Oasis Earth: Planet in Peril: Our Last Best Chance to Save Our World by Rick Steiner

Oasis Earth confirms that we are destroying the biosphere of our Home Planet. We know the causes, consequences, and solutions to this existential crisis, yet we’ve failed to correct it. We are out of time: this decade is our last best chance to save a habitable Earth. Rich with insights from those who have viewed our planet from space and evocative images from the U.N. Environment Program’s international photographic competitions, NASA, Greenpeace and others, Oasis Earth weaves a journey through the extraordinary diversity of life on Earth, the interrelated causes of global ecological collapse, and the path to a livable future.
"Oasis Earth is a remarkable summary of the miracle that is life on the earth. At the same time, it describes how our ignorance is violating this phenomenal mystery in every possible way. It clearly instructs us as to who and what we need to become if we are to reverse our collective madness and become the true denizens we once were and can become again."
—Paul Hawken, Author of Drawdown: The Most Comprehensive Plan Ever Proposed to Reverse Global Warming
"I have been diving and exploring the oceans for over 74 years, ever since my father pushed me overboard with a tank on my back. It's been my privilege to share with the next generation, including my son and daughter Fabien and Celine, the fact that all plants and animals, including us, are connected and depend upon one water system, as detailed in Oasis Earth. It's why I want everyone to know, if you protect the ocean you protect yourself."
—Jean-Michel Cousteau, President of Ocean Futures Society Inc.
"Rick Steiner's Oasis Earth is a book of great importance at this moment in human and planetary history. We are at a crossroads and one way or another, dramatic changes are coming. Humanity can no longer pursue a path of endless population and economic growth, violence and destruction of nature and unchecked carbon emissions without suffering devastating consequences, both to ourselves and the millions of species with whom we share this planet, our only home. The author is an inspired teacher and his lesson is one that desperately needs to be heard. From ecological decline to war and conflict; from wealth inequality to the widely felt malaise with modern life, Steiner understands the importance of recognizing the many converging crises that we must confront. Fortunately, we still have time to choose the future we all want and Steiner shows clearly what is needed to move from the destruction and excess of the Anthropocene to the resilience and stability of the 'Ecocene'. We can do so much better and Steiner shows us how. Read this book. Be alarmed. Then take action."
—Mark Brooks, World Wildlife Fund-Canada
"The window of opportunity is closing. What we do, or fail to do, in the next decade will determine the fate of life on Earth and human civilization. Oasis Earth illuminates the way forward with the light of beauty, reason and hope."
—Kierán Suckling, Executive Director, Center for Biological Diversity
"Professor Steiner presents a stark and confronting picture of the way in which modern life takes the resilience and bounty of our precious planet for granted. Born of a deep love for the earth and its people's, the solutions offered here are no-brainers. Decision-makers, community leaders, citizens - please pay heed and act - in time."
—Dr. Helen Rosenbaum, Deep Sea Mining Campaign, Australia
Cirque Press Author — Rick Steiner
Rick Steiner is a conservation biologist in Anchorage Alaska (U.S.), and has been involved in the global conservation movement for over 40 years. From 1980-2010 he was a marine conservation professor with the University of Alaska, stationed in the Arctic, Prince William Sound, and Anchorage, specializing in marine conservation, and worked on environmental effects of offshore oil, climate change, fisheries, marine mammals, habitat conservation, and conservation policy. After the university and U.S. government pressured him to restrain from raising concerns about the risks and impacts of offshore oil development, he resigned his tenured professorship in protest. He has authored over one hundred publications; written commentaries for many national and international media outlets including USA Today, L.A. Times, The Guardian, and Huffington Post; and worked around the world with governments, the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP), the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN), and many Indigenous People's and non-governmental organizations in diverse regions including Nigeria, Papua New Guinea, Russia, Pakistan, China, the Middle East, the South Pacific, Australia, the Arctic, Kazakhstan, and El Salvador. He has received several conservation awards, and The Guardian called him "one of the world's leading marine conservation scientists," and "one of the most respected and outspoken academics on the oil industry's environmental record." He serves on the Board of Directors of Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility, and the Board of Advisors of The Ocean Foundation.
He has delivered Oasis Earth: Planet in Peril as a public presentation for over 30 years, in many venues around the world.