Hope's Horizon
Three Visions For Healing The American Land
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- $49.99
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- $49.99
Publisher Description
At a time of widespread environmental pessimism, Hope’s Horizon goes on an inspirational offensive. In this entertaining and thought-provoking book, author Chip Ward tells of his travels among a new generation of activists who are moving beyond defensive environmental struggles and advocating pioneering, proactive strategies for healing the land.
Chip Ward’s three-year odyssey took him behind the scenes of efforts to reconnect fragmented habitats and “re-wild” the North American continent; the campaign to drain Lake Powell and restore Glen Canyon to its natural state; and the struggle to keep nuclear waste off Western Shoshone ancestral lands and, ultimately, to abolish all nuclear power and weapons. These movements, and the practical visionaries leading them, challenge readers with a new paradigm in which land is used in a spirit of collaboration with natural systems rather than domination of them. Broad in its sweep, Hope’s Horizon uses its topical subjects as springboards for exploring how we can redefine our place in the world while restoring damaged habitats, replenishing lost diversity, and abandoning harmful technologies.
Lively, literate, and free of the grimness that characterizes so much environmental writing, Hope’s Horizon will change the way readers see the world. It makes complicated concepts and issues accessible, and wild ideas compelling. And while the book’s starting point is a hard-nosed indictment of humanity’s failed stewardship of the earth, the stories that follow tell of catalytic optimism and ecological wisdom in the face of self-destructive habit and blind pride.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Ward (Canaries on the Rim), a longtime environmental activist and successful grassroots organizer in the field, focuses on a refreshingly optimistic future for the earth. However, this hope-filled future is dependent on those with political authority adopting what the author believes are enlightened practices and theories in environmental science. With personal anecdotes and a conversational style, Ward provides the reader with a wealth of knowledge about contemporary environmental gurus and their teachings. He provides well-spun tales about critters like voles, coyotes, wolves, grasshoppers and oysters, and easily informs readers about such esoteric topics as deep ecology and the proposed rewilding of North America. He then delves into the causes and consequences of environmental catastrophes as diverse as the Aswan Dam, in Egypt; Lake Powell, Ariz.; and Chernobyl. However, Ward does not help to make his political case with his casual cheap-shot rhetoric against those he perceives as enemies of the environment. Additionally, he seems a fish out of water when he makes flip comments about geopolitics and the war on terrorism. These minor faults aside, this is an engaging and informative ecology book with a rare positive outlook.
