An optimistic view of nature amid the current environmental crisis.
Thomas (Conservation Biology/Univ. of York) eschews “the shackles of a pessimism-laden, loss-only view of the world”—the traditional take of most conservationists—and insists we recognize that many species are thriving in our human-altered world. In a provocative analysis based on his own research and that of others throughout the world, he shows how many animal and plant species benefit from our presence, increasing the biological diversity of much of the world. Human activities generally deemed threats to biodiversity—notably, the killing of animals, habitat destruction, climate change, and biological invasions—have in fact created “unexpected opportunities” for new species to succeed. “Humans have changed the climate, and the distribution of species have changed as a result,” he writes, noting that an “inexorable march of the world’s wildlife is underway,” with birds moving up from the lowlands in Costa Rica, plants shifting upward in European mountain ranges, and warm-water Australian fish finding a home in once-too-chilly Tasmanian reefs. Some two-thirds of animal species “are already living in at least some ‘new places’ where they could not have survived as recently as fifty years ago.” At the same time, humans’ creation of new habitats and connections is leading to the rise of hybrid species, to the consternation of conservationists who believe “every animal should be pure.” Similarly, the appearance of invasive species in new areas is simply part of the biological change that allows life on Earth to survive: “Treating each arrival of a species in a new habitat or geographic location as something to be resisted will, in most instances, result in failure, and it is ultimately counterproductive.”
We are losing much biodiversity because of human meddling, writes this contrarian ecologist in his fascinating book. However, “come back in a million years and we might be looking at several million new species whose existence can be attributed to humans.”Pub Date: Sept. 5, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-61039-727-8
Page Count: 320
Publisher: PublicAffairs
Review Posted Online: July 3, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2017
Categories: SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY
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A tiny book, not much bigger than a pamphlet, with huge potential impact.
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A collection of articulate, forceful speeches made from September 2018 to September 2019 by the Swedish climate activist who was nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize.
Speaking in such venues as the European and British Parliaments, the French National Assembly, the Austrian World Summit, and the U.N. General Assembly, Thunberg has always been refreshingly—and necessarily—blunt in her demands for action from world leaders who refuse to address climate change. With clarity and unbridled passion, she presents her message that climate change is an emergency that must be addressed immediately, and she fills her speeches with punchy sound bites delivered in her characteristic pull-no-punches style: “I don’t want you to be hopeful. I want you to panic. I want you to feel the fear I feel every day. And then I want you to act.” In speech after speech, to persuade her listeners, she cites uncomfortable, even alarming statistics about global temperature rise and carbon dioxide emissions. Although this inevitably makes the text rather repetitive, the repetition itself has an impact, driving home her point so that no one can fail to understand its importance. Thunberg varies her style for different audiences. Sometimes it is the rousing “our house is on fire” approach; other times she speaks more quietly about herself and her hopes and her dreams. When addressing the U.S. Congress, she knowingly calls to mind the words and deeds of Martin Luther King Jr. and John F. Kennedy. The last speech in the book ends on a note that is both challenging and upbeat: “We are the change and change is coming.” The edition published in Britain earlier this year contained 11 speeches; this updated edition has 16, all worth reading.
A tiny book, not much bigger than a pamphlet, with huge potential impact.Pub Date: Nov. 26, 2019
ISBN: 978-0-14-313356-8
Page Count: 112
Publisher: Penguin
Review Posted Online: Nov. 3, 2019
Categories: GENERAL BIOGRAPHY & MEMOIR | BIOGRAPHY & MEMOIR | NATURE | SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY
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BOOK REVIEW
PERSPECTIVES
A Peabody Award–winning NPR science reporter chronicles the life of a turn-of-the-century scientist and how her quest led to significant revelations about the meaning of order, chaos, and her own existence.
Miller began doing research on David Starr Jordan (1851-1931) to understand how he had managed to carry on after the 1906 San Francisco earthquake destroyed his work. A taxonomist who is credited with discovering “a full fifth of fish known to man in his day,” Jordan had amassed an unparalleled collection of ichthyological specimens. Gathering up all the fish he could save, Jordan sewed the nameplates that had been on the destroyed jars directly onto the fish. His perseverance intrigued the author, who also discusses the struggles she underwent after her affair with a woman ended a heterosexual relationship. Born into an upstate New York farm family, Jordan attended Cornell and then became an itinerant scholar and field researcher until he landed at Indiana University, where his first ichthyological collection was destroyed by lightning. In between this catastrophe and others involving family members’ deaths, he reconstructed his collection. Later, he was appointed as the founding president of Stanford, where he evolved into a Machiavellian figure who trampled on colleagues and sang the praises of eugenics. Miller concludes that Jordan displayed the characteristics of someone who relied on “positive illusions” to rebound from disaster and that his stand on eugenics came from a belief in “a divine hierarchy from bacteria to humans that point[ed]…toward better.” Considering recent research that negates biological hierarchies, the author then suggests that Jordan’s beloved taxonomic category—fish—does not exist. Part biography, part science report, and part meditation on how the chaos that caused Miller’s existential misery could also bring self-acceptance and a loving wife, this unique book is an ingenious celebration of diversity and the mysterious order that underlies all existence.
A quirky wonder of a book.Pub Date: April 14, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-5011-6027-1
Page Count: 224
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: Jan. 2, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2020
Categories: GENERAL BIOGRAPHY & MEMOIR | BIOGRAPHY & MEMOIR | NATURE | SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY
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