Hope's Horizon: Three Visions For Healing The American Land [Hardcover]

Chip Ward (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 1, 2004

This book brings to literary life attempts to get beyond defensive environmental struggles, particularly in the American West and develop practical, proactive strategies based on grander visions to, as the author terms it, heal the landscape. The author tells the stories of three main efforts and the individuals behind them: the kind of restoration exemplified by the campaign to drain Lake Powell and bring Glen Canyon; reconnection of fragmented habitats, as represented by the Wildlands project (with discussions of Vermont and the Sky Island Project in the Southwest); and abolition of technologies, such as nuclear power, that are environmentally dangerous and unsustainable. The author not only imparts information in an interesting way to the general reader but conveys what's inspirational about these projects and the individuals behind them. All of the book's principles share the fundamental belief that land should be used in the spirit of collaboration with natural systems rather than domination of them.

Editorial Reviews

From 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.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist

At a time when even the very sky we gaze upon can no longer be viewed as benign or benevolent, it is easy, perhaps unavoidable, to be overwhelmed by the magnitude and extremity of the diverse ecological dangers facing our planet. Although dire headlines of bureaucratic barricades and violent opposition tactics are more familiar than success stories about conscientious legislation and cooperative initiatives, Ward has discovered a new cadre of environmental advocates, pioneers in proactive, rather than reactive, approaches for reversing these trends. Identifying three key movements--reconnection, restoration, and abolition--Ward profiles charismatic and committed individuals and agencies and the causes they champion. From alliances working to reunite America's native habitats to people dedicated to deconstructing the dam that flooded Glen Canyon in order to create Lake Powell to Native American elders educating nuclear engineers about the dangers of and alternatives to this threatening technology, Ward paints an encouraging, if cautionary, portrait of the movement toward a more responsible ecological paradigm. Carol Haggas
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 320 pages
• Publisher: Island Press; 1 edition (May 1, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1559639776
• ISBN-13: 978-1559639774
• Product Dimensions: 6 x 1 x 9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.5 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,927,937 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Inspiring and well written April 23, 2004

By A Customer

Format:Hardcover

I picked this book up, hot off the press, at a conference on wilderness at the University of Utah. I couldn't put it down. Unlike so many other books on environmental issues that are either dry or grim, this one is lively, witty, colorful, and lyrical. Above all, it is inspiring. People who care about the quality of life on earth get caught up playing defense, so it is refreshing to hear about those who have bold and proactive ideas who are going forward. I like it when an author makes me see the world differently and this book did that. Ward's first book, "Canaries on the Rim," is a gem - a classic - that never got the attention it deserves. I hope this one is widely read.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Engaging and memorable July 28, 2004

By Utah Reader

Format:Hardcover

Hope's Horizon is an engaging reading experience and if you have never read a book on environmental issues, this may be a good place to start.  It is hard to sugar coat the environmental problems we face and Ward doesn't do that although there is wit and humor,too.  Rather, the author wants to inspire by telling stories of groups and indiviuals who don't accept the normal limits and are forging ahead with projects that are bold, visionary, and instructive. Terry Tempest Williams calls Chip Ward "one of the smartest, wittiest, and most truthful voices writing in America" and says he has identified a failure of empathy and imagination at the heart of our environmental crises. That's a good summary of his underlying point of view. 

 

The book is arranged in three parts dealing with a new paradigm for conservation, the movement to remove dams, and the struggle to keep nuclear waste off of the West's deserts.  It is really three books in one and you can read them out of order depending on your interest and they still make sense.  The writing is lyrical and memorable - a worthy successor to his classic book, "Canaries on the Rim."

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Funny, Sad, a little Incomplete. June 30, 2004

By John Matlock

Format:Hardcover

This is a book I find very amusing - the writing style is just great, even the saddest, most trajic subjects are trreated with humor. Who can ignore a chapter entitled 'First, they killed John Wayne'. And the chapter is on the radiation problems in Southern Utah from the above ground nuclear tests.

This is a book I find very sad - 80% of the cast of the movie 'The Conqueror' (starring John Wayne as Genghis Khan) died of cancer, perhaps from filming down wind of the nuclear tests. But this testing was fifty years ago. Eventually the governments of the world got together and ended such testing.

This is a book that I find incomplete. Yes, anyone in their right mind would be opposed to having a nuclear waste storage area or a chemical weapons incinerator in their back yards. But what I don't hear is an alternative. There's a nuclear power station in New York, just 30 miles up the Hudson from New York City. Do we just leave the stuff there as an inviting target for another World Trade Center type attack. What would an airplane crashing into the storage area do? Or, do we leave the chemical munitions, now old and leaking in storage areas just off the end of the runway in Denver waiting for an airplane to land short.

I rate this book quite highly, it's well worth your time to help understand the problems. I'd also like to see a couple of chapters on solutions, not just on the problems.