"Earth in the balance", a book by Al Gore, Vice-President of the United States, is an important publication. So far, no prominent politician has devoted so much attention to the problems of the natural environment nor has made so much effort to understand and show the reasons of the current environmental crisis, as well as to search for ways to alleviate this situation. Certain strengths of this book, however, cannot paper over its deficiencies. The reviewers write also about a certain inconsistency of reasoning and indicate some problems that have been ignored.