The outlook for the environment is not all doom and gloom. Environmentalists, scientists, and lawmakers have led the way in overcoming significant, even planetary, environmental crises in the past and we will probably continue to do so in the future.

In fact, in many ways, there is more reason for optimism for the fate of our species and the planet now than at any point in the last several centuries. These are the views found in Dr. Seymour Garte’s new book, Where We Stand, a surprising look at the real state of our planet.

The book is a response to a real dilemma in the environmentalist community: pessimism and the apathy spawned from a sense that the challenges we’re facing are insurmountable. We seem to move from crises to crises (acid rain to ozone thinning to climate change to species extinction) with a mounting sense of panic and despair. But hasn’t the environmental movement accomplished anything since its birth? Isn’t anything getting better?

This book answers both questions with an emphatic “yes!” Dr. Garte makes a persuading case for optimism about the state of the environment and the quality of human health worldwide. The book finds compelling good news on the subjects of hunger, disease, toxins, biodiversity, population growth, and other issues of environmental ecology and human welfare. We should all celebrate the successful reduction of ozone thinning agents, the hard-fought protection of many endangered species, the elimination of lead from gasoline and paint, and the sanity that prevented nuclear warfare and a nuclear winter in the ‘60s and ‘80s.

Despite all the good news that Dr. Garte offers, he urges that the purpose of the book is not to lull readers into a sense of complacency or to give a false sense that environmental issues are will solve themselves. We’re reminded of ongoing threats to environmental and public health at the end of each chapter in a section simply titled, “The Bad News.” Perhaps one take-home message is that we can solve (and have solved) some very daunting man-made environmental issues, but solutions don’t just happen over night; they are the result of hard work from many different people and industries.

Environmental crises require attention and action from a number of different sectors of society, says Garte. Firstly, the scientific community more fully explains the causes of environmental issues and suggests possible courses of action to remedy the problem. Next, environmentalists and non-profits make the issues known to the public, push lawmakers to pass appropriate legislation. Then lawmakers, who have the power to pass regulations to protect the public from an unhealthy environment, pass legislation to do so. Business responds by developing the technologies to make environmental sustainability goals possible. Finally, it’s back the to environmentalists to try to keep everyone honest and the scientists to double check and continue their work.

Dr. Garte offers a refreshingly rational and level-headed approach to dealing with environmental crises. He peppers the work with personal anecdotes that illustrate practical and impractical responses to environmental issues. He argues, for example, that a complete “back to nature” approach that involves an abandonment of modern technologies is neither practical nor particularly useful. Clearing forests with stone axes and fire is no more benign than culling them with modern lumber machines. With these examples, the author makes the argument for the importance of an objective understanding of our impact on the planet and regulations that control this impact.

Some of the most captivating portions of the book are those that give in-depth analysis of specific environmental issues. For instance, Chapter 9 explores the histories of three hazardous substances that have been successfully reduced in the environment: lead, CFCs, and tobacco smoke. These were effective little vignettes that read like short stories with happy endings. After 8 chapters covering topics ranging anywhere from the AIDS epidemic to deforestation, it was a welcome change of pace to pause and focus on a few topics in this fashion.

But if there’s something for everyone to like in Dr. Garte’s book, there are also details with which various parties are sure to disagree. For instance, notion that the health of a nation can be gauged by the amount of meat it consumes per capita may raise more than a few eyebrows in the vegetarian community. There are several other small but poignant assertions that may start heads shaking. These include the claims that ground water has been mostly undrinkable for the majority of human history and that wild foods are inferior to foods from domesticated plant species.

Critics may also point to possible oversimplifications in favor of the positive. In a very brief discussion of surface water, the author sites a twofold increase in the number of lakes, ponds, and reservoirs in the U.S. as a positive development without giving much of an explanation why. “Because water is always precious to living things” doesn’t do justice to the author’s ability elsewhere to provide clear and convincing reasoning.

It must have been difficult for the author to shepherd his argument through the vast and complex fields of the environment and human health. The book offers a window on a plethora of environmental issues and their resolutions. Therefore, readers with a stronger interest in one field than another may wish to use the book as a reference tool for ways in which matters regarding that field have improved. For instance, readers interested in air quality may be fascinated to learn the severity of air quality issues in the 1950s and a brief history of the ensuing air quality acts in Europe and North America. Other readers may choose to skim or skip over these sections in preference for a discussion on how infectious diseases have been reduced.

With these criticisms in mind, Dr. Garte deserves praise for delivering a book from the perspective of an environmentalist, which offers hope for the future. It’s easy to get lost in a sense of despair or even what the author describes as “grim satisfaction” at the conclusion that there’s nothing we can do now to save the planet. With unhealthy and certainly unhelpful attitudes such as these circulating, Dr. Garte’s book acts like a sort of booster shot of optimism. It’s a celebration of how far we’ve come and a reminder of what’s possible.