For concerned scientists frustrated by more than a decade of “business as usual” national economic and energy policy in the face of growing environmental consequences, Al Gore's book, Earth in the Balance: Ecology and the Human Spirit, can be viewed as a source for optimism.

Twenty‐five years of world travel and studies of the Earth's ecological problems led Gore to publish his conclusions on the environment during his campaign for vicepresident of the United States. As a member of a Congressional system that relies to a great extent on the news media, legislative staff, and second‐hand reports as information sources, Gore is to be commended for devoting so much time to his personal study of the environment.