The trail to Kanjiroba Rediscovering Earth in an age of loss

Pulitzer finalist deBuys (First Impressions) recounts his five-week trip through the Dolpo in northwestern Nepal in this lyrical if flawed meditation on climate change and the Earth. In 2016, deBuys joined a medical expedition to provide care to those in need and here uses the experience to contemplate a hospice-oriented approach to addressing climate change that prioritizes "care over cure." This would involve caring for the planet rather than saving it, as well as "letting go of attachment to ultimate outcomes and making the best of the present" (though what this would mean for policy, he writes, is "difficult to say"). Between stories of hiking trails and working with patients, deBuys reflects on two major events that shaped humans' understanding of Earth and its history: Darwin's formulation of evolutionary theory and the discovery of plate tectonics. While deBuys excels at conveying the beauty of Nepal (in the Suli Gad River, "boulders froth the tumbling river into wet clouds"), his rhapsodizing about the backbreaking labor conducted by villagers feels distasteful and ill-advised, and his visit to a remote part of the world often reads like fodder for a thought exercise. While this one aims high, it doesn't hit the mark. (Aug.)

A self-reflective journey from despair that the Earth is dying to the realization that even a world irrevocably changed by humanity is beautiful and worth protecting. It is easy to fear the future when the air is heating up, the seas are rising, and species are disappearing in the ongoing sixth extinction. But where there is hope--not the conviction that something will turn out well but the certainty that it makes sense, regardless of the outcome--there is a reason to care. In his latest, Pulitzer Prize finalist deBuys brings many of the most appealing attributes of memoir and travel and nature writing to bear on humanity's most significant existential crisis. In 61 brief chapters, which read like travel journal entries, deBuys weaves together geological and evolutionary histories and studies of the planet's peoples and biodiversity within the context of his participation with the Nomads Clinic, which provides medical care to communities in Nepal's remote Upper Dolpo region. The author makes a convincing case that even if we cannot cure the ills we have wrought on the Earth, we should still care for it--and for ourselves--as best we can. In the shadow of the Himalayas and its rapidly melting glaciers, the clinic's medical team brings hope, care, and the rare antibiotic to people living otherwise happy and rewarding lives. While climate change is dire and possibly even irreversible, deBuys finds beauty and solace nonetheless. "My work has taken me to badly disturbed environments where losses are high and prospects for improvement slim," he writes. "But most of these places have also overflowed with beauty. They have fundamentally changed how I see the world. Studying the climate system has had a similar effect, revealing the complexity of the natural world in new and deeper ways." The author includes a helpful glossary of terms that may be unfamiliar to many readers. A pleasing ray of positivity regarding the planet's present and future. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.