose fame will rest in his writing as much as hispolitical involvement. Gore might become the new Mohniyan: lambasted,controversial, but generally right about his prognostications. ...
Rating: 
Summary: A calculated career move that does a disservice
Review: As might be expected from a self-described "environmentalist" and politician, the merits of the book are mixed to say the least. The rhetoric, of which there is too much, is sappy, banal, and strictly one-dimensional, but then he is running for office. In fact, the book as a whole refuses to take on the tough questions that environmental crisis poses to a capitalist economy ("democracy" in his predictable conflation). How, for example, does the need for strict environmental controls and encompassing policy coordination affect the legal sanctity of private property that is enshrined in capitalist political economy. He avoids this time-bomb whenever possible, though it remains one of the key issues raised by the crisis. Gore (or his ghost-writer) may not, for example, grasp just how the Endangered Species Act jeopardizes sanctified land-use rights, but the corporate sector sure as heck does. Other sensitive issues are treated in like dishonest fashion. Notice how deviously he treats the procreation policies of the Catholic church when overpopulation is asserted as his number one environmental concern. Instead of forthrightly denouncing Vatican policy of unrestricted birth, he compliments the church for its non-interference in genuinely progressive organizations as though that were enough. The book has a positive side and that is to sound the environmental alarm among those popular segments unreachable by anything but the mainstream. But to suppose that global disaster can be averted by the very system that bought it about, and not really dicuss the terms of that contradiction, is not a help but a hindrance.
Rating:
Summary: This book is missing 3 important things.
Review: This book skipped over 3 very big topics about Al Gore's invovlement in the environmental movement. Because of these omissions, I am only giving the book 1 star. Hopefully, a future edition of the book will include these 3 topcis. They are:#1 Al Gore manages his father's estate, which includes a large amount of stock in Occidental Pretroleum. While in the U.S. Senate, Al Gore set up the single biggest privatization ever of federal land. The land was sold to Occidental Petroleum, who then proceeded to extract massive quantities of oil from the land. This caused the company's stock value to shoot up. In the spring of 2000, Al Gore criticized Occidental for "price gouging" its customers, and for making "excessive profits." #2 Al Gore owns a zinc mine, and the runoff from this mine has caused very serious environmental damage. #3 Al Gore recently accepted a large campaign contribution from a developer. This developer was recently given permission by the federal government to build a shopping mall on wetlands. These wetlands had previously been declared by the federal government to be off hands to development. So if Al Gore would like to address these 3 issues in a future volume, I would very much like to read it. The ideas that Gore does talk about in his book are all based on panic and hysteria, and not rational science and logic. But there are good books available on the environment. I would recommend "The Ultimate Resource 2" by Julian Simon, and "Earth Report 2000" by Ronald Bailey. You can order both of those books right here at amazon.com
Rating:
Summary: Heads or Tails? You Choose.
Review: I read some of the reviews for this book. They are not cutting through the fat and reducing our environmental problems to it's simplist component. Which is, according to Gore, over-population in the Third World. The answer, according to Gore, is education about birth control. I agree with him on these points. But he wants to use governmental control to enforce this education. The rest of the book relates other environmental topics to this problem. BUT GORE STATES THAT THE MAIN PROBLEM THAT WE NEED TO DEAL WITH IN ORDER TO DEAL WITH ALL ENVIRONMENTAL PROBLEMS IS OVERPOPULATION IN THE THIRD WORLD. Hello? Anybody home? Or do too many people get lost in endless details of the book. In "Gone With The Wind"? Scarlett was selfish. Rhett hated himself. Therefore, he was attracted to her. PERIOD. Deal with common denominators. Not "word power". So the question comes down to the individual. WILL THE PRIVATE SECTOR COME FORTH AND REPLACE GOVERNMENT THROUGH GENEROSITY? If you think not, vote for Gore. If you think yes, vote for Bush or Browne. I've talked to so many people. Even a taxi driver. They all don't know. And after a lot of research, I don't know. So I'm not voting. I'm tired of being wrong! Nevertheless, "Earth in the Balance" does deal with all these issues with the implication that we do need government to enforce these policies. A good plan is to read this book and then read "Environmental Gore". And then choose. One is liberal and the other is Libertarian and recommended by the Libertarian presidential candidate, Harry Browne. I haven't read this last book. I was going to order it from Amazon.com and do a comparison between the two books. Maybe I still will. And then just vote based on JUST THESE TWO BOOKS. Not a bad plan. I'll have to re-read Gore's book again. Good luck.
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