Earth in the Balance: Part One

July 10, 2000

This year is an election year. So all of us are trying to compile information about the candidates from various sources. One of those sources would be a book written by a candidate. Back in 1992 Al Gore published a book entitled Earth in the Balance: Ecology and the Human Spirit. At the time he was a senator and didn’t realize that later in the year he would be a candidate for the vice-presidency and that the book would be used against him by George Bush and Dan Quayle who dubbed him "Ozone Man." Bill Clinton and Al Gore won anyway, and the book has been largely forgotten . . . until now.

This year the book was reissued in the same format with a new foreword in time for the 30th anniversary of Earth Day. In a recent Time magazine article, he says "There’s not a statement in that book that I don’t endorse. Not one."

So what did he say? Back in 1992, Mr. Gore predicted global ecological collapse in way that might even give environmentalist Paul Ehrlich pause. He continually compares the misuse of the Earth’s resources to Hitler’s Nazi Germany. He then concludes, "It is not merely in the service of analogy that I have referred so often to the struggles against Nazi and communist totalitarianism, because I believe that the emerging efforts to save the environment is a continuation of these struggles."

His predicted environmental catastrophes have not taken place, thus his radical solutions are not really necessary. Government and the economy seem to be handling many of the concerns he raised without a radical restructuring of society. And perhaps that is why are aren’t hearing too much talk of his book in the 2000 campaign.

I’m Kerby Anderson of Probe Ministries, and that’s my opinion.