Book Review: From the mountains to the sea: The historic restoration of the Penobscot River

is that countries install and enforce meaningful environmental impact assessments that put biodiversity and the protection of sensitive ecosystems front and center. The volume also presents interesting viewpoints into what it means to invest in sustainable infrastructure by focusing on the impacts of “green” solutions such as renewable energy systems. That is not to say that the authors suggest renewable energy is a problem, rather that we should not simply accept the technology and systems without also asking questions about how to minimize their impacts on species and biodiversity. That may mean carefully considering the types of ecosystems that house wind versus solar infrastructure. Or it could mean encouraging the wider use of smaller scale energy production, which can reduce the impacts created by large scale systems. This nuanced discussion is a good example of the type of work undertaken by this volume. Critically, the book also focuses on the way that financing can help reach desired outcomes. Throughout the text the financial stakes of infrastructure investments are made clear, with the different chapters exploring the range of countries investing in infrastructure and delineating the hoped for benefits. This review of involved parties makes it clear just how expansive the discussion of sustainable infrastructure will need to be in order to effect global change. One critical cog in this effort will be to forward conservation-focused financing. If, the authors argue, the large-scale financial institutions that bankroll major infrastructure require significant environmental planning, review, and mitigation in order to secure funding, then more countries and companies will adhere to these standards. The authors also recognize the importance of building biodiversity protection intentionally into international collaborations. As always, the definition of the “natural world” is a slippery term. The authors would have been served by more clearly spelling out the way they collectively define the ecosystems they are discussing and how to best situate humanity’s impact on them even before the discussed infrastructure projects were built. That, of course, is a much longer discussion and its absence in the volume does not detract from the detailed accounts given in each chapter. For readers interested in the specific ecosystems and infrastructure dissected in the book, the volume presents compact, readable segments. Many of these offer intriguing paths for future research and reading. For those for whom the ecosystem focus is a bit far afield, some of the chapters may delve too deep. But, on the whole, the work presents a meaningful new angle to explore the role of macro infrastructure systems in our world and highlights a previously understudied slice of those systems’ impacts.