Eco-Journal, v.17.5 Nov/Dec 2007Eco-Journal, v.17.5 Nov/Dec 2007
Travel by canoe in the Little North
Book Review By David Pancoe
Christmas shopping for the outdoor enthusiast on your list just got a whole lot easier with the release of Canoe Atlas of the Little North by Jonathan Berger and Thomas Terry (Boston Mills Press, 144 pages, hardcover). This atlas covers an area known as the Little North (Le Petit Nord as it was called at the height of the fur trade era), which encompasses the land from the shores of the Hudson Bay, North-West Ontario and Eastern Manitoba, to the U.S. border.
To this day, travelling by canoe is the only practical option in the Little North; therefore the heart of the atlas is detailed canoe routes of the fur trade era and First Nations. Berger and Terry show great cartography skills by dividing the Little North into 57 separate maps. On one page is a map of the route at 1:400 000 with portages and rapids marked; on the facing page is a comprehensive description of the routes´ historic use, hydrographic features, and simple landscape sketches.
Not to be mistaken as a canoe route guidebook, Canoe Atlas of the Little North is truly an atlas in every way, complete with thematic maps, in-depth geological descriptions, and human history. Canoe Atlas of the Little North reminds us of a bygone era and places where we´d still want to go. This exceptional book is an excellent addition to any reference collection.
David Pancoe is owner, instructor and guide for Northern Soul Wilderness Adventures.
Book Review By Steve Rauh
Being depressed, feeling hopeless, and feeling like no one is listening might not be signs of mental illness. It might mean that you are a grassroots environmentalist hearing a lot of bad news and not much good news. Your only consolation might be that other grassroots environmentalists get your point and feel like you. Even so, the media, government, and corporations are not on board, and the inertia of global collapse feels unstoppable.
So why continue, what is our purpose? Could it be that our work is achieving more than we know? Are we part of an emerging positive change that even we cannot see? You might find an answer to these questions in Paul Hawken´s new book, Blessed Unrest: How the Largest Movement in the World Came into Being and Why No One Saw It Coming, (Viking, 342 pages).
The “movement’ Hawken writes about has both social and environmental goals and is “tentatively emerging as a global humanitarian movement arising from the bottom up.’ “Historically,’ Hawken writes, “social movements have arisen primarily in response to injustice, inequities, and corruption. Those woes still remain legion, joined by a new condition that has no precedent: the planet has a life-threatening disease, marked by massive ecological degradation and climate change.’
Hawken wrestles with how to understand the meaning of this unprecedented global movement that is diverse, local, diffuse, and for the most part leaderless; but is also large in aggregate, global, and representative of humanity´s most sincere and deeply felt aspirations. Underpinning the movement, Hawken writes, are two basic shared values. The first is the golden rule, and the second is that life is sacred.
Unprecedented global movement
Hawken has already had a profound effect on the way we view environmentalism through his previous books, most notably The Ecology of Commerce, and Natural Capitalism. These books brought him invitations to speak all over the world and gave him an opportunity to meet people who were “informed, imaginative and vital, and offered ideas, information, and insight;’ people who are rooted in place and caring for their neighbours, or for some part of the earth where they live. Hawken began to sense that this global movement is unprecedented and meaningful. Blessed Unrest is his effort to understand how this movement is having a profoundly positive impact on humanity.
Hawken provides a brief, informative and compelling history of the movement, and then he discusses several characteristics of the movement that have the potential to restore meaning and health to humanity´s inhabitancy of the earth. For example, he draws fascinating parallels between our own immune systems which silently protect us in the most miraculous ways, and the movement which he believes could very well be functioning as a sort of species immune system.
Blessed Unrest provides a hopeful perspective on the value and meaning of our work and an insightful discussion on how our movement can help heal the pain resulting from injustice and ecological destruction. I believe Blessed Unrest is a book well worth reading.