Red Sky at Morning: America and the Crisis of the Global Environment

by James Gustave Speth

Why we are failing to protect the global environment. What we can—and must—do to succeed.

This book will change the way we understand the future of our planet. It is both alarming and hopeful. James Gustave Speth, renowned as a visionary environmentalist leader, warns that in spite of all the international negotiations and agreements of the past two decades, efforts to protect Earth’s environment are not succeeding. Still, he says, the challenges are not insurmountable. He offers comprehensive, viable new strategies for dealing with environmental threats around the world. The author explains why current approaches to critical global environmental problems—climate change, biodiversity loss, deterioration of marine environments, deforestation, water shortages, and others—don’t work. He offers intriguing insights into why we have been able to address domestic environmental threats with some success while largely failing at the international level. Setting forth eight specific steps to a sustainable future, Speth convincingly argues that dramatically different government and citizen action are now urgent. If ever a book could be described as “essential,” this is it.

Genres: Environment, Nonfiction, Sustainability, Science, Ecology

329 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2004

Reviews

[Shaun · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was my first look at the sorrow that is our inaction. If we had followed Carter into that brave new world back then, the small incremental changes we could have made would not have been even noticed in our everyday lives and would have given us an almost 40 year jump on the climate crisis. There were smart people who saw what was coming and we failed to listen.

[Rebecca · Rating 3 out of 5]

There's a lot to unpack with this one... full review coming soon

[Ellen · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is 20 years old now which makes it that much more depressing at our lack of progress. Very clear and concise writing.

[Ushan · Rating 2 out of 5]

That there is a global environmental crisis is indisputable, and the first part of the book gives much relevant statistics: the rates of desertification, deforestation, the collapse of fisheries, ozone depletion, the melting of glaciers due to global warming that threatens the freshwater supply of many countries etc. Its causes are also obvious: too many people who enjoy (or want to) too high a standard of living, a unit of which takes too much input from the biosphere and generates too much waste. The first factor can be reduced by a pandemic such as AIDS or by coercive government policies such as those of China (and India during the 1970s State of Emergency) or by the emancipation of women (which is why the birth rates in Western Europe, Russia and among white people in the USA are below the replacement rate). The second factor can be reduced by an economic depression such as the 1930s depression in the United States and Europe and the 1990s depression in Russia and Ukraine, or a less drastic economic decline. The third factor and the ways of responding to it is the most complicated one, and the fact that this book does not address its complexity adequately makes it far less than what it could be.

I wonder why Speth is claiming that poverty is a cause of environmental degradation. When a Congolese man cuts down trees in the rainforest for firewood and kills forest animals for protein, he is of course destroying the environment. If he were given a kilowatt-hour equivalent amount of natural gas and a calorie-equivalent weight of broiler chickens, the environmental degradation caused by extracting this gas and raising these chickens would be much less - however, he would be just as poor as before. If he were given as much energy and protein as an average American consumes per a given time period, he would no longer be poor, but I suspect that the environmental degradation caused by his consumption would be greater than when he was chopping down the rainforest. You can fight against poverty, or you can fight for the environment; both are worthy goals, but they can come into conflict. There is a reason Kenya's president-for-life ordered all ivory poachers shot on sight. In the United States, a dollar-per-gallon increase of the gasoline tax would do wonders for reducing the consumption of gasoline, but guess whom it would hurt more - the rich or the poor

Speth is proud of having contributed to stopping the breeder reactor program in the United States in the 1970s as a young lawyer. As they stand now, breeder reactors are far more dangerous than light-water reactors, and the electricity from power plants built around them is estimated to be several times more expensive than electricity from ordinary nuclear power plants. If a concentrated research effort (using real reactors, the construction of which Speth did so much to derail) could address the first shortcoming adequately, and concern about global warming could force the public to accept the latter, wouldn't the world be a better place despite people like Speth? Moreover, breeder reactors can be run in such a mode that they do not breed plutonium, but on the contrary, burn it up: about a thousand tons of plutonium has accumulated worldwide from a half-century of operating light-water plants; wouldn't the world sleep better knowing that it will be burned up and will never fall into terrorists' hands? The fact that Speth mentions weapons-grade plutonium and breeder reactors in the same paragraph proves that he doesn't know what he is talking about. Speth quotes the well-known charlatan Amory Lovins on several environmental-technological issues. No, Virginia, "tripled-to-quintupled efficiency cars" are impossible to make at reasonable production costs; in order for the United States to consume less gasoline, people need to drive less, and consume fewer goods, and/or consume proportionately more locally-made goods (so truckers would drive less).

