ENVIRONMENT

LET THE MOUNTAINS TALK, LET THE RIVERS RUN: Restoring the Earth for a Green 21st Century by David Brower with Steve Chapple. (Harper Collins: $20; 196 pp.) This rambling memoir and appeal from one of the great environmentalists of our time was written specifically for Earth Day 1995, its twenty-fifth anniversary. It contains a healthy dose of the author’s favorite medicines: what he calls the “Gee Whiz factor,” a boundless and these days, somewhat poignant enthusiasm for the power of ideas and grass roots activism, and “Rule Number 6,” which translates: Never Take Yourself Too Seriously. In spite of this, in spite of all his victories (which include stopping two dams in Dinosaur National Monument, land set aside at Point Reyes National Sea Shore, and in Redwood National Park), Brower cannot shake the memory of Glen Canyon, a dam he was unable to stop. As he remembers it, he capitulated to reasonableness, and the lesson learned is: “Never give up what you haven’t seen. And don’t expect politicians, even good ones, to do the job for you.”