Turnaround: Musings on the Earth's Future Edward A. Myers Edited by Melissa Waterman Published with Kieve Affective Education, Inc. Paperback, $15, ISBN 978-0-88448-263-5 6 x 9, 224 pages

". . . magnificent mind . . . an original . . . philosopher, mathematician, aquaculture and fisheries expert, historian, economist, political theorist, sailor, wharfinger . . . elegant essayist . . ."
—Working Waterfront / Inter-Island News

". . . a remarkable voice . . . essays and sermons by the Princeton-trained philosopher . . . tributes to Myers from half a dozen influential environmentalists."
—Hartford Courant

". . . charming collection of columns, lay sermons, letters and previously unpublished 'musings' . . . many historical perspectives drawn . . . Optimistic."
—Northeastern Naturalist

"Witty, learned, humorous . . . warns what will happen to the earth if . . . inhabitants don't act to care for all life . . ."
—Lincoln County News

Ed Myers (1917-2002) was a remarkable man who focused his capacious mind and learning on the issue of the earth's future. A realist with an engaging sense of humor, he wrote dozens of articles, letters, sermons, and diatribes on topics ranging from global climate change to the benefits of not smoking. Running throughout all his writings was his belief that the earth's long-term health could only be assured, if we, its inhabitants, changed our behavior. And he firmly believed we had the means and the will to do so.

Ed Myers saw the humor in almost everything that happened, but he was deadly serious about saving the planet and turning it over to successive generations in better shape than he found it. Nobody forgot Ed Myers—or his message.

So we are presently engaged in a gigantic planetary chemical experiment to see how much CO₂ and its global effects we can stand. When the experiment is complete, there won't be anybody around to report on it. The Creation, in writer Annie Dillard's phrase, will be playing to an empty house. This dreary prospect does not have to happen. At the end of the nineteenth century, we made a choice, or rather, had it made for us. We would run the world on fossil fuels. It proved to be a very successful choice for a runaway industrial society and worked well, in its own way, for about a century. But for the long term the choice was, in a word, lousy. Now we have a chance to turn it around. Our only chance.

Additional commentary and updates are provided by Peter Shelley (Conservation Law Foundation); Don Hudson (Chewonki Foundation); Tom Chappell (Tom's of Maine); Robin Alden; and Melissa Waterman.

Ed Myers was a graduate of Princeton, served in the army during World War II, and with his wife Julia settled in Damariscotta, Maine, in 1949. In the 1950s he founded and operated Saltwater Farm and pioneered in the business of shipping lobsters. In 1959 he restored Cottrell Wharf as a yacht landing and restaurant, and in 1973 he established Abandoned Farm, North America's first mussel cultivation operations. He helped write many of the state aquaculture laws and policies and was granted the state's first aquaculture license. Ed wrote numerous columns over the years and was active in peace and anti-nuclear organizations and local churches. On the river he was often seen rowing a dory while wearing a Brooks Brothers' shirt, a regimental striped bow tie, and an old pair of mud-encrusted boots, beaming a ceaseless smile.