Red Sky at Morning (Speth book)

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James Gustave Speth authored the book Red Sky at Morning: America and the Crisis of the Global Environment, which Yale University Press published in 2004. A central premise of the book is that environmentalism, so far, has been unsuccessful in protecting the natural environment on Earth. Deprecating the past efficacy of the Natural Resources Defense Council, the White House Council on Environmental Quality, and the United Nations Development Programme — as well as the actions of the current Bush administration — Speth writes (as cited in the TIME article listed in the "References" section): "The climate convention is not protecting climate, the biodiversity convention is not protecting biodiversity, [and] the desertification convention is not preventing desertification." Potential for effective environmentalism, he says (as cited in the TIME article) now rests upon actions analogous to "jazz": volunteerism and improvisation.

He also notes, "Since the Montreal Protocol, [the United States] has not accorded global-scale environmental challenges the priority needed." (p.116)