Lessons for the Last Environmental Saviors

by John Thompson

In contemporary America, few issues rank higher than education. Not far behind is concern for the environment. Yet, the combination of the two–environmental education–makes no list of burning contemporary issues. How can that be? The carrying capacity of the habitat-of-man declines right before the eyes of the world, and nowhere is there discussion about the failed approach to environmental preservation society has relied on for half-a-century.

Plain and simple, the public doesn’t know enough to be scared.

The chemical, biological and physical environment that enabled Homo sapiens sapiens to flourish on the planet has started to change fundamentally for the first time in human history. Further change, at an accelerating pace, is assured. Technology is not enough god to return the biosphere to the historical norm that made life on Earth so sweet for human-kind. No self-balancing Gaian intercession will spare today’s children and their progeny the specter of crumbling human habitat. The standard approach to environmental preservation has not worked in 50 years and cannot work going forward. Notwithstanding all that, the public doesn’t question the environmental stewardship of its one and only habitat, even as its human carrying capacity sifts from under our feet.

Lessons is both an environmental history and a survival guide for the only generation left with enough time to head-off the worst of environmental destruction. The book looks back to explain how society ended up at the doorway of ecological ruin with a dysfunctional solution to the problem, no plan “B” and, incongruously, everything necessary to avoid the worst of consequences. All the while, it lays out the only path forward—environmental education at the college and high school level that forces capitalism to actually save the environment while creating good jobs, entrepreneurial wealth and needed tax revenue in the process. There’s not time for the children to save themselves when they grow up; today’s young adults–the last environmental saviors–must do it for them.

The market for contemporary non-fiction literature will find much that is refreshing, engaging and actionable in Lessons for the Last Environmental Saviors. The “entrepreneurially-inclined” will be drawn to the business opportunities revealed in the book. Those who would save the environment must read it. And Lessons is a must-read for upper-level business school students, those engaged in environmental studies and environmental science and education majors preparing to teach in high school.

Expected publication date: Christmas 2015. Fill out quick form if you are interested in this book. Please let me know when it’s available: