To whom it may concern

There was a time when someone seeking a job would ask a person in authority to write him a testimonial. Addressed to an unnamed but appropriate other person, this document would commend the applicant as good and capable. The papers and reviews gathered here address everyone. They show problems, possible and actual solutions, and goals for worldwide effort so that environmental resources may be used for mankind, and not wasted or ruined by pollution. The 17 Sustainable Development Goals can be readily found by Internet search [1].

Yet, today, in the midst of apocalyptic events, the world is frozen. Indifferent to suffering, incapable of generosity, we cannot make useful change. We must begin with being real ourselves.

The reality requires realism. An oil company director running the COP28 had the effrontery to rebuke a former President of Ireland. But, with severe brevity, Mary Robinson struck back: ‘The science compels’ [2]. Greta Thunberg strikes back. Attenborough strikes back. The film Deep Blue was accepted for the Pan African Film Festival in Los Angeles. Television and film can be propaganda for good.

The dynamic of conflict is everywhere to be seen.

This monograph seeks users who will make peace, not war, with nature and with human beings. One hundred years ago, true to the fraud of the October Revolution, the Soviet Army offered a false account of Russia’s encirclement. ‘The struggle is not yet over. The Socialist Soviet Republics are surrounded by a ring of capitalists and landowners, who are for ever plotting attacks against the cradle of the world revolution’ [3]. This powerful fantasy continues.

There are many who see the environment as the great fact of modern history. In whichever form its problems appear – over-population, climate change, pollution, conservation – it is an absolute fact. Yet vast numbers of people are prepared to continue indifferent to the reality and confident only of their sensations. It is easy to give up. The mother of Masha Amini, the young woman killed by repressive police in Iran, has said of Iran’s elections ‘If voting would change something, they would not allow you to vote’. But to be disillusioned is to see without illusions. ‘The least we can do is not to let the situation get worse’, a politically active, ordinary citizen of Iran has said [4]. The science compels.

I commend this monograph to all whom it may concern.