#futuregen

July 1, 2020
Wales stands as a leader of sustainability. Davidson, the former minister for Environment, Sustainability and Housing in Wales, among many other public roles, chronicles the complex, ultimately successful process by which the nation created the Well-being for Future Generations (Wales) Act, which became law in 2015. The act, Davidson explains, "creates seven goals for living within our environmental limits in the arenas of health, prosperity, resilience, communities, language and heritage, equality and Wales' role in the world." The wide-ranging law connects environmental policy to social justice, a crucial concern in the nation of fewer than 4 million, where social justice, poverty, and inequality--of housing, education, and access to services--are key political themes. For Davidson, environmental awareness began early in her life. She grew up in Rhodesia, now Zimbabwe, where, she writes, "the wildness of nature entered my soul." Returning to the U.K. when she was 14, she resented the culture of consumerism that she saw all around her and sought chances to immerse herself in the natural world. After university, she became a teacher, but she was "galvanized into resistance politics" by the policies of Margaret Thatcher and eagerly joined the Labour Party. After Wales voted for self-determination in 1999, she worked to put sustainable development at the heart of the new government. Davidson recounts the push back she received from politicians and voters and the slow process--from 2003 until the passage of the sustainability law in 2015--necessary to get popular support. Welsh voters needed to be convinced that the law was both economically and environmentally sound: "How do we create an economy that enhances our ecology--and thus our survival? Currently all the evidence," Davidson notes regretfully, "particularly from the so-called developed countries, is going in the opposite direction." Wales' hard-won success, though, is cause for optimism. A useful primer for environmental reform.

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Starred review from July 1, 2020
At a time when the White House is rolling back environmental protections and regulations to levels not seen since the mid-twentieth century, the small country of Wales enacted legislation that mandates that its leaders actively create and enforce new policies aimed at securing environmental safety for future generations. Called the Well-being of Future Generations Act, the law sought improvements to all aspects of life. That such a piece of legislation should come to pass was the groundbreaking work of Jane Davidson. A lifelong environmental and educational activist, Davidson was Minister for Environment, Sustainability and Housing in the Welsh Parliament and a fierce protector of the environment and a personal proponent of a sustainable lifestyle. While her account of the struggles to get this personal dream turned into a political reality is, of necessity, specific to Wales, it nonetheless offers broad guidance to everyone committed to seeing the U.S. move in a more future-centric, environmentally ethical manner. While Davidson writes with passion for the need for such legislation, her clear-eyed assessment of the myriad obstacles facing such trailblazing governance makes this a valuable insider primer for those hoping to enact equally sweeping green legislation in America and beyond.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2020, American Library Association.)