SOUTH AFRICA’S ENVIROMENTAL CHALLENGES

Col and black & white foto’s thru’out text: 332pp incl index

South Africa is one of the most beautiful and exciting countries of the world. It has some of the Earth’s oldest art, the oldest rocks, the earliest humans, the most varied floral kingdom, the biggest sea mammal, the biggest land mammal, and the tallest and the smallest and the fastest. A land filled with wonders …

But it is also filled with grave environmental problems. Nature, so incredibly bountiful when man works with it, can be awesomely revengeful when man works against it. James Clarke describes how nature can, as it has at various moments in history, destroy not only towns and regions, but entire civilizations.

It is all too easy to tell a story of gloom and doom. While realistic about the nature of the ecological crises, Back to Earth has a positive and hopeful message that illuminates the environmental challenges facing South Africa and the world today, including: Air pollution, the discovery of the ozone hole and the theory of the greenhouse effect; The soil situation, Africa’s worst environmental problem; The rape of the sea by the fishing industry; The wildlife controversy; Population explosion and the reality of too many people consuming too much on a strictly finite planet; The fascinating challenge of cities; The question of waste; And finally man, as animal and warrior, as vandal and conservationist.

Back to Earth is essential reading for every South African concerned about the future of the Earth and its hard pressed people.