The Age Of Consequences: A Chronicle of Concern and Hope

Description

Our planet is approaching a critical environmental juncture. Across the globe we continue to deplete the five pools of carbon -- soil, wood, coal, oil, and natural gas -- at an unsustainable rate. We've burned up half the planet's known reserves of oil -- one trillion barrels -- in less than a century. When these sources of energy-rich carbon go into severe decline, as they surely will, society will follow. Former archeologist and Sierra Club activist Courtney White calls this moment the Age of Consequences--a time when the worrying consequences of our environmental actions-- or inaction -- have begun to raise unavoidable and difficult questions. How should we respond? What are effective (and realistic) solutions? In exploring these questions, White draws on his formidable experience as an environmentalist and activist as well as his experience as a father to two children living through this vital moment in time. As a result, The Age of Consequences is a book of ideas and action, but it is also a chronicle of personal experience. Readers follow White as he travels the country --- from Kansas to Los Angeles, New York City, Italy, France, Yellowstone, and New England.

A former archaeologist and environmental activist, Courtney White is the co-found the Quivira Coalition, a nonprofit dedicated to building bridges between ranchers, conservationists, public land managers, scientists and others around practices that improve land health. Today, his conservation work focuses on building economic and ecological resilience on working landscapes, with a special emphasis on carbon ranching and the new agrarian movement. He is the author of Revolution on the Range: the Rise of a New Ranch in the American West and Grass, Soil, Hope: a Journey through Carbon Country. He lives in Santa Fe, NM. Wendell Berry is the author of over fifty books of poetry, fiction, and essays. He lives with his wife in Kentucky.

"Age of Consequences admirably shows how ranching and farming, when done right, can be not only profitable, but can heal land and people at the same time."--Weekly Alibi "...White strikes a refreshing tone that will resonate with readers turned off by the superior or condescending attitudes of some environmentalist writers...Throughout, he balances abstract questions and ideas with tangible life experiences...readers will be engaged by his frank and thoughtful discussion of our modern environment." --Kirkus "White's considerable insight emphasizes the need to save "a diminished world" before the point of no return." --Publishers Weekly "...a series of deeply personal essays that cogently examine pertinent issues from both grassroots and global perspectives. With a tone that is predominantly upbeat yet tempered by the intensely personal concerns of a parent, White offers specific examples of beneficial strategies that can mitigate present conditions and secure future successes." --Booklist