Go to the first chapter of "Eco-Pioneers"

Go to Chapter One

Good Ideas for a Green Future

Rarely does a book about the environment appear that is not filled with "eco-dread," author Steve Lerner's word for gloomy environmental thinking. Eco-Pioneers is a refreshing antidote to such dreariness, a compilation of 25 profiles of Americans from all walks of life -- architects, farmers, inner-city mothers, CEOs, economists -- each working on practical ways to slow the decay of our natural world. Their common goal: to ensure that human behavior, especially economic development, will sustain an abundant, healthy environment while continuing to meet human needs and aspirations. Many of these profiles appeared first as magazine articles, but the full impact of Eco-Pioneers is in the collective power of its several stories. Together they build a compelling moral argument for, in Lerner's words, "a shift in consciousness from a human-centered to a biocentric worldview."

The author traveled 10,000 miles to meet these people. Some are concerned about the built and urban environment, some about forests and fields. Some have made fortunes doing what they do; others barely make do. Readers may wish for more clues to what makes them tick, but the absence of detailed character revelations was probably intentional, for it is by their actions, not their personalities, that the author engages us. Even so, unfazed by the magnitude of such issues as ozone depletion, global warming, deforestation, species extinction, toxic waste and over-consumption of resources, Lerner's eco-pioneers share certain traits: practicality, persistence, persuasiveness and ingenuity.

They include S. David Freeman of California, who is developing cost-effective energy production from solar and wind-powered sources, hoping to phase out nuclear- and fossil-fuel dependence. And Sally Fox of Arizona, developer of naturally colored organic cotton, grown without the use of pesticides or costly, toxic dyes. And 85-year-old Walton Smith of North Carolina, a forester who has selectively cut his 180-acre family woodlot for decades, thus maintaining a multi-layered, multi-aged, sustainable forest. Smith points out that forests of any size have value (called "natural capital" elsewhere in the book) well beyond mere board feet, in protecting fish, watersheds, water quality, wildlife and the gene pool, preventing erosion, serving as a carbon-sink (to slow climate change), and providing attractive space for recreation.

Citizens of New Pattonsburg, Mo., voted to move their town to higher ground after a devastating 1993 flood. Enlisting experts who listened carefully to their views, they rebuilt the town with environmentally produced, energy-saving products, introduced a wetland and ponds to clean and drain storm water, and landscaped the town with deciduous trees to provide shade in summer and capture solar heat in winter. They sited homes and businesses within walking distance of one another to encourage neighborliness and cut transportation costs.

Iowa farmer Ron Rosmann has slowly transformed his 480-acre spread from a conventional farm to an organic one. A pragmatic man, he measures his operation in terms of productivity, profitability -- and the environment. Rosmann spent $5,000 on chemical fertilizers in 1988; today, he buys none.

New Yorker David Gershon's goal is to minimize the environmental impact of American consumerism. Operating on the premise that environmental responsibility begins at home, he encourages the practice of "eco-householding," training families to commit to such simple acts as taking shorter showers and turning off lights, and to buying only items they really need and which, where possible, are of local origin.

On average these families "reduce their volume of garbage by 41 percent, cut water consumption by 26 percent, decrease carbon dioxide output by 16 percent, use 15 percent less fuel, and save an average of $401 per year." There is no sacrifice involved, he says, since Americans waste about 75 percent of the resources they consume anyway. "If how we live our lives is the problem," says Gershon, "the good news is that how we live our lives can also be the solution."

Gershon's statement could be the author's own. Conservation is a multi-disciplinary task, involving economists, ecologists, sociologists, engineers and architects, and activists of many stripes. There's food for thought here for policymakers, students of many disciplines, people who want to achieve environmental justice but do not know how to go about it, and, most particularly, for conservation skeptics.

For all its optimism, Eco-Pioneers ends on a cautionary note. The bottom line is that Americans interpret and use their environment, be it urban, rural or wild, through their wallets and the marketplace. Individual efforts such as these may never have the desired ripple effect, says the author, unless goods are priced to reflect environmental costs (including distance of transport from source to market outlet); unless taxes are altered to penalize environmentally destructive practices; and, finally, unless some sort of a national "green plan" is devised. "Changing our laws, taxes, regulations, subsidies, and economic indicators so that they promote sustainable activities," Lerner says, "now looms as the next great task of the environmental movement."

"We have something worth fighting for here," muses farmer Rosmann at one point. But first "we need the right information and the right ideas," says recycling specialist Daniel Knapp elsewhere in the book. "Then we can pick appropriate technologies to do the work we want to do." Eco-Pioneers is a good place to start.

Janet Trowbridge Bohlen is author of "For the Wild Places: Profiles in Conservation."