Eco Barons

Although these Tucsonans work with a shoestring budget in a building that they have to vacate for three weeks every year to make way for the annual gem shows, they run what an author calls "America's most effective private environmental law firm." Although they live and work in Tucson, they raised the worldwide alarm for polar bears, warning that the animal could be wiped out. And they have done the same for dozens of other species. These barons are the founders and employees of the Center for Biological Diversity. And they are among the environmental giants profiled in "Eco Barons," subtitled "The Dreamers, Schemers and Millionaires Who Are Saving Our Planet." The author is Edward Humes, a Tucson Citizen reporter from 1980-85. He left to work for the Orange County Register where he won a Pulitzer Prize and then turned to books. "Eco Barons" is his 10th. Humes notes that during its 20-year existence, the center has won close to 90 percent of its 500 cases - an unprecedented success rate in environmental law. The George W. Bush administration didn't like listing species as endangered. But almost every one of the 87 listed during the Bush years was protected because the Tucson-based center "used the courts to force the issue," Humes writes. And that is how the Center for Biological Diversity works: by forcing the government to abide by every letter of environmental law - especially the Endangered Species Act...Tucson Citizen