Earth’s weary lovers are tired, perplexed, and battered from all directions. Their hearts have so often been broken. It’s hard to go on, but it is morally impossible to quit. How do Earth’s protectors find the heart to continue the struggle?

To this question, environmental philosopher Kathleen Dean Moore and Canadian artist Bob Haverluck bring twenty-two life-affirming essays and drawings. Their entwined art offers pluck, stubborn resolve, and even some laughter to those who have for years been working for environmental sanity, social justice, and ecological thriving.

What Moore and Haverluck offer is encouragement to join or keep on with Earth’s work—not distractions, but deep and honest reasons to remember that the struggle matters. Rather than another to-do list or an empty promise of hope, Take Heart is a thank-you gift to the multitudes of Earth’s defenders. Inside its pages, they will find reason to take heart.

Taking heart is not hope exactly, but maybe it’s courage. Not solutions to the planetary crisis, but some modest advice for the inevitable crisis of the heart. A rueful grin, and gratitude to be part of this strange and necessary work for the endangered Earth.

Dr. Paul Dudley White was the premier heart specialist of this century. He was recognized as an outstanding bedside doctor, a great teacher, and a widely respected investigator. By his optimism, his pioneer message encouraging physical activity, and his emphasis on avoiding unnecessary invalidism, he changed the outlook of thousands of patients with heart disease and changed it for the better. He was the heart specialist called to see President Eisenhower at the time of his heart attack, and by his frank and authoritative discussions with representatives of the media set a precedent for the handling of all future Presidential illnesses. Known around the world, he used his position as a noted scientist and humanitarian to foster international understanding and the quest for world peace.