by Judith D. Schwartz
Chelsea Green Publishing Company
8/19/2020, paperback
SKU: 9781603588652
In a time of uncertainty about our environmental future--an eye-opening global tour of some of the most wounded places on earth, and stories of how a passionate group of eco-restorers is leading the way to their revitalization.
Award-winning science journalist Judith D. Schwartz takes us first to China's Loess Plateau, where a landmark project has successfully restored a blighted region the size of Belgium, lifting millions of people out of poverty. She journeys on to Norway, where a young indigenous reindeer herder challenges the most powerful orthodoxies of conservation--and his own government. And in the Middle East, she follows the visionary work of an ambitious young American as he attempts to re-engineer the desert ecosystem, using plants as his most sophisticated technology.
Schwartz explores regenerative solutions across a range of landscapes: deserts, grasslands, tropics, tundra, Mediterranean. She also highlights various human landscapes, the legacy of colonialism and industrial agriculture, and the endurance of indigenous knowledge.
The Reindeer Chronicles demonstrates how solutions to seemingly intractable problems can come from the unlikeliest of places, and how the restoration of local water, carbon, nutrient, and energy cycles can play a dramatic role in stabilizing the global climate. Ultimately, it reveals how much is in our hands if we can find a way to work together and follow nature's lead.
Reviews:
"A lucid and compelling look at the global movement of ecological rehabilitation."--The Boston Globe
"This book shows us again and again, across the globe, the abundant future that is possible if we work with nature. Stunning stories of re-greening landscapes, restoring carbon and water cycles, and repairing weather. It is a balm and a guide, a wellspring of grounded hope."--Ayana Elizabeth Johnson, PhD, founder of Urban Ocean Lab and of Ocean Collective
About the Author:
Judith D. Schwartz is a journalist whose work explores nature-based solutions to global environmental and economic challenges. She writes on this theme for numerous publications and speaks at venues around the world. She is the author of Cows Save the Planet and Water in Plain Sight. A graduate of the Columbia Journalism School and Brown University, she lives in southern Vermont.