|
This Place on Earth is both a personal
journey toward, and a working blueprint for, a way of life
that can last.
Braided together in this remarkable book
are two stories. After having traversed the planet as a
researcher for Worldwatch Institute, Alan Durning returned
to the place of his birth, the Pacific Northwest. For the
author, the process of settling his young family into one
of Seattle's urban neighborhoods changed his point of view
from global to local and deepened his faith in the power
of home. This Place on Earth also documents a quest
for an environmentally sustainable way to exist as a society...
what the author calls "the practice of permanence."
It is the defining struggle of our age, and its outcome
will affect the long-term survival of our culture and our
species.
Join this seasoned and visionary urban ecologist
as he pursues the people and ideas that point the way to
building a permanent, dynamic society: a cobbler who makes
a stand against disposable everything; a conservative city
council member who argues passionately for greater urban
density; a suburban mother who agitates to get crosswalks
built and to move stores out from behind their parking lots
-- in short, to get a suburb to function more like a village.
This provocative, hope-filled book frames
tough questions squarely, then answers them with inspiring,
real-world stories of the good and the lasting. The stakes,
contends Durning, are high. "The Pacific Northwest
is a test case. If this place on earth -- the greenest part
of the richest society in history -- can't reconcile people
and nature, it probably can't be done. If it can, it will
set an example for the world."
Alan Thein Durning is author of the award-winning
book about consumer society How Much is Enough? A
former senior researcher at Worldwatch Institute, he is
founder and executive director of Northwest Environment
Watch. He has contributed articles to The New York Times,
Foreign Policy, and The Washington Post, and
is a commentator on National Public Radio. He lives with
his wife and family in Seattle.
|
