GIFT BOOKS IN BRIEF : SAVE THE EARTH, <i> edited by Jonathan Porritt (Turner Publishing: $29.95).</i>

If there has ever been a sharper contrast between the medium and the message than this work, I haven’t encountered it. “Save the Earth” is a harlequin delight of a picture book, with smashing color photos and brilliant graphic art expertly splashed on nearly every big, voluptuously coated page. The message tucked elegantly among those images, however, is that the support systems of our planet are in desperate trouble, and with them not only its grand array of plants and animals, but us.

Porritt was until recently director of Friends of the Earth in the United Kingdom; FOE International gets some of the proceeds. He has solicited more than 100 messages from an astonishing potpourri of global personages. Beginning with a foreword by the Prince of Wales and an introduction by Robert Redford, a sample of contributors includes Ed Asner, the Dalai Lama, Walter Cronkite, Paul Ehrlich, Vaclav Havel, Yoko Ono, Freeman Patterson, Laurens van der Post and Susannah York. Tying this patchwork together along meaningful themes (honestly!)--Earth, Air, Fire, Water--are folks with technical expertise: Lester Brown, Peter Raven, Stephen Schneider.

The layout of this book is frenetic, sort of MTV on paper. The writing (and editing) is excellent. Its message is dire, but strangely not so much depressing as energizing. “Save the Planet” is designed to inspire you to rethink your own ecological niche. And quickly.