cover image Salvaging the Land of Plenty

Salvaging the Land of Plenty

Jennifer Seymour Whitaker. William Morrow & Company, $24.5 (336pp) ISBN 978-0-688-10130-5

The world is awash in garbage. Whitker ( How Can Africa Survive ) here provides a thoughtful, incisive look at the causes and environmental consequences of the prodigious amount of waste we generate. Her expansive view not only examines household trash but sewage, agricultural chemicals, industrial wastes, mining debris, automobile emissions and nuclear by-products. After outlining the problems with traditional methods of waste disposal such as landfilling, incineration and even recycling, Whitaker concludes that none will ever be effective enough to help us out of our environmental muddle. Because under current policies ``market forces are more likely to savage the environment than to salvage it,'' change will occur only if the government takes ``a strong lead to shift the direction of incentives'' by insuring that the full environmental costs of resource use and disposal are included in the cost of commodities. Her suggestions for governmental redirection of market forces are both simplistic and not very explicit. It is not enough to posit that Americans need to become less acquisitive. Whitaker argues cogently and persuasively, however, that environmental well-being and an improved personal and national standard of living are not inherently contradictory, especially if we ``found our economic welfare upon conservation, rather than exploitation, of materials.'' Although somewhat repetitive, the highly accessible writing style makes this book ideal for the informed lay reader. (May)