Hope, human and wild

by Bill McKibben

McKibben sets out on a journey, from his home in the Adirondack Mountains to a city in Brazil and a state in India, in search of realistic hope for the Earth. Hope, Human and Wild is an extraordinary tale of the author's travels to places that have made the most of their limited resources. Their triumphs convince McKibben that we can help the world recover from some of the damage we have done. Only a hundred years ago, the land on which McKibben's house stands in the majestic Adirondack woods was a barren, clearcut wasteland. Now he is surrounded by magnificent forest; and the beaver, the moose, and the coyote have come back. Looking for other successes, he journeys to the small Brazilian city of Curitiba, which has saved itself from the developers. A brave and gifted mayor has designed a rapid transit system that people actually want to use, the poor collaborate with architects to plan their own houses, "sanitation problems" are solved by exchanging sacks of garbage for bags of food,