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
