E-Book Activism: Saving the Arctic Refuge

From email petitions to Nader's Traders the Internet is transforming online activism. On March 28 Milkweed Editions, a Minneapolis-based non-profit publisher of nature literature, unveiled a new addition to the online activist's toolkit: the e-book.

When the Bush administration made clear its intention to open the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) to oil exploration, Alaska environmentalists Hank Lentfer and Carolyn Servid sprang into action. The two began rapidly gathering testimonials from noted thinkers including Jimmy Carter, Wendell Berry, Rick Bass, Scott Russell Sanders, Terry Tempest Williams, Bill McKibben and Barry Lopez, as well as members of the Gwich’in Nation, a native tribe whose lives are still dependent on the caribou of the ANWR. The result is Arctic Refuge: A Circle of Testimony.

With a grant from California philanthropist Lois Ream Waldref to pay for its production, Milkweed Editions rushed the volume to publication in record time. 'A traditional trade book takes at least 12 months to produce, even on a fast track schedule,' Milkweed publisher Emilie Buchwald told the Minneapolis Star Tribune last week. 'Our only hope of helping the writers in their goal of influencing the current debate, was to use print-on-demand technology.'

Arctic Refuge is available for download on Milkweed Editions' website, http://www.worldashome.org/
--Leif Utne

LINKS:
• www.worldashome.org/
• Milkweed jumps into drilling debate with e-book
Chris Waddington, Minneapolis Star Tribune, 26 Mar 2001