GB No. 4(23)/96

PRESIDENT GORE SEES CANARIES

As soon as in 1989 the dusts of political revolution in Eastern Europe settled, information about incredibly high pollution, of air especially, in all the post-communist countries shocked the world. We have learnt, for instance, that in some regions of Poland children are taken to deep former mines so that they may breathe clean air, free from gasses and pollution to be found aboveground. One can imagine schoolteachers, emerging from the mines with caution, carrying canaries that warn the children on time when staying on the surface becomes dangerous.

What you have just read is not a joke. It is an excerpt from a superserious book by a superserious author. The title is "The Earth on the Edge" i (the text is taken from page 63), and the author is vice-president of the United States Al Gore, who has been dealing with ecology for a long time.

What should be appreciated is that the book was printed on ecological paper (sic). However, there are plenty of misspellings. Having scanned the book I found ten. An interesting one is on page 22. (line 6 and 7 from the bottom): instead of "ocieplenie klimatu" meaning "warming up of the climate" you can read about "ocielenie klimatu" which means "calving of the climate".

The last thing to mention is that the book was published as the sixth volume of "Biblioteka Ery Ekologicznej".ii

Stanisław Zubek
Kraków 15.04.1996
reprinted from "Zielone Brygady",
transl. M. Maciejewska

i Gore, Al. Ziemia na krawędzi. Człowiek a ekologia. Translated by Grażyna Dzierdziuk-Kraśniewska, Auditing Magdalena Michalska. Ethos Publishing House. Warszawa 1996. The book was pub-lished in cooperation with USIA, Washington D.C. and the American Embassy in Warsaw.
ii "Biblioteka Ery Ekologicznej" was initiated by the Friends of Ecological Philosophy Society. The books Rio - początek ery ekologicznej by prof. Stefan Kozłowski and Nadzieja matką mądrych by prof. Henryk Skolimowski were published, among others, in the series.
GB No. 4(23)/96 | Contents