Ten Minute Ecologist was originally intended for business executives suddenly in need of education on environmental matters, whether because of government regulations, public protests, or even a feeling that maybe they should be doing "something for the environment." However, it's also an excellent book for anyone newly involved in ecological issues, regardless of the nature of that involvement. The author’s goal is to avoid polemics and provide plain, easily understood, non-threatening, information. He’s not taking a side in any debate, unless it’s the evolution-creation one, which is not really a debate so much as a political phenomenon stemming from willful ignorance. This book is not all a person needs in order to interpret the positions in a controversy, but, it will do wonders for anyone who is now a CEO on his way to a public hearing on an environmental impact statement but can't remember anything from 10th grade biology. It will also do wonders for anyone else who does not consider himself or herself a trained ecologist, but who reads about environmental issues in the daily newspapers and asks "should I be worried about this?" Early manuscript reviewers were public school teachers and their favorable responses suggests that Ten Minute Ecologist should find a useful place on teachers' bookshelves. The book is written as a series of answers to twenty questions, for example: Why are the tropics so complicated; and, Why is the Arctic so fragile? Each answer should take about ten minutes to read, thus the title. Nobody's going to become an ecologist on ten minutes a day. But if we don't all make an effort to become more scientifically literate, then environmental issues will continue to be resolved in an atmosphere of public ignorance. The answered questions are ones heard asked time and time again by responsible, concerned, well-educated and successful people. If paperback fiction, movies, and television, all dealt with substantive ecological issues at the same level they deal with issues of politics, law, race, and economics, then maybe as a nation we'd be better educated on the way natural systems operate. As a result of this feeling, the author has tried very hard to make reasonably complex ideas accessible to the same audience that reads paperbacks and watches television.
