Earth Odyssey

* The first global travel book that combines first-hand observation with a rigorous agenda for environmental action, now shortlisted for the BP Natural World Book Prize From toxic polluted cityscapes of industrial China to poverty-stricken tribes in Sudan, from children's leukaemia wards in ex-soviet nuclear disaster zones to the conference tables of Rio's Earth Summit, Mark Hertsgaard's quest around the globe forms an urgent investigation into the future of the environment. The ecological ravages of capitalist hyperconsumption and communist mismanagement can only worsen as developing nations - desperately trying to bridge the ancient divide between rich and poor - achieve 'progress' at the expense of environmental degradation. Questioning the credibility of sustainable development with leading figures such as Al Gore and Jacques Cousteau, Mark Hertsgaard depicts with an eye for anecdote and human detail the activities of government agencies, business leaders and citizen activists engaged in saving (or destroying) the environment. Whether describing the lethal appeal of the automobile or detailing the impact of Amazonian deforestation on world climate change, his first-hand reportage and storyteller's sense of narrative produce a vital, edifying - and even hopeful - call for action. Time is running out.