Last Hours of Ancient Sunlight

Zusatztext Thom Hartmann seeks out interesting subjects from such disparate outposts of curiosity that you have to wonder whether or not he uncovered them or they selected him. Leonardo DiCaprio The more of us who heed Thom Hartmann's passionate message! the more likely it is that our highest hopes! rather than our darkest fears! will come to pass. John Robbins! founder of EarthSave and author of Diet for a New America Thom is a national treasure. Read him! embrace him! learn from him! and follow him as we all work for social change. Robert Greenwald (Brave New Films) Informationen zum Autor Thom Hartmann Klappentext While everything appears to be collapsing around us - ecodamage, genetic engineering, virulent diseases, the end of cheap oil, water shortages, global famine, wars - we can still do something about it and create a world that will work for us and for our children's children. The inspiration for Leonardo DiCaprio's feature documentary movie The Eleventh Hour and soon to be released HBO special Ice on Fire, Last Hours of Ancient Sunlight details what is happening to our planet, the reasons for our culture's blind behavior, and how we can fix the problem. Thom Hartmann's comprehensive book is one of the fundamental handbooks of the environmental activist movement. Now with fresh, updated material on our Earth's rapid climate change and a focus on political activism and its effect on corporate behavior, The Last Hours of Ancient Sunlight helps us understand - and heal - our relationship to the world, to each other, and to our natural resources. We're Running Out of Ancient Sunlight Where our energy came from, how we're "living beyond our means," and what will happen to our children when we run out It all starts with sunlight. Sunlight pours energy on the Earth, and the energy gets converted from one form to another, in an endless cycle of life, death, and renewal. Some of the sunlight got stored underground, which has provided us with a tremendous "savings account" of energy on which we can draw. Our civilization has developed a vast thirst for this energy, as we've built billions and billions of machines large and small that all depend on fuel and electricity. But our savings are running low, which will most likely make for some very hard times. In Part I we'll lay out the situation as a foundation for planning our response. Topics in Part I include: *The history of sunlight in the human story *How can things look okay yet be so bad? *The importance of trees--their three vital roles in a renewable environment, and some alarming statistics on what's happening as we cut them down *The accelerating rate of species extinction as we alter the world and its climate Let's start at the beginning, with the fuel source that gave life to this planet millions of years ago: sunlight. We're Made Out of Sunlight The Sun, the hearth of affection and life, pours burning love on the delighted earth. --Arthur Rimbaud (1854-1891) In a very real sense, we're all made out of sunlight. Sunlight radiating heat, visible light, and ultraviolet light is the source of almost all life on Earth. Everything you see alive around you is there because a plant somewhere was able to capture sunlight and store it. All animals live from these plants, whether directly (as with herbivores) or indirectly (as with carnivores, which eat the herbivores). This is true of mammals, insects, birds, amphibians, reptiles, and bacteria . . . everything living. Every life-form on the surface of this planet is here because a plant was able to gather sunlight and store it, and something else was able to eat that plant and take that sunlight energy in to power its body. In this way, the abundance or lack of abundance of our human food supply ...

Autorentext
Thom Hartmann is an award-winning author, international lecturer, teacher, and psychotherapist. His books have been written about in Time magazine, he has been on the front page of the Wall Street Journal, and he has been featured as a guest on numerous radio and TV shows, including NPR's "All Things Considered," CNN, and BBC. A former journalist, editor, and occasional woodsplitter, he lives in Vermont with his wife, Louise.

Klappentext

While everything appears to be collapsing around us - ecodamage, genetic engineering, virulent diseases, the end of cheap oil, water shortages, global famine, wars - we can still do something about it and create a world that will work for us and for our children's children. The inspiration for Leonardo DiCaprio's feature documentary movie The Eleventh Hour and soon to be released HBO special Ice on Fire, Last Hours of Ancient Sunlight details what is happening to our planet, the reasons for our culture's blind behavior, and how we can fix the problem. Thom Hartmann's comprehensive book is one of the fundamental handbooks of the environmental activist movement. Now with fresh, updated material on our Earth's rapid climate change and a focus on political activism and its effect on corporate behavior, The Last Hours of Ancient Sunlight helps us understand - and heal - our relationship to the world, to each other, and to our natural resources.

Zusammenfassung
While everything appears to be collapsing around us – ecodamage, genetic engineering, virulent diseases, the end of cheap oil, water shortages, global famine, wars – we can still do something about it and create a world that will work for us and for our children’s children. The inspiration for Leonardo DiCaprio’s feature documentary movie The Eleventh Hour and soon to be released HBO special Ice on Fire, Last Hours of Ancient Sunlight details what is happening to our planet, the reasons for our culture’s blind behavior, and how we can fix the problem. Thom Hartmann’s comprehensive book is one of the fundamental handbooks of the environmental activist movement. Now with fresh, updated material on our Earth’s rapid climate change and a focus on political activism and its effect on corporate behavior, The Last Hours of Ancient Sunlight helps us understand – and heal – our relationship to the world, to each other, and to our natural resources.

Leseprobe
**We're Running Out of Ancient Sunlight
**Where our energy came from, how we're "living beyond our means," and what will happen to our children when we run out

It all starts with sunlight.

Sunlight pours energy on the Earth, and the energy gets converted from one form to another, in an endless cycle of life, death, and renewal. Some of the sunlight got stored underground, which has provided us with a tremendous "savings account" of energy on which we can draw. Our civilization has developed a vast thirst for this energy, as we've built billions and billions of machines large and small that all depend on fuel and electricity.

But our savings are running low, which will most likely make for some very hard times.

In Part I we'll lay out the situation as a foundation for planning our response. Topics in Part I include:

*The history of sunlight in the human story

*How can things look okay yet be so bad?

*The importance of trees--their three vital roles in a renewable environment, and some alarming statistics on what's happening as we cut them down

*The accelerating rate of species extinction as we alter the world and its climate

Let's start at the beginning, with the fuel source that gave life to this planet millions of years ago: sunlight.

**We're Made Out of Sunlight

The Sun, the hearth of affection and life, pours burning love on the delighted earth.
--Arthur Rimbaud (1854-1891)

In a very real sense, we're all made out of sunlight.

Sunlight radiating heat, visible light, and ultraviolet light is the source of almost all life on Earth. Everything you see alive around you is there because a plant somewhere was able to c…