The Book of Hope: A Survival Guide for Trying Times (Global Icons Series)

The environment looks to be on a fast track to destruction with climate change, fuel consumption, deforestation among the fears that haunt us. World-renowned naturalist Jane Goodall offers a chance of redemption in //The Book of Hope//, a series of astute, intimate interviews co-authored with best-selling writer Douglas Abrams. She expresses continuing faith, offering four reasons for hope: the amazing human intellect, Nature’s resilience, the power of young people, and the indomitable human spirit.

Goodall, with Abram’s sensitivity to draw expansive responses, invites readers to recognize the caveats to be addressed before her enthusiasm captivates us. Poverty has to be alleviated, the unsustainable lifestyles of the affluent curbed, corruption eliminated, and, no less, recognition of multiple problems presented by population growth.

Goodall first drew public attention and sympathy in her twenties with her unique study of chimpanzees and their unexpected similarity with human behavior. Since then, she has traveled the world offering books and presentations to share her perceptions of environmental struggle. Audiences thrive on her stories, the welcome absence of statistics. Her exuberance and sense of humor embrace followers rather than laying a guilt trip. Serious? Emphatically so, but endearingly.