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Reviewed by Jerry Kloby. Bill McKibben is a former staff writer for The New Yorker. His books include The End of Nature, The Age of Missing Information and The Hundred Dollar Holiday. McKibben is an unapologetic believer in the notion that smaller and simpler is better. In fact, he probably wouldn't deny it if you called him a proponent of the notion that "poorer is better". He points out numerous times that each dollar spent represents roughly half a liter of oil consumed. And finds reason for hope in off-beat statistics like the fact that 316 Moose were killed by cars in 1987 in Maine (p. 12) or that Pennsylvania motorists killed 43,000 deer in 1990 (p. 27). In Hope, Human and Wild McKibben examines the rebirth of eastern forests like the Adirondacks in New York State. He admits that the regeneration of eastern woodlands is largely an accident due to the death of farming in the region, farming that was replaced by more productive large-scale efforts in the mid-west. The rebirth also resulted from dramatic reduction in the use of wood for fuel. Wood provided 90 percent of America's energy in 1850 but only 10 percent by 1920 (p. 22). However, the preservation of wilderness in the Adirondack region of New York State was also the result of an intentional effort to limit development and preserve nature. The point of all this, however, is a simple one: recovery is possible. And the book, after all, is about hope. The recovery of eastern woodlands, the return of moose, beaver, bobcats, wolves, and many other species, to land that had previously been stripped nearly bare, gives good reason to have hope in the wild. But is there hope for humans? Avoiding the foreboding tone of his 1989 book The End of Nature, McKibben mentions the threat of global warming, deforestation, etc., but the intent of this book is to inspire. That is the aim of his recounting of the successful return of nature to much of the eastern part of the U.S. but his search for successful efforts at "retooling" for a more environmentally conscious world take him far afield, to the city of Curitiba in Brazil and to Kerala state in India. And what makes the journey especially interesting is that McKibben recognizes that hope for the planet rests in large part on how we function as a community. For nature to blossom and for the earth to heal itself it is essential for community to renew itself as well. Getting back to that half liter of oil for a moment, Charles Hall of the University of Syracuse calculated that every dollar, or its equivalent, spent anywhere on earth triggers a series of events that, on average, consumes half a liter of petroleum. The point? Every gallon of oil burned releases about five pounds of carbon into the atmosphere. Even the purchase of an inexpensive book can indirectly produce a ten pound cloud of CO2. McKibben says: "with every normal action in a consumer society, we nudge the thermometer a little higher. Wealth — and hence consumption — degrades the planet, degrades it as surely as stark poverty, which is environmentally damaging for other reasons." The lesson of Curitiba and Kerala is that both places have learned to do with less. And they are not only getting by with less but they have created or strengthened community bonds that have become so weak in many other places in the world. In a recent survey 99 percent of Curitibans said they were happy with their city. In contrast, 60 percent of New Yorkers want to leave theirs (p. 61). One thing that makes Curitiba so livable is that Curitiba chose not to build to accommodate cars but to use a unique bus system that moves large numbers of people in what overall is a very pedestrian-friendly city. A city with a great deal of green space, a smart physical layout, admirable government services, a strong civic culture, lots of parks and street fairs. While Curitiba has been transformed by a relatively small number of creative, daring and charismatic thinkers, the accomplishments of Kerala state in India have come about via a combination of intelligent leadership and massive participation. Kerala's lesson is that a rich social environment and desirable quality of life indicators can be attained without dramatic conventional economic growth. In spite of a very low per capita income Kerala has achieved an average life expectancy of over 70 years. The literacy rate is over 90 percent. Infant mortality is far below the average for all of India and is much closer to the average rate for high income countries than it is to the average for low income countries. The birth rate in Kerala is almost identical to the U.S., and much lower than the average for India as a whole. Childhood immunization rates for a number of illnesses are 100 percent. Kerala has proven that a great deal can be accomplished with limited resources if progress is guide by the principle of fair distribution and if participation is widespread. As McKibben says: "Kerala offers a pair of messages to the First World. One is that sharing works. Redistribution has made Kerala a decent place to live, even without much economic growth. The second, and even more important, lesson is that some of our fears about simpler living are unjustified." (P. 169)
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