THE LAST HOURS OF ANCIENT SUNLIGHT

Second-rate eco-spirituality from the well-known environmentalist guru Hartmann (The Prophet’s Way; Beyond ADD; etc.). Hartmann’s book succeeds best in part one, when he shows how we are destroying our planet through deforestation, extinction, global warming, future famine, oil scarcity, proliferating wars, increased drug use, etc. But the book heads downhill from there. Part two is an oversimplified presentation of “Older” (good) and “Younger” (very bad) cultures: those in Younger cultures, like ourselves, tend to justify their dominance of creation, while Older hunter-gatherer types were just really grateful to be here. Older cultures were “cooperators, not dominators,” who knew nothing of class differences or harming the Earth, taking only what they needed. (Why can’t we all just be like those nice earthy folks, the Druids?) Part three proposes—you guessed it—that we heed our ancestors’ lessons of eco-spirituality and form small “tribes” in which people can really, like, connect with one another. The environment will be hunky-dory again once we reempower women, “touch the sacred,” tell one another “new stories” about the Earth, and respect others. We should also stop watching so darned much TV. Very disappointing, naive solutions to the urgent environmental problems so well outlined in part one. (Author tour)