THE AGE OF CONSEQUENCES

A series of essays that explore some of the most pressing environmental challenges we face today and optimistically suggest some solutions.

Inspired by an urge to explain to his children what has been done—or not done—to the environment and to chronicle his journey as an environmentalist, activist and parent, White (Grass, Soil, Hope: A Journey Through Carbon Country, 2014, etc.) started a blog on Earth Day 2008 titled A Chronicle of the Age of Consequences, from which the essays in the first half of this book are culled. The Age of Consequences, explains the author, is the moment we are living in now, where the unsustainable ways we have depleted our resources have become impossible to ignore. White reflects on the words of renowned environmentalists, poets and philosophers, as well as his own personal experiences and travels—to places like Venice, Italy and Horse Progress Days in the middle of Ohio Amish farm country—to paint a simple but compelling case for why we should be concerned. By admitting his own inability to constantly align his decisions with his values, White strikes a refreshing tone that will resonate with readers turned off by the superior or condescending attitudes of some environmentalist writers. "We ought to walk," he writes of his mornings shuffling two young kids off to school, "...but for reasons that are not entirely clear to me, we don't.” In the second half of the book, White shares stories of unconventional, progressive ranchers and farmers across the country to suggest new ways of approaching conservation. Throughout, he balances abstract questions and ideas with tangible life experiences. After describing the overwhelming “cornucopia” he was presented with at a natural foods store, he was reminded of a quote from poet Ogden Nash: “Progress was good for awhile…but then it went on and on.”

Though White presents no earth-shattering revelations (or solutions), readers will be engaged by his frank and thoughtful discussion of our modern environment.