Orr provides an eye-opening case for the selfish role our governments play. We now have matured enough at citizens to realize the great havoc we raise on a planet doomed by our indulgences and failure to heed ecological warnings. We must assume responsibility of our planets maintenance, not for our political pride or correctness, but for our very existence.



In chapter eight, titled What Is to Be Done?, Orr calls upon leaders to lead the world into balance with nature to curtail a catastrophe from global warming. He outlines the political manifestation of the problem and proposes five challenges. Each involves the willingness of leaders to refrain from selfish pride and acknowledge that a problem exists. The lives jeopardized by climate change and rising sea levels are not hundreds of thousands--as in the Indonesian tsunami that killed 230,000--but rather in the hundreds of millions of people worldwide who reside in low-lying cities. Still, many policy makers sit on the sidelines and pretend our environmental issues will simply disappear.



I praise people like David Orr, who are brave enough to lay it all out in clear English: wake up, people! We are out of time. //Down to the Wire// is a book everyone must read.



Reviewed by D. Wayne Dworsky