ECONOTES : A Computer Book for the Planet

Want to help save the planet just by using your home computer? Then get acquainted with FidoNet, BITNET, Usenet and Internet.

Such computer networks open the door to a world of environmental information, and Don Rittner has provided the road map in “EcoLinking,” a new book from Berkeley’s Peachpit Press.

“There are lots of computer networking books, but this is the first one for environmentalists,” says Rittner, a computer educator.

The 350-page guidebook, which gives an overview of available electronic resources, is written for the computer-phobic. Rittner first explains, in everyday language, how a personal computer, a modem, a communications software package and a telephone line will link you with environmentalists, scientists and concerned citizens around the world.

Then he sorts out the best resources in four major categories: global networks, electronic bulletin boards, commercial on-line services and vast electronic libraries that never close.

“There’s a wealth of information out there,” says Rittner, a onetime activist who helped preserve the Albany Pine Barrens in Upstate New York. “If I’d had this information when I was an activist, we would have saved much more land than we did. Networking gives you access to the best minds in the world.”

Peachpit Press, 2414 6th St., Berkeley, Calif. 94710. Telephone: (800) 283-9444.