Tony Hiss is the author of 15 books, including The Experience of Place. He was a staff writer at The New Yorker for more than 30 years, a visiting scholar at New York University for 25 years, and has lectured around the world. Beginning in the vast North American Boreal Forest that stretches through Canada and roving across the continent – from the Northern Sierra to Alabama’s Paint Rock Forest, and from the Appalachian Trail to a ranch in Mexico – Rescuing the Planet: Protecting Half the Land to Heal the Earth (Vintage) chronicles Hiss’ journey to take stock of the “superorganism” that is Earth: its land, its elements, its plants and animals, its most significant threats, and what we can do to keep it, and ourselves, alive. Hiss not only invites us to understand the scope and gravity of the problems we face, but also makes a case for why protecting half the land is the way to fix those problems. He highlights the work of the many groups already involved in this fight, such as the Indigenous Leadership Initiative, the Yellowstone to Yukon Conservation Initiative, and the global animal tracking project I.C.A.R.U.S.