Gents, a word from Curtis Saxton:
"Helping spare Endor from a fiery metal-pelting fate were the valianteffort of Rebel starships that erected deflector shields and towed
hazardous wreckage away from the green moon."
This particular sentence (above) is misleading. Unfortunately, no
publicity system is 100% immune to accidental misrepresentations. :/
Endor is not spared from cratering. Only a Luxembourg-sized area
immediately around the commando team, which incidentally includes Bright
Tree Village.
Until the battle is finished, the rebel fleet does not know about or
account for the existence of ewok allies. This is wartime. They only
plan for the temporary protection and then extraction of their commandos.
Everyone can see that each debris chunk seen in ROTJ far outweighs the
whole fleet by orders of magnitude, and the chunks' flight time to ground
is less than minutes. Any screening deflection is only a very slight
angle (like Luxembourg subtends on our globe).
Sheltering "Bright Tree" doesn't secure the inhabitants of the rest of the
hemisphere that was exposed to cratering, nor does it deal with
atmospheric fallout (dust directly condensed from the DS2 fireball, plus
indirect dust from solid impacts). Consider also the instantaneous
radiation (explosion flash), thermal radiation (fireball glow), and
possibly persistent radioactivity (inherent in re-condensed DS2 dust). As
readers, researchers and writers of the present body of SW literature, we
are left to consider the possibilities of evacuation and long-term
terraforming in the post-ROTJ world. But that is beyond the scope of the
present discussion.
My general advice to SW fans is to pay most attention to what you can
observe, measure and interpret with your own resources and wits. Don't
over-interpret publicity releases during your serious investigations of
canon. PR necessarily amplifies or downplays details for the sake of a
catchy and intriguing effect.
"Inside the Worlds" was meticulously written and proofread to avoid
suggesting anything unphysical. It makes no concession to irrationalist
deniers of Endor Holocaust. I have seen every brush stroke and every
comma appearing in the book on the day it went to the printers. To date
it is my personal favourite book from DK's "Star Wars" series; IMHO a fine
and progressive contribution to the literature, created over several years
by DK's largest assembled group of SW collaborators.
Apart from the semantic mistake about Endor being "spared", the ITW
PR statement on the Official Site is accurate.
I hope this helps put the controversy to rest,
Curtis Saxton