The Geography of Hope: A Tour of the World We Need-Quality Guarantee

Description

After the fierce warnings and grim predictions of The Weather Makers and An InconvenientTruth, acclaimed journalist and national bestselling author Chris Turner finds hopein the search for a sustainable future.

Point of no return: The chilling phrasehas become the ubiquitous mantra of ecological doomsayers, a troubling headline abovestories of melting permafrost and receding ice caps, visions of catastrophe and fearsof a problem with no solution. Daring to step beyond the rhetoric of panic and despair,The Geography of Hope points to the bright light at the end of this very dark tunnel.

With a mix of front-line reporting, analysis and passionate argument, Chris Turnerpieces together the glimmers of optimism amid the gloom and the solutions alreadyat work around the world, from Canada’s largest wind farm to Asia’s greenest buildingand Europe’s most eco-friendly communities. But The Geography of Hope goes far beyondmere technology. Turner seeks out the next generation of political, economic, socialand spiritual institutions that could provide the global foundations for a sustainablefuture–from the green hills of northern Thailand to the parliament houses of Scandinavia,from the villages of southern India, where microcredit finance has remade the socialfabric, to America’s most forward-thinking think tanks.

In this compelling first-personexploration, punctuated by the wonder and angst of a writer discovering the world’s beacons of possibility, Chris Turner pieces together a dazzling map of the disparatelandmarks in a geography of hope.

While most of the world has been spinning instagnant circles of recrimination and debate on the subject of climate change, paralyzedby visions of apocalypse both natural (if nothing of our way of life changes) andeconomic (if too much does), Denmark has simply marched off with steadfast resolveinto the sustainable future, reaching the zenith of its pioneering trek on the islandof Samsø. And so if there’s an encircled star on this patchwork map indicating hope’ s modest capital, then it should be properly placed on this island. Perhaps, forthe sake of precision, at the geographic centre of Jørgen Tranberg’s dairy farm.

There are, I’m sure, any number of images called to mind by talk of ecologicalrevolution and renewable energy and sustainable living, but I’m pretty certain theydon’t generally include a hearty fiftysomething Dane in rubber boots spotted withmud and cow shit. Which is why Samsø’s transformation is not just revolutionary butinspiring, not just a huge change but a tantalizingly attainable one. And it wasa change that seemed at its most workaday–near-effortless, no more remarkable thanthe cool October wind gusting across the island–down on Tranberg’s farm.
—from TheGeography of Hope