Our stolen future

Over thirty years ago, Rachel Carson's Silent Spring first warned that manmade chemicals had spread across the planet, permeating virtually every living creature and the most distant wilderness. Her landmark book documented the deadly toll of these synthetic chemicals to birds and wildlife.

Only now, however, are we recognizing the full consequences of this insidious invasion, which is derailing sexual development and reproduction, not only in a host of animal populations but, it now appears, in humans as well.

Our Stolen Future, by two leading environmental scientists and an award-winning environmental journalist, is the first book to piece together the compelling evidence from wildlife studies, laboratory experiments, and human data and to lay out the emerging scientific case regarding this largely unrecognized threat. Picking up where Silent Spring left off, it reveals the underlying causes of the symptoms that had so alarmed Carson.

Building on decades of research, the authors give a gripping account that traces birth defects, sexual abnormalities, and reproductive failures in wildlife to their source - synthetic chemicals that mimic natural hormones, upsetting normal reproductive and developmental processes.

The conclusions drawn here are as urgent as they are inescapable.

We must move aggressively to protect ourselves and our families in the short term and to begin vital long-term changes in the way we manufacture and employ the manmade compounds that have become an integral part of our "good life." This riveting and immensely important work is an indispensable volume for those concerned about the profound human impact on the environment, the integrity and survival of our species, and the well-being of our children.