Springs eternal

Bill McKibben’s Hope Human and Wild (Little, Brown, $22.95, ISBN 0 316 56064 2) is an optimistic account of three staggering successes in environmental regeneration – the return of forests in America and two towns, one in Brazil and the other in India, that have managed to wrest a decent and healthy life from surrounding squalor and degradation. Unpious, uplifting and written in splendid amazement.