The Trail to Kanjiroba
Rediscovering Earth in an Age of Loss
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- $14.99
Publisher Description
A revitalizing new perspective on Earthcare from Pulitzer Prize finalist William deBuys.
In 2016 and 2018 acclaimed author and conservationist William deBuys joined extended medical expeditions into Upper Dolpo, a remote, ethnically Tibetan region of northwestern Nepal, to provide basic medical services to the residents of the region. Having written about climate change and species extinction, deBuys went on those journeys seeking solace. He needed to find a constructive way of living with the discouraging implications of what he had learned about the diminishing chances of reversing the damage humans have done to Earth; he sought a way of holding onto hope in the face of devastating loss. As deBuys describes these journeys through one of Earth's remotest regions, his writing celebrates the land’s staggering natural beauty, and treats his readers to deep dives into two scientific discoveries—the theories of natural selection and plate tectonics—that forever changed human understanding of our planet. Written in a vivid and nuanced style evocative of John McPhee or Peter Matthiessen, The Trail to Kanjiroba offers a surprising and revitalizing new way to think about Earthcare, one that may enable us to continue the difficult work that lies ahead.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Pulitzer finalist deBuys (First Impressions) recounts his five-week trip through the Dolpo in northwestern Nepal in this lyrical if flawed meditation on climate change and the Earth. In 2016, deBuys joined a medical expedition to provide care to those in need and here uses the experience to contemplate a hospice-oriented approach to addressing climate change that prioritizes "care over cure." This would involve caring for the planet rather than saving it, as well as "letting go of attachment to ultimate outcomes and making the best of the present" (though what this would mean for policy, he writes, is "difficult to say"). Between stories of hiking trails and working with patients, deBuys reflects on two major events that shaped humans' understanding of Earth and its history: Darwin's formulation of evolutionary theory and the discovery of plate tectonics. While deBuys excels at conveying the beauty of Nepal (in the Suli Gad River, "boulders froth the tumbling river into wet clouds"), his rhapsodizing about the backbreaking labor conducted by villagers feels distasteful and ill-advised, and his visit to a remote part of the world often reads like fodder for a thought exercise. While this one aims high, it doesn't hit the mark.
