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A review essay on books by (1) Brian Tokar, Earth for Sale: Reclaiming Ecology in the Age of Corporate Greenwash (Boston, MA: South End, 1997); (2) Joshua Karliner, The Corporate Planet: Ecology and Politics in the Age of Globalization (San Francisco, CA: Sierra Club Books, 1997); & (3) Carl Frankel, In Earth's Company: Business, Environment and the Challenge of Sustainability (Gabriola Island, BC, Canada: New Society, 1998). Tokar offers a scathing critique of mainstream environmental agencies, while Karliner targets business, documenting the extensive corporate deceit that surrounds environmental issues. Frankel's critical analysis of corporate efforts to promote a more environmentally friendly productive system is more sympathetic with the corporate US. These books present a similar picture of the environmental movement & society's progress in dealing with ecological crises, concluding that the capitalist market & government regulations are unable to protect natural ecosystems or eliminate environmental pollution. Although the authors offer prescriptions for dealing more effectively with ecological problems, their agendas are exclusionary & fail to recognize that US organizations/strategies are not necessarily best. J. Lindroth

Many western politicians are fond of giving public money to farmers to grow more food. In Europe, a relatively recent phenomenon is to pay farmers to not produce food – or, more accurately, to pay them to produce nature. There are now proposals to extend such 'payments for ecosystem services' (PES) schemes to developing countries.