So you’ve heard about all the bad stuff happening with our planet today - the melting of the icecaps, the greenhouse gas emissions, the fish genes injected in our tomatoes blah, blah, blah, but what about the good stuff? Believe it or not, there are many exciting advances taking place as we speak and people working hard towards positive and effective environmental change. In The Geography of Hope: A Tour of The World We Need, Chris Turner sheds some light on these changes, taking us trekking across the globe, seeking out what’s old, new, borrowed and green on our planet today and many emerging breakthroughs to look forward to.

Our journey begins on a tiny island in Denmark called Samso. Samso is credited with being the world’s first island to be powered entirely by renewable energy, mainly in the form of wind power. We learn from beginning to end how this came to be and how the islanders have benefited. From there, the reader is scattered to the winds, breezing through a house that produces more energy than in consumes in Thailand to a hydrogen filling station in Singapore, to the frigid waters of Lake Ontario. The possibilities start to add up quickly - turbine installations in India and China, congestion charges in London (the money going back into public transit), super light turbo diesel cars in Germany, carbon-eating algae grown in smokestacks of power plants, waterless urinals in bathrooms! How bout a company in Germany called Sky Sails that has developed a giant kite that attaches to the front of industrial boats and freights. The kite harnesses the wind and significantly relieves the burden on the engines – very cool, very sexy,

Not only does Turner open our eyes to the developments happening right under our noses but he also explores new ways to inspire and motivate ourselves and the communities in which we live. He examines the psychological shifts that many of these revolutionary ideas need in order to take flight, what lead to the “light bulb moment” as it were. But Turner also acknowledges the practicalities required in these revolutions – particularly in economics. He states that “Small, incremental gains in efficiency eventually fall victim to diminished returns but much more radical efficiency improvements ultimately (and paradoxically) start to reduce overall costs”. Turner seems onto something and he’s got a multitude of examples to back it up.

Chapters often begin with history lessons that, although interesting and important to know, tend to have little to do with the subject at hand and muddy the waters a bit. Ultimately, the real excitement of this read lies in the unveiling of an abundance of much needed hope for the world we’ve got.