Rescuing the Planet

Protecting Half the Land to Heal the Earth

By: Tony Hiss, E. O. Wilson - introduction

Narrated by: Adam Barr, Paul Boehmer

The award-winning author of The Experience of Place delivers an "upbeat and engaging account of the remarkable progress being made to preserve vast wild spaces for animals to roam" (The Wall Street Journal)—and an urgent call to protect 50 percent of the earth's land by 2050—thereby saving millions of its species.

Beginning in the vast North American Boreal Forest that stretches through Canada, and roving across the continent, from the Northern Sierra to Alabama's Paint Rock Forest, from the Appalachian Trail to a ranch in Mexico, Tony Hiss sets out on a journey to take stock of the "superorganism" that is the earth: its land, its elements, its plants and animals, its greatest threats--and what we can do to keep it, and ourselves, alive.

Hiss not only invites us to understand the scope and gravity of the problems we face, but also makes the case for why protecting half the land is the way to fix those problems. He highlights the important work of the many groups already involved in this fight, such as the Indigenous Leadership Initiative, the Yellowstone to Yukon Conservation Initiative, and the global animal tracking project ICARUS. And he introduces us to the engineers, geologists, biologists, botanists, oceanographers, ecologists, and other "Half Earthers" like Hiss himself who are allied in their dedication to the unifying, essential cause of saving our own planet from ourselves.

Tender, impassioned, curious, and above all else inspiring, Rescuing the Planet is a work that promises to make all of us better citizens of the earth.

must read

Extraordinarily informative and easy to read. I recommend this book to everyone who cares about our planet.

An important book

Hiss aggregates some of our best reasons to hope and most serious cases for urgency. I'll be returning to read again!

Flattering Humans

The espoused theme of this book is to detail the urgent need to protect as much of what is wild on the Earth from the almost incalculably destructive ways of the human species. Yet, the author spends most of the book flattering humans for making the most meager and anthropocentric attempts to stem the tide of ecocide. He seems to have given up on featuring the fact that he obviously knows to be true: people are the problem, along with their requisite civilization.