[Robert Wechsler · Rating 5 out of 5]

Although eleven years old, this book is, sadly, still very timely. It is an excellent look at the history of the environmental movement, as well as a guide to what needs to be done in the future.

Little had been done in the U.S. between 2004 and the Paris summit, and even this is only a beginning, a beginning that should have occurred at least ten years ago and is threatened by a Republican victory next year.

Speth points out alternatives to these global conferences, including JAZZ, which consists of “unscripted, voluntary initiatives that are decentralized and improvisational,” increasing action by cities and states, as well as by individuals, companies, and NGOs. His discussion of sustainability goes well beyond the usual local manifestations. Since this book, Speth has focused on the need for a shift to a new economic and political equilibrium, but this is still something being discussed only on the left, and even there with too much emphasis on domestic inequality.

This is as intelligent and succinct a discussion of environmentalism today as I can imagine.

[Nicole McCann · Rating 5 out of 5]

very comprehensive. speth starts out by assessing our global environmental issues, explains how the developed and developing world is affected, talks about how the world responded initially, describes where the world failed to achieve when there was so much momentum, explains how globalization plays a factor in environmental deterioration, then moves on to the describing the transition to sustainability. This transition is an 8-fold path: 1) a stable or smaller world population; 2) free of mass poverty; 3) environmentally benign technologies; 4)environmentally honest prices; 5) sustainable consumption; 6) knowledge and learning; 7) taking "good governance" seriously; and 8) transition in culture and consciousness. he also provided a wealth of resources (organized by each of the 8 transitions) in the back of the book to provide as much info as possible for the reader to get involved and help make a difference. fantastic book!

[Richard · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is great because it's a scathing, critical insight into the failure of global environmental stewardship, written by a high-level insider.

Speth served as environmental advisor to a couple of presidents and has held other prestigious positions. So you might expect someone like that to write a centrist, don't-rock-the-boat book, but this is much more radical.

I'm pretty sure his more recent book, 'Bridge at the Edge of the World' goes even farther in its critique of the destructive impacts of unfettered capitalism but I haven't read it yet.

[Alice · Rating 3 out of 5]

The first half was really slogging through the same old stuff - convincing me that there's an environmental crisis (yawn, I already know this or I wouldn't be reading the book). But, the second half was quite interesting. He really believes a new UN agency can save the world, but that's understandable given his background. A good book to add to the collection of potential policy solutions for environmental problems.

[Richard]

(Referred to in Jared Diamond's Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed.)

[Michael · Rating 5 out of 5]

I very much enjoyed reading this book, as it laid out the issues at hand, and clearly defined goals needed to be reached, and how to attain them. The book was not overly gloomy, but remained grounded in reality. We face very serious global environmental challenges in the coming century, but there is still hope for humanity to make the changes necessary to ensure a positive future.

[Chris Sherman · Rating 3 out of 5]

Candid, however grim, look at our future vis-a-vis our environmental woes by a seasoned veteran in the field. Worth a read for any concerned citizen of the globe and a must read for any self-proclaimed environmentalist.

[J. Tran · Rating 1 out of 5]

From an author that I immensely respect, unfortunately the book lacks depth and weaves poorly development & economic theory with practice, providing only distilled and rehashed prescriptions for change.

[Roger · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent book on global environmental policy, hallmarks of successful environmental policy and how we've stumbled on addressing global warming.

[Brekke · Rating 3 out of 5]

Dense and depressing. But lots of interesting facts and a hopeful outlook even though the content is enough to make anyone cry about the state of our damaged planet.

[Aaron · Rating 3 out of 5]

a solid primer to the environmental clusterfuck which we inhabit.

[Lisa · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is dismal to say the least and has far too many facts to remember. That said Speth should be congatulated for his work on this vital topic.

[David Collins · Rating 4 out of 5]

A book exposing a side of America you don't hear about.

[Andy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great read. A little depressing, but for anyone who cares about (or wants to learn more about) the state and future of many global human-ecological problems that the UN is trying to deal with.