As a climber, David Brower scaled many previously "insurmountable" mountains. As a conservationist, Brower has brought a mountaineer's determination and reverence for nature to his efforts to protect the Earth and educate its human inhabitants. He has kept dams out of the Grand Canyon and loggers out of Olympic National Park, established the National Wilderness Preservation System, added seven new regions to the National Park System, and helped to foster a mind-set that questions careless growth. In Let the Mountains Talk, Let the Rivers Run, the "archdruid" of modern environmentalism, the man The New York Times designated the most effective conservation activist in the world, offers a tough, witty, and impassioned game plan "for those who would save the Earth." Now eighty-two years old, Brower also recounts the highs and lows of his controversial career, sparing no politician or public figure, least of all himself. He frankly discusses his mistakes, such as compromising on the construction of Glen Canyon Dam, and the strategic flourishes that have earned him both fans and foes, including the full-page, in-your-face national newspaper ads that helped save the Grand Canyon by asking, "Should we also flood the Sistine Chapel so that tourists can get a better look at the ceiling?" Brower issues visionary yet practical CPR - Conservation, Preservation, Restoration - for the future. With these wittily formulated "operating instructions" for our planet, he imagines an International Green Cross and an Earth Corps, and he describes healthy cities with boundaries and wildlife havens; the importance of wildness, redwoods, rain forests, and wood substitutes; "green" businesses and the "Misfortune 500." While offering strong criticism for those who would harm the Earth, he advises environmental organizations on how they might more effectively work to restore both the natural world and the hope of its peoples.

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