After making the short list of books (that kept getting longer) it seemed like a good idea to keep on imagining hope. Here’s a link to an interview with Paul Stamets, mycologist, biodiversity advocate, and author of Mycelium Running: How Mushrooms Can Save the World. Stamets found that mushrooms act as a filtration system and is researching their role in undoing ecological damage such as soil and water pollution, as well as their medicinal properties. For a futuristic, fictional interpretation of what’s in Stamets’s (scientific) book, see Nancy Farmer‘s novel The Lord of Opium.