With climate change commanding the news spotlight, dominating environmental discourse, you don’t hear much anymore about biodiversity or endangered species, two interconnected issues which, until the last decade or so, had been a focus of many environmental campaigners and widespread media coverage. A case in point: In recent years, the conservation community has been at…Continue Reading…
In a brilliant essay (PDF), the American geographer D. W. Meinig writes: “Any landscape is composed not only of what lies before our eyes but what lies within our heads.” Meinig’s piece is in a classic 1979 book of essays called, “The Interpretation of Ordinary Landscapes.” This collection features scholars whose work touches on the human/environment relationship….Continue Reading…
I’m tempted to cut to the chase and tell you at the outset that conservationists have come a long away from the sense of urgency that in the mid-1980s gave birth to the field of conservation biology, which Michael Soule defined as a “crisis discipline.” True, for foot soldiers carrying the biodiversity flag the core mission…Continue Reading…
Have you heard about the big event National Geographic is hosting with TEDx this week, the one about restoring species? No, not endangered species–but ones that are already extinct, like the woolly mammoth. I have mixed feelings about the idea. In the abstract, I think it’s pretty cool. The prospect of regaining lost pieces of…Continue Reading…
Do conservation biologists make ethically questionable trade-offs when trying to save a species? This is the argument that Marc Bekoff makes in a provocative New Scientist essay. Bekoff, who is a biologist and an animal rights advocate, asks: Can people who value individual lives work with those who are willing to sacrifice lives for the…Continue Reading…
It’s not easy being a conservation biologist. You have to fight on multiple fronts just to maintain and preserve viable wildlife populations. Habitat fragmentation often poses the biggest threat to imperiled species. But there is one battle that the media has all but ignored–that between animal rights proponents and conservationists. So this post from wildlife…Continue Reading…
While mulling the 6-year disappearance of the possibly extinct Chinese paddlefish, Andy Revkin reminds us of the enduring problem with our own approach to species protection: we have an Endangered Species Act intended to save species on the brink, but not a Thriving Ecosystems Act that tries to monitor and sustain diverse communities of species…Continue Reading…
If you read this article by Carl Zimmer in Yale 360, you might notice that there’s a few looming battles over ecological thresholds. Climate scientists and climate advocates will be wrangling over acceptable planetary carbon dioxide limits, and conservation biologists and ecosystem ecologists will be arguing over acceptable species extinction levels. That’s the problem when…Continue Reading…
A conservationist tries to make sense of a town grief-stricken over a wild turkey that got a little too comfortable among humans. People in Easton, MA are so torn up about “Freddie” that a facebook page was created. It has over 1500 fans. There was also a memorial for the bird, with flowers, all of…Continue Reading…
As I wrote in this story a few years back, most ancient ruins are discovered after a bulldozer digs up the ground for a new highway, oil pipeline, or strip mall. It’s called “rescue” or “salvage” archaeology.” It’s an ironic way to advance a science–got to build new stuff before you can find the really…Continue Reading…