This Place on Earth: Home and the Practice of Permanence

Alan Durning spent several years traveling the world as an environmental policy analyst. When a Filipino tribeswoman asked him to describe his home, he found that he could not, answering weakly, "In America, we have careers, not places." Determined to change all that, he brought his family to his native Northwest to make a home--by which Durning means learning the geology and ecology of a place, as well as its human present and past. Durning looks into matters such as recycling, urban planning, and community building, and he proposes ways in which we can all tread a little more lightly on the earth, especially by sharing goods and knowledge with our neighbors. This is a lively, hopeful addition to the literature of place.