The Reindeer Chronicles

A global tour of earth repair and some of the unsung heroes pushing the boundaries of ecological restoration to show how even the world’s most wounded places can be revived

In this time of uncertainty, The Reindeer Chronicles offers an eye-opening global tour of some of the most wounded places on earth—and how a passionate group of eco-restorers is leading the way to their revitalization. Award-winning science journalist Judith D. Schwartz takes us first to China’s Loess Plateau, where a landmark project has successfully restored a blighted region the size of Belgium, lifting millions of people out of poverty. She journeys on to Norway, where a young indigenous reindeer herder challenges the most powerful orthodoxies of conservation—and his own government. And in the Middle East, she follows the visionary work of an ambitious young American as he attempts to reengineer the desert ecosystem, using plants as his most sophisticated technology. The Reindeer Chronicles demonstrates how solutions to seemingly intractable problems can come from the unlikeliest of places, and how the restoration of local water, carbon, nutrient, and energy cycles can play a dramatic role in stabilizing the global climate. Ultimately, it reveals how much is in our hands if we can find a way to work together and follow nature’s lead.

JUDITH D. SCHWARTZ is a journalist whose work explores nature-based solutions to global environmental and economic challenges. She is the author of Cows Save the Planet and Water in Plain Sight. A graduate of the Columbia Journalism School and Brown University, she lives in southern Vermont.