Todd MacLean still laughs when he remembers the morning he talked to Archbishop Desmond Tutu. The Island author was in his pyjamas in his kitchen in southeastern P.E.I. talking to the high profile opponent of apartheid.

MacLean had a question he wanted answered, one he ended up asking 364 others too.

"The question, really, is do we have hope to get through the environmental crisis, how can we achieve sustainability, is it possible?" he said.

MacLean spent the last four years gathering answers from around the world: David Suzuki, Jane Goodall, the Dalai Lama, activists, authors, business leaders, politicians and entertainers providing a daily anthology called Global Chorus.

"Being plagued with anxious thoughts about where we are headed as a human species, I just wanted to connect with other people to see if they were thinking about these same kinds of things." said MacLean.

"It's ominous in its warnings, but yes, it is united in its thread of hope that I believe can help even the most faithless global citizen to believe that we have the capacity to create long-lasting and positive change in the world."

Finding a publisher to share that message of hope wasn't easy. As a first-time author MacLean was flatly refused by some literary agents. The book was then pitched to about 50 publishers, eventually being sought out by Rocky Mountain Books, based in Victoria, B.C.

Global Chorus is now available for pre-order, it is to be published in November and will be followed by what MacLean calls a road trip to promote the book and meet some of his contributors in hope.

The P.E.I.-produced environmental book Global Chorus: 365 Voices on the Future of the Planet is now ranking at the top of Amazon.ca’s sales in environmental titles, almost a month away from its official release.

The book will be in stores on Oct. 31, but due to a high volume of preorder sales, Global Chorus has been holding at No. 1 on Amazon.ca's list of New Releases in Environment since Sunday evening.

"I am overwhelmed in excitement with this news, especially at such an early stage in sales for the book," says Global Chorus creator and editor Todd MacLean, "and I just can't wait for readers to receive their copies and enjoy the book."

Since 2010, MacLean has been assembling a daily reader featuring pieces of words from 365 different people around the globe, including David Suzuki, Jane Goodall, Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Maya Angelou, Nelson Mandela, Stephen Hawking and The Dalai Lama. P.E.I. contributors include Charlie G. Sark, Lennie Gallant, David Helwig, Martin Rutte, Jill MacCormack, Lawson Drake, Peter Bevan Baker and chef Michael Smith. Global Chorus also features the P.E.I. and Atlantic Canada images of three local photographers: Louise Vessey, Evan Dickson and Stefan Davidson.

Islanders will have a chance to get a look at the book first-hand during the P.E.I. book launch which will be held at the P.E.I. Brewing Company on Nov. 3 at 7 p.m.

Proceeds from the book’s sales will go toward the Jane Goodall Institute, the David Suzuki Foundation and the Canadian Red Cross.

The film will highlight Todd’s inspiration for the Global Chorus anthology, and his challenges in the process. We’ll interview the people behind the scenes supporting him, and many of the 365 contributors to the book, as we follow his journey around North America (and perhaps further) to support the launch the Global Chorus anthology.