A pacifist's timely and passionate manifesto addressing the issue of global warming.
Utopia, as Ratzlaff explains, is not some unattainable oasis but rather a world without war and with a balanced global habitat that can sustain future generations. " R]ank and file Americans need to be able to comprehend what global warming is all about," the author writes, "in order to grasp what will happen if we fail to take immediate steps to combat it." The book is not a scientific treatise bogged down with academic language, but rather a pacifist's simple approach to solving one of the world's most difficult dilemmas. Employing a minimum of hard data to explore melting ice caps, rising sea levels, changing weather patterns and ocean currents, Ratzlaff effectively illustrates the cause-and-effect relationship between human activity and the planet's well-being. While Al Gore answered the hows and whys of global warming in "An Inconvenient Truth, " Ratzlaff illustrates the imminent need for vast governmental and political changes, and he explains the consequences of ignoring the obvious threat to our planet. The author states that one of the biggest problems with the current approach to global warming is the tendency of advocates to ignore the significant role of population growth. Additionally, at the roots of global warming lay nationalism, religious wars and the military-industrial complex - Ratzlaff outright blames governments and corporations for the current situation. After demonstrating the various successes of the United Nations in heading off global conflicts, the author concludes that the UN is the only organization capable of becoming a fully empowered international governing body. Yet handcuffed by its current structure, it can do nothing more than cast environmental resolutions that are often ignored. Unlike other books that attempt to tackle major global issues, rather than pointing out the problems and offering no solutions, Ratzlaff rounds out each of the seven steps with definitive alternatives in his "If I Were President" summaries.
A thorough yet easy-to-comprehend take on global warming.
- Kirkus Review

"Marian Franz had the intellectual vision and political courage to seek to change the conventional wisdom. Her gentle daring and humble boldness live on in these powerful essays." --Ronald J. Sider, President, Evangelicals for Social Action. The essays span her 23 years of lobbying Congress to enact the Peace Tax Fund Bill, which would allow conscientious objectors to pay taxes into a fund for nonmilitary purposes only. Originally published in the newsletter of the National Campaign for a Peace Tax Fund, these 47 essays are as relevant today as they were when Franz wrote them. With stories gleaned from lobbying visits, extensive reading, travels and life experience, Franz consistently crafted essays full of hope and inspiration. While these essays are centered on the legislative effort to enact the Peace Tax Fund Bill, their scope is much broader. Among other topics, Franz delved into the definition of conscience, antidotes to apathy, profiles of nonviolent activists, the high cost and many victims of militarism, and the need to forgive. Franz is joined in A Persistent Voice by eight of her colleagues who contribute chapters unique to their perspectives and expertise on topics such as international human rights, the history of conscientious objection in the U.S., the relationship between war tax resistance and the Peace Tax Fund, the biblical basis for war tax resistance, and personal memories of Franz. Though Marian Franz passed away in 2006, this book is a poignant reminder of an amazing woman and her message which will not go away.

A pacifist's timely and passionate manifesto addressing the issue of global warming.
Utopia, as Ratzlaff explains, is not some unattainable oasis but rather a world without war and with a balanced global habitat that can sustain future generations. " R]ank and file Americans need to be able to comprehend what global warming is all about," the author writes, "in order to grasp what will happen if we fail to take immediate steps to combat it." The book is not a scientific treatise bogged down with academic language, but rather a pacifist's simple approach to solving one of the world's most difficult dilemmas. Employing a minimum of hard data to explore melting ice caps, rising sea levels, changing weather patterns and ocean currents, Ratzlaff effectively illustrates the cause-and-effect relationship between human activity and the planet's well-being. While Al Gore answered the hows and whys of global warming in "An Inconvenient Truth, " Ratzlaff illustrates the imminent need for vast governmental and political changes, and he explains the consequences of ignoring the obvious threat to our planet. The author states that one of the biggest problems with the current approach to global warming is the tendency of advocates to ignore the significant role of population growth. Additionally, at the roots of global warming lay nationalism, religious wars and the military-industrial complex - Ratzlaff outright blames governments and corporations for the current situation. After demonstrating the various successes of the United Nations in heading off global conflicts, the author concludes that the UN is the only organization capable of becoming a fully empowered international governing body. Yet handcuffed by its current structure, it can do nothing more than cast environmental resolutions that are often ignored. Unlike other books that attempt to tackle major global issues, rather than pointing out the problems and offering no solutions, Ratzlaff rounds out each of the seven steps with definitive alternatives in his "If I Were President" summaries.
A thorough yet easy-to-comprehend take on global warming.
- Kirkus Review