Unfortunately (and speaking of politicians in democratic nations), this trend has not blown into the full-on worldwide revolution the early Greenpeace mystics hoped for. Right-wing governments, notably that of George W. Bush, try their hardest to turn the clock back. Greenpeace (in its various incarnations throughout the world today) and other environmentalist groups, while not quite marginalized, don't hold nearly as many cards as they need.

Still, the war declared 35 years ago from the "quiet backwater" of Vancouver by a ragtag band of hippies, draft dodgers, scientists and - most certainly not least - journalists continues today on many fronts. Much like Godzilla, who was also spawned by nuclear terror, Greenpeace continues to step on heads to get its way. As the ever-hopeful Weyler puts it,

The images of whales, and of people throwing themselves between leviathan and the harpoons, resonated with something fundamental in people, perhaps a fear of what we had done to the earth and a hope that we, humanity, could change.

This book is a well-told and important contribution to the literature of ecology. Without claiming to be a scholarly work, it does provide helpful notes and lists of recommended reading. Its index could be more complete, and a timeline would help in guiding the reader through the mass of detail. But even with its minor shortcomings, it is both a valuable history and a good introduction to the philosophical backbone and human forces behind a movement that matters to Earth's every living inhabitant.