Transition Culture

6 Oct 2006

A Review of Legacy by Joanne Poyourow.

A couple of weeks ago I asked if anyone out there in **Transition Culture**-land would like to review Joanne Poyourow’s book [Legacy](http://www.legacyla.net/purchase.htm”Legacy”) which she very kindly sent me to review. With the pile of books next to my bed in danger of causing serious injury should it topple over during the night, I decided to delegate, and Robert Morgan of [The Green College](http://www.thegreencollege.com) nobly took up the baton. The book attempts to tell the story of the transition from the present to a sustainable society, something I have long argued to be a powerful tool, helping people to imagine how that journey might be. Unfortunately our guest reviewer Robert Morgan was somewhat underwhelmed… here is his review.

**Legacy: A Story of Hope for a Time of Environmental Crisis by Joanne Poyourow. Reviewed by Robert Morgan.**

Legacy sets out to chronicle the campaigns of Tia Chandler and her husband-to-be Ari Damek, as they tussle with government, big-business and public apathy in the fight against global warming. The book opens with a distant descendent reading a letter written by Tia’s mother Cassandra, an environmental campaigner herself who has come to the conclusion that the human race has little future in the face of global climate change. “Ah, but someone was listening� says Arissa, the seventh generation descendent. Unfortunately, I would be very surprised if anyone takes up the cudgel against global climate change through reading Legacy, for although it is undoubtedly well-meaning, it is also amazingly poorly written.

The story proper starts in Los Angeles in 2002, with the apparent murder of Tia’s father, Rick Chandler who was on the verge of developing a device for neutralising nuclear waste. Cassandra’s long-standing environmental campaigns had previously made little impression on her upwardly-mobile daughter, but Tia’s grief brings about a conversion to the green cause. Soon she meets Ari, falls in love with him and they become the heroine/hero of the rest of the book, saving the world with their ceaseless environmental campaigning.

So far, so good one might hope, but the scenario depicted lacks all credibility. The inevitably hostile U.S. government, in thrall to big energy corporations apparently implicated in Rick Chandler’s murder, is eventually ejected by a groundswell of green public opinion stirred up by Ari and Tia’s environmental group. In the second decade of the 21st century, the U.S. economy staggers and collapses, not from the effects of peak oil – indeed there is no mention of peak oil at all – but because of a downturn in obscure economic cycles predicted by a maverick economist. Global climate change gets a few mentions, but there is little suggestion that the author appreciates what may be in store for us on that front. Civil chaos is limited to a few minor riots and some homeless unfortunates living in storm drains being swept away by rainstorms. Presumably the 100+ million guns in America have all been melted down to make spades and trowels for horticulture, while the millions on the religious far-right have discovered atheism.

Meanwhile, a succession of ever-greener governments hold sway, swingeing carbon-reduction policies are brought in, roads are torn up to build tramways, and so on. While all this may conceivably happen, it would surely take more than a recession and a few warming-aggravated storms to bring it about. The most popular pastime changes from gas-guzzling to gardening, but high technology still advances at full speed. In mid-century Ari lies in hospital hooked up to the full paraphernalia of drips, monitors, etc., in an era where carbon use has been cut by maybe 90%. Sorry, it doesn’t stack up. In a future localised world the constant economic growth and global trade flows that allow universal availability of such high-tech, low-cost devices simply won’t exist.

Throughout the book characters take every conceivable opportunity to painstakingly explain environmental issues to each other for reader’s benefit, thereby taking away any narrative flow and sense of credibility that might remain. It raises the question of who this book is actually intended for. Anyone with reasonable environmental awareness while possibly applauding the effort, would soon despair of its lumpen style and lack of reality. Those without such knowledge would soon lose interest in such a poorly written piece. Anyone wanting a good story plus basic environmental information would soon realise they would have to buy two other books – one with basic environmental information and another (almost any work of fiction) with a better storyline.

The book is in a sense pure daydream, but is too badly written and divorced from reality to work even on that level. A great shame as so much more could have been made of the opportunity. If you want to read scenarios of future life that take account of the reality of environmental problems like peak oil and global warming, take a look at some of the short “peak oil scenario� stories on the otherwise unpleasantly militaristic http://beyondpeak.com. Better, buy George Monbiot’s excellent Heat, which describes the horrors global warming may have in store for us, but also how we may still have time to avoid them. Best of all, read Jared Diamond’s Collapse, a brilliant account of how past civilizations have fallen after exceeding their environmental bounds.

‘Legacy’ is available [here](http://www.legacyla.net/purchase.htm”LA”)