—Systemic change begins with personal change—
Tony Hiss was a staff writer for the New Yorker for more than 30 years. He was also a visiting scholar at New York University. Hiss is the author of 15 books, including The Experience of Place, The View from Alger's Window and In Motion: The Experience of Travel. The National Recreation and Park Association's National Literary Award praised his lifetime of "spellbinding and poignant writing.
Rescuing the Planet is his 15th book, ten years in the making. He has described the experience as an "enormous privilege to travel around North America meeting so many people devoting their skills and insights to keeping life alive by staving off the global emergency that threatens a million species with extinction."
Tony turns out to live a few blocks from me. I met him at his home, where we recorded. He shared his experience knowing E. O. Wilson, who, as Tony described, conceived of the plan to protect half the Earth's land to protect biodiversity and more to sustain Earth's ability to sustain life. I'd heard Wilson describe the plan many years ago and had seen some analysis that it could protect up to ninety percent of biodiversity if implemented effectively, whereas saving less land or implementing ineffectively might save markedly less, which could put humanity at risk, not to discount the value of other species' existence independent of humans (I confess to valuing humans more than others, but still value other life). I hadn't heard the stories of people discovering the problems and finding solutions. His book, Rescuing the Planet, tells their stories and the project's history and chance for success. Some of the stories give remarkable hope. Our conversation tells the stories behind the stories of some of the people in the book as well as his motivations and history.