Orion Magazine - May-June 2008

[Book Notes]

The Windows of Brimnes
An American in Iceland
By Bill Holm, Milkweed Editions, 2007.
An American naturalist from Minnesota
unfolds the beauties of an unusual land,
showing how it has seized his heart and
challenged his understanding of the
meaning and purpose of America.

Building the Green Economy
Success Stories from the Grassroots
By Kevin Danaher, Shannon Biggs,
and Jason Mark, PoliPointPress, 2007.
Here’s an unusual roundup of diverse
grassroots efforts aimed at steward-
ship, cleaner economies, and greener,
more just communities. At its core are
conversations with leading thinkers,
interspersed with short, surprisingly en-
lightening explorations of the issues.

As the World Burns
50 Simple Things You Can Do to Stay
in Denial
By Derrick Jensen and Stephanie McMillan,
Seven Stories Press, 2007.
The president has issued permits for
alien robots to consume the planet, any-
one believed to be aiding the renegade
bunnies who are trying to stop the mad-
ness is being imprisoned, and all you can
think to do is buy a stupid light bulb?
Environmental destruction in this
graphic novel is sad, but it’s also fun!

God Gardened East
A Gardener’s Meditation on the Dynamics
of Genesis
By Louis A. Ruprecht Jr., Cascade
Books, 2008.
In this refreshing reflection on the
Book of Genesis, Ruprecht navigates
readers through rich layers of ancient
traditions—as well as the seasons of his
own garden—while looking forward
through the violence of our present
conflicted world for a story of hope.

was determined that urban communities be seen as a critical context for environmental action, and his 2005 revision of that book validated his conviction. Occidental would prove to be fertile ground for the professor.

Gottlieb introduces Reinventing Los Angeles as an account of his work with the community and the Urban and Environmental Policy

Institute that he founded at Occidental as a way of inte- grating his activism into his teaching and research. His meditations are organized around the interrelated themes of water, automobiles, and immigration. The reclamation of the Los Angeles River, management of freeway tra;c, and the e=ects of globalization on the city furnish the historical speci>cs, while projects undertaken in the community provide the narrative. The upshot is Gottlieb calling for the establishment of an “urban nature agenda” developed in the global laboratory of Los Angeles and applied to cities elsewhere.

Gottlieb suggests that activists pick signi>cant local geographical features in need of transformation as rallying points for policymakers and politicians.

One example he provides, and a successful intervention, is the “Corn>eld” in downtown LA. Not far away from the Los Angeles River and Chinatown, the thirty-two-acre parcel was called the largest remaining block of land available for development in the core of the city. Community activists wanted a park, city government was pushing warehouses, and in stepped a member of the powerful Annenberg family, the artist Lauren

Bon. She co-opted the conversation by turning the

land into a literal corn>eld titled—with all deliberate irony—Not A Cornfield. The work was modeled after a land art–action conducted by Agnes Denes in New York

City during 1982 when she planted a wheat >eld on a land>ll near the World Trade Center. Bon’s corn>eld is now the Los Angeles Historic State Park and awaiting >nal design.

Gottlieb never de>nes it as such, but his richly informative book is really about ?ow—of resources,

people, history—and about how we all need to put our hands into that urban stream as participants directing community, a word he sensibly makes very nearly synonymous with environment.

—William L. Fox

Everything’s Cool A Toxic Comedy About Global Warming

a film by daniel b. gold and judith helfand

Produced by Daniel B. Gold, Judith Helfand, Chris Pilaro, and Adam Wolfensohn, 2007. $24.98, 89 minutes.

YOU MIGHT THINK that if a former vice-president can make an Oscar-winning >lm about global warming based on a PowerPoint presentation, there’s no room for any more climate change documentaries on American screens. An Inconvenient Truth is a >ne >lm, but there’s one problem: no global-warming-denying Republican is ever going to be convinced by Al Gore. They just don’t like the guy.