by Christopher J. Preston ‧ RELEASE DATE: Feb. 21, 2023
Rare, well-delivered positive news about animals and the natural world.
Inspiring stories of wildlife resilience and recovery.
Many animals headed for extinction are recovering nicely, writes science writer and teacher Preston, who delivers a satisfying account of a dozen successes without minimizing the difficulties involved. He opens with news that four foxes entered British homes over recent years and bit their inhabitants. These victims aside, most people celebrate the fact that British foxes (and American coyotes) are thriving in suburbia. The author also discusses bears, wolves, bison, bobcats, bald eagles, and many species of whale. Formerly slaughtered as pests, food, or merchandise, they are flourishing—so much so that humans will have to adopt different approaches and ethical attitudes and exercise tolerance and a conservationist mindset. Traveling the world, Preston interacted with researchers, activists, and Indigenous people working to restore animals to their former ecosystems, most of which now contain far more humans than before. Some—whooping crane, California condor—were on the verge of extinction. Others remained plentiful but through hunting (beavers) or technology such as dams (salmon), have disappeared from huge areas to the detriment of the environment. North American rivers without beavers become dysfunctional, and their biodiversity plummets. Salmon support a complex food web in their upstream spawning grounds that vanishes when dams shut them out. As Preston shows in this page-turning account, many iconic animals are extinct where they roam freely because they breed with domestic animals. That includes American bison, which interbreed with cattle. Ongoing captive breeding programs aim to produce a genetically pure species, and because farmers and ranchers often hate predators and “pests,” returning animals require permanent and expensive conservation efforts featuring stricter laws, anti-poaching enforcement, insurance, subsidized fencing, and ongoing political and activist pressure. Some readers will note that Preston confines his enthusiasm to prosperous North America and Europe. Conservationists are working hard in Africa and Asia, but there is apparently little to cheer about.
Rare, well-delivered positive news about animals and the natural world.Pub Date: Feb. 21, 2023
ISBN: 9780262047562
Page Count: 328
Publisher: MIT Press
Review Posted Online: Nov. 7, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2022
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New York Times Bestseller
by Walter Isaacson ‧ RELEASE DATE: Sept. 12, 2023
Alternately admiring and critical, unvarnished, and a closely detailed account of a troubled innovator.
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New York Times Bestseller
A warts-and-all portrait of the famed techno-entrepreneur—and the warts are nearly beyond counting.
To call Elon Musk (b. 1971) “mercurial” is to undervalue the term; to call him a genius is incorrect. Instead, Musk has a gift for leveraging the genius of others in order to make things work. When they don’t, writes eminent biographer Isaacson, it’s because the notoriously headstrong Musk is so sure of himself that he charges ahead against the advice of others: “He does not like to share power.” In this sharp-edged biography, the author likens Musk to an earlier biographical subject, Steve Jobs. Given Musk’s recent political turn, born of the me-first libertarianism of the very rich, however, Henry Ford also comes to mind. What emerges clearly is that Musk, who may or may not have Asperger’s syndrome (“Empathy did not come naturally”), has nurtured several obsessions for years, apart from a passion for the letter X as both a brand and personal name. He firmly believes that “all requirements should be treated as recommendations”; that it is his destiny to make humankind a multi-planetary civilization through innovations in space travel; that government is generally an impediment and that “the thought police are gaining power”; and that “a maniacal sense of urgency” should guide his businesses. That need for speed has led to undeniable successes in beating schedules and competitors, but it has also wrought disaster: One of the most telling anecdotes in the book concerns Musk’s “demon mode” order to relocate thousands of Twitter servers from Sacramento to Portland at breakneck speed, which trashed big parts of the system for months. To judge by Isaacson’s account, that may have been by design, for Musk’s idea of creative destruction seems to mean mostly chaos.
Alternately admiring and critical, unvarnished, and a closely detailed account of a troubled innovator.Pub Date: Sept. 12, 2023
ISBN: 9781982181284
Page Count: 688
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: Sept. 12, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2023
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by Walter Isaacson with adapted by Sarah Durand
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BOOK TO SCREEN
by Rachel Carson ‧ RELEASE DATE: Sept. 27, 1962
The book is not entirely negative; final chapters indicate roads of reversal, before it is too late!
It should come as no surprise that the gifted author of The Sea Around Usand its successors can take another branch of science—that phase of biology indicated by the term ecology—and bring it so sharply into focus that any intelligent layman can understand what she is talking about.
Understand, yes, and shudder, for she has drawn a living portrait of what is happening to this balance nature has decreed in the science of life—and what man is doing (and has done) to destroy it and create a science of death. Death to our birds, to fish, to wild creatures of the woods—and, to a degree as yet undetermined, to man himself. World War II hastened the program by releasing lethal chemicals for destruction of insects that threatened man’s health and comfort, vegetation that needed quick disposal. The war against insects had been under way before, but the methods were relatively harmless to other than the insects under attack; the products non-chemical, sometimes even introduction of other insects, enemies of the ones under attack. But with chemicals—increasingly stronger, more potent, more varied, more dangerous—new chain reactions have set in. And ironically, the insects are winning the war, setting up immunities, and re-emerging, their natural enemies destroyed. The peril does not stop here. Waters, even to the underground water tables, are contaminated; soils are poisoned. The birds consume the poisons in their insect and earthworm diet; the cattle, in their fodder; the fish, in the waters and the food those waters provide. And humans? They drink the milk, eat the vegetables, the fish, the poultry. There is enough evidence to point to the far-reaching effects; but this is only the beginning,—in cancer, in liver disorders, in radiation perils…This is the horrifying story. It needed to be told—and by a scientist with a rare gift of communication and an overwhelming sense of responsibility. Already the articles taken from the book for publication in The New Yorkerare being widely discussed. Book-of-the-Month distribution in October will spread the message yet more widely.
The book is not entirely negative; final chapters indicate roads of reversal, before it is too late!Pub Date: Sept. 27, 1962
ISBN: 061825305X
Page Count: 378
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin
Review Posted Online: Oct. 28, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 1962
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by Rachel Carson ; illustrated by Nikki McClure
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