Working With Nature

"This is a game changer. I mean, this book has been a lifetime in the making, because Jeremy has had such an amazing life. It’s global in outlook, because his career has been all over the world. He says, ‘I was in so-and-so, and this is how it works there.’ I had no idea that place even existed, let alone that that’s how it works! Also, he’s worked alongside engineers, so it’s all about solutions. Here’s a problem: let’s work it out. What’s really lovely about it is that it’s his professional lifetime – in fact, it starts from when he was a small child. It has that feel of time – the way your experience shapes you and your attitudes. That’s right. Yes. He would try to work with the local community to find a solution that got whatever result you wanted, engineering-wise, but preserved what you could and was also respectful of the way people traditionally used that area. So, as an environmentalist and ecologist, he’s worked on massive projects. And because he’s done it over a long time, it’s interesting to see what you can achieve when you actually talk to people, and with patience. Exactly. And, even in the Chris Goodall book, which is very much ‘here’s the problem, here’s the solution,’ the solution is not: ‘so let’s all go live in a mud hut,’ you know? It’s: ‘let’s do something different.’ ‘Let’s have a carbon tax’, or, ‘let’s use more electric cars.’ Let’s do it like this , you know? Sometimes not very glamorous things. It’s not a rallying cry, is it? ‘Insulate your house!’ But actually it’s really important, because of the scale. A little bit like how Irreplaceable is not talking about the most beautiful national park in the history of the world, it’s about saving that little patch of green that’s really important to the thousand people who live within five minutes’ walk. No, no, no! I think if you say to people, ‘you’ve got to read this book because it’s good for you,’ then, I mean, I’d be the first one leading the charge out the door! These are all a good read . You could sit quite happily on a beach and read some of these. Because they’re really well-written, clever, and in some cases lyrical books. And what they’re doing is challenging us to think differently and to get off our backsides and do something. The winner will be announced on September 8th, 2020. wainwrightprize.com"