Let the Mountains Talk, Let the Rivers Run: A Call to Those Who Would Save the Earth

NEW EDITION PREFACE BY BILL MCKIBBEN FOREWARD BY AMORY LOVINS “It is the best distillation of the Brower philosophy yet in print”—Tom Turner, DAVID BROWER: The Making of the Environmental Movement David Brower, elder statesman of the ecology movement, reflects on his half-century of controversial environmental activism as former Sierra Club executive director and founder of Friends of the Earth and Earth Island Institute. Sparing no sacred cows - himself least of all - Brower outlines his plan to save our planet. Recalling past glories and stinging defeats - Glen Canyon Dam chief among them - Brower outlines his modest yet thoroughly plausible plan to rescue Mother Earth for the next generation. An intellectually moving and emotionally stirring book, Brower challenges readers to change their ways because, as he says, it's not too late to administer CPR for an ailing planet if we all work together to win the crucial battles for the Earth. "This is the testament of one of the few authentic sages of our time. Brower's voice is passionate, perfectly cadenced, humorous, and very wise. And original: while most writers point to where we are, this one draws the map."--Edward O. Wilson, Pellegrino University Professor, Harvard, and author, The Diversity of Life and Naturalist "David Brower has been for many years a steady force of nature, drawing us to see the natural world as nurturer, teacher, inspirer, and partner. [He has]been the pathbreaker, not given to easy answers or ruinous compromises . . . a man of great insight who cares deeply for his world." -- President Jimmy Carter "But there is no question; Brower is on the shortlist of the iconic figures of the American twentieth century. Like Cesar Chavez, like Betty Friedan, like a very few others, he changed the way we saw the world. It is not absurd to mention him in the same sentence as Martin Luther King Jr., and there are precious few Americans of whom that is true; the greatest conservationist of the century, the most passionate defender of wild places — but even more, the man who turned conservationism into environmentalism, who took the insights of Rachel Carson and built from them a powerful idea that may yet transform the planet." -- Bill McKibben, Rolling Stone; author of The End of Nature "In the debate over the earth's vanishing wlldness no voice is wiser, wittier, or more eloquent than David Brower's. In Let the Mountains Talk, he offers a vision for the next century that is intelligent, timely, and perhaps above all, attainable. And he increases our stock of a resource that's in precious short supply these days: Hope." -- Joe Kane, author of Savages and Running the Amazon