McKibben sets out on a journey, from his home in the Adirondack Mountains to a city in Brazil and a state in India, in search of realistic hope for the Earth. Hope, Human and Wild is an extraordinary tale of the author's travels to places that have made the most of their limited resources. Their triumphs convince McKibben that we can help the world recover from some of the damage we have done.

Only a hundred years ago, the land on which McKibben's house stands in the majestic Adirondack woods was a barren, clearcut wasteland. Now he is surrounded by magnificent forest; and the beaver, the moose, and the coyote have come back.

Looking for other successes, he journeys to the small Brazilian city of Curitiba, which has saved itself from the developers. A brave and gifted mayor has designed a rapid transit system that people actually want to use, the poor collaborate with architects to plan their own houses, "sanitation problems" are solved by exchanging sacks of garbage for bags of food, and hope - human - is lived out every day.

In Kerala, a densely populated state in Southern India, he finds that the life expectancy, birthrate, and literacy rate rival those of America - on three hundred dollars per person per year. Awed by the remarkable accomplishments of these communities, McKibben explores the ways we can not only confront our problems and find solutions to them, but thrive in the process. Hope, Human and Wild is a confirmation of hope for the future of our planet.