This book has a clear and simple message: The health of our ecosystem and, indeed, global survival begins at home. Thomas Kostigen, coauthor of The Green Book, emphasizes the connection between individual action and the state of the environment. In You Are Here, he brings readers face to face with the results of small actions like flicking on a light switch or shirking just one week of recycling. Sometime the results are so vast that they cannot be ignored: The Pacific Ocean now contains a dead zone twice the size of Texas. Urgently needed insights for concerned citizens.
It's not enough to abstractly consider being "green," in the world today. Kostigen wants listeners to come face to face with the realistic outcomes of overexploitation of the world's resources. Traveling from cities where the pollution is so toxic people must always wear masks to a miles-wide flotilla of trash in the Pacific Ocean or where the rainforest meets industrialization, Kostigen provides listeners with some real evidence of excessive and detrimental waste. His goals are earnest, but though he provides typical and practical advice that people can follow every day to address these issues, his intentions don't translate well into his prose. Kostigen reads his text clearly and smoothly, and his voice and tone are easy to follow and enjoy. However, given the gravitas of his ideas, his voice lacks the passion and emphasis to reinforce his words that one might expect. A HarperOne hardcover. (Oct.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
Self-styled environmental "adventure story" makes an impassioned plea for greater understanding and commitment. Discover magazine columnist Kostigen attempts to show how our habits and consumption cause problems all over the world. Among other places, he visits Mumbai, India, to which the West exports enormous quantities of hazardous waste, and Borneo, where the global demand for palm oil is causing deforestation. "We are contributing to our own demise and health hazards by the products that we buy and the choices we make," he writes. As an example, he points to the remote Alaskan village of Shishmaref, "the first community in the world to succumb to climate change," where houses fall into the sea due to erosion of the permafrost; he agrees with residents' assertions that this erosion is caused by pollution from "the lower forty-eight." Kostigen illustrates the effects of Americans' obsession with cheap goods by visiting Linfen City, China, "the dirtiest place on earth," where coal plants fuel the manufacturing boom. He finds the tail end of consumerism in the Pacific Ocean, where he joins a researcher tracking a spiral of debris "twice the size of Texas" that generates plastic fragments that are replacing zooplankton in the oceanic food chain. The author's approach produces mixed results. Colloquial prose conveys a great deal of information in a manner that often seems scattershot. Readers learn about per capita paper use, personal carbon emissions (a pound for every mile we drive), rates of recycling, the size of New York's Fresh Kills landfill (world's largest man-made structure), the effects of soybean farming upon the Amazon (negative) and many other subtopics. When Kostigen connectsthe dots to demonstrate the effects of human action, he often sounds pedantic, despite the melodramatic asides. Similar in content to Fred Pearce's Confessions of an Eco-Sinner (2008), this is a less engaging book. A somewhat muddled clarion for readers wishing to transform their impact upon a battered planet.
Thomas Kostigen is expert at taking the complexities of climate change - distilling them, then relating the answers and solutions to our everyday lives. A common sense approach - to complex issues.” — Duane Dahl, Founder of Earthlab.com
“Thomas Kostigen is an intrepid activist. YOU ARE HERE takes us to the hidden frontlines of the war over natural resources and reveals how each of us can improve our planet without leaving home. A passionate and heartfelt call to care.” — Bruce Feiler, Author of WALKING THE BIBLE and ABRAHAM
“...Kostigen shows us that, in a world of limited resources, there is no such thing as an insignificant choice. Pushing us from awareness to action, this is an unforgettable story about how, through our choices, we are all tied to one another.” — Alexandra Cousteau, Environmental Advocate and National Geographic Emerging Explorer
“An intriguing and insightful account that deserves to be read by everyone affected by these issues which is....everyone!” — Mark Plotkin, founder of the Amazon Conservation Team and Time Magazine Hero for the Planet
“Tom’s quest for global perspective sees him scale every vantage point short of the moon and the results are jaw-dropping. Borneo, Alaska, Israel, China, India and the Amazon ... YOU ARE HERE has it all. A book of global significance.” — Bradley Trevor Greive, New York Times Bestselling Author of THE BLUE DAY BOOK and THE MEANING OF LIFE
“Can we change? Can we save the earth we love? You bet! Thomas Kostigen pulls no punches in this gut-wrenching book. Take it personally!” — Maude Barlow, National Chairperson of The Council of Canadians and co-founder of the Blue Planet Project
“The highly readable book is filled with surprising facts and statistics, as well as many doable ways to reduce our dirty human footprint.” — Rocky Mountain News
An intriguing and insightful account that deserves to be read by everyone affected by these issues which is....everyone!
Can we change? Can we save the earth we love? You bet! Thomas Kostigen pulls no punches in this gut-wrenching book. Take it personally!
Tom’s quest for global perspective sees him scale every vantage point short of the moon and the results are jaw-dropping. Borneo, Alaska, Israel, China, India and the Amazon ... YOU ARE HERE has it all. A book of global significance.
...Kostigen shows us that, in a world of limited resources, there is no such thing as an insignificant choice. Pushing us from awareness to action, this is an unforgettable story about how, through our choices, we are all tied to one another.
Thomas Kostigen is an intrepid activist. YOU ARE HERE takes us to the hidden frontlines of the war over natural resources and reveals how each of us can improve our planet without leaving home. A passionate and heartfelt call to care.
Thomas Kostigen is expert at taking the complexities of climate change - distilling them, then relating the answers and solutions to our everyday lives. A common sense approach - to complex issues.
