Eyes Wide Open: Going Behind the Environmental Headlines

Summary

Paul Fleischman offers teens an environmental wake-up call and a tool kit for decoding the barrage of conflicting information confronting them.

We’re living in an “ah-ha” moment. Take 250 years of human ingenuity and add abundant fossil fuels. The result is a population and lifestyle never before seen. The downsides weren’t visible for centuries, but now they are. Suddenly everything needs rethinking: suburbs, cars, fast food, cheap prices. It’s a changed world.

This book explains it, not with isolated facts but the principles driving attitudes and events, from vested interests to denial to big-country syndrome. Because money is as important as molecules in the environment, science is joined with politics, history, and psychology to provide the briefing needed to comprehend the twenty-first century.