Adirondack Green

Adirondack Green
Volume One of the Adirondack Green Trilogy

Adirondack Green, the first volume of a trilogy, tells the story of a small American town which decides, after much debate, to put a wind turbine on top of the local ski mountain. This one Danish turbine is able to power the entire town of two thousand people: their homes, businesses, school, nursing home, even the ski lift. No one in Balsam Corners anticipated the changes which one wind turbine would make in their lives. They discovered that they had joined the first stirrings of a global Renaissance. The kids, especially, seemed to wake up.

Thirty-two high school seniors, the Class of 2004, learn on the first day of school in September that they must contribute one hundred hours of community service in order to graduate in June. The story follows five of those seniors, who are assigned to help five older members of their community. Together, they build five extraordinary friendships. The students begin their senior year as citizens of Balsam Corners, and graduate as citizens of the world.

Woven through the novel is the story of a boy who graduated from Balsam Corners High School two years ago, who joined the Army to serve his country, and who thus was shipped as a soldier to the war in Iraq. His father served in Vietnam. His mother lost her brother to the ravages of Agent Orange. The thirty-two seniors witness with their own eyes the devastating cost of a war for oil, while at the same time they witness the multitude of benefits bestowed upon the town by their wind turbine spinning atop the mountain.

Adirondack Green is a deeply American story about the choices which we face in our troubled world today.

Book categories: Climate Change and Clean Energy