Writing Our Extinction

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Writing Our Extinction

Author : Patrick Whitmarsh
Publisher : Stanford University Press
Page : 270 pages
File Size : 52,6 Mb
Release : 2023-04-11
Category : Literary Criticism
ISBN : 9781503635555

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Writing Our Extinction by Patrick Whitmarsh Pdf

Mid-twentieth-century developments in science and technology produced new understandings and images of the planet that circulated the globe, giving rise to a modern ecological consciousness; but they also contributed to accelerating crises in the global environment, including climate change, pollution, and waste. In this new work, Patrick Whitmarsh analyzes postwar narrative fictions that describe, depict, or express the earth from above (the aerial) and below (the subterranean), revealing the ways that literature has engaged this history of vertical science and linked it to increasing environmental precarity, up to and including the extinction of humankind. Whitmarsh examines works by writers such as Don DeLillo, Karen Tei Yamashita, Reza Negarestani, and Colson Whitehead alongside postwar scientific programs including the Space Race, atmospheric and underground nuclear testing, and geological expeditions such as Project Mohole (which attempted to drill to the earth's mantle). As Whitmarsh argues, by focusing readers' attention on the fragility of postwar life through a vertical lens, Anthropocene fiction highlights the interconnections between human behavior and planetary change. These fictions situate industrial history within the much longer narrative of geological time and reframe scientific progress as a story through which humankind writes itself out of existence.

The Sixth Extinction

Author : Elizabeth Kolbert
Publisher : Henry Holt and Company
Page : 336 pages
File Size : 53,9 Mb
Release : 2014-02-11
Category : Nature
ISBN : 9780805099799

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The Sixth Extinction by Elizabeth Kolbert Pdf

ONE OF THE NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW'S 10 BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR A major book about the future of the world, blending intellectual and natural history and field reporting into a powerful account of the mass extinction unfolding before our eyes Over the last half a billion years, there have been five mass extinctions, when the diversity of life on earth suddenly and dramatically contracted. Scientists around the world are currently monitoring the sixth extinction, predicted to be the most devastating extinction event since the asteroid impact that wiped out the dinosaurs. This time around, the cataclysm is us. In The Sixth Extinction, two-time winner of the National Magazine Award and New Yorker writer Elizabeth Kolbert draws on the work of scores of researchers in half a dozen disciplines, accompanying many of them into the field: geologists who study deep ocean cores, botanists who follow the tree line as it climbs up the Andes, marine biologists who dive off the Great Barrier Reef. She introduces us to a dozen species, some already gone, others facing extinction, including the Panamian golden frog, staghorn coral, the great auk, and the Sumatran rhino. Through these stories, Kolbert provides a moving account of the disappearances occurring all around us and traces the evolution of extinction as concept, from its first articulation by Georges Cuvier in revolutionary Paris up through the present day. The sixth extinction is likely to be mankind's most lasting legacy; as Kolbert observes, it compels us to rethink the fundamental question of what it means to be human.

The Most Important Comic Book on Earth

Author : Cara Delevingne,Ricky Gervais,Jane Goodall,Scott Snyder,Taika Waititi
Publisher : Penguin
Page : 351 pages
File Size : 43,5 Mb
Release : 2021-11-09
Category : Comics & Graphic Novels
ISBN : 9780744058512

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The Most Important Comic Book on Earth by Cara Delevingne,Ricky Gervais,Jane Goodall,Scott Snyder,Taika Waititi Pdf

120 inspiring visual stories on environmentalism from key figures, charities, activists, and artists. The Most Important Comic Book On Earth is a global collaboration for planetary change, bringing together a diverse team of 300 leading environmentalists, artists, authors, actors, filmmakers, musicians, and more to present over 120 stories to save the world. Whether it’s inspirational tales from celebrity names such as Cara Delevingne and Andy Serkis, hilarious webcomics from War and Peas and Ricky Gervais, artworks by leading illustrators David Mack and Tula Lotay, calls to action from activists George Monbiot and Jane Goodall, or powerful stories by Brian Azzarello and Amy Chu, each of the comics in this anthology will support projects and organizations fighting to save the planet and Rewrite Extinction.

Earth Emotions

Author : Glenn A. Albrecht
Publisher : Cornell University Press
Page : 257 pages
File Size : 47,6 Mb
Release : 2019-05-15
Category : Nature
ISBN : 9781501715242

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Earth Emotions by Glenn A. Albrecht Pdf

As climate change and development pressures overwhelm the environment, our emotional relationships with Earth are also in crisis. Pessimism and distress are overwhelming people the world over. In this maelstrom of emotion, solastalgia, the homesickness you have when you are still at home, has become, writes Glenn A. Albrecht, one of the defining emotions of the twenty-first century. Earth Emotions examines our positive and negative Earth emotions. It explains the author's concept of solastalgia and other well-known eco-emotions such as biophilia and topophilia. Albrecht introduces us to the many new words needed to describe the full range of our emotional responses to the emergent state of the world. We need this creation of a hopeful vocabulary of positive emotions, argues Albrecht, so that we can extract ourselves out of environmental desolation and reignite our millennia-old biophilia—love of life—for our home planet. To do so, he proposes a dramatic change from the current human-dominated Anthropocene era to one that will be founded, materially, ethically, politically, and spiritually on the revolution in thinking being delivered by contemporary symbiotic science. Albrecht names this period the Symbiocene. With the current and coming generations, "Generation Symbiocene," Albrecht sees reason for optimism. The battle between the forces of destruction and the forces of creation will be won by Generation Symbiocene, and Earth Emotions presents an ethical and emotional odyssey for that victory.

Imagining Extinction

Author : Ursula K. Heise
Publisher : University of Chicago Press
Page : 299 pages
File Size : 49,6 Mb
Release : 2016-08-10
Category : Literary Criticism
ISBN : 9780226358161

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Imagining Extinction by Ursula K. Heise Pdf

As the extinction of species accelerates and more species become endangered, activists, filmmakers, writers, and artists have responded to bring this global crisis to the attention of the public. Until now, there has been no study of the frameworks that shape these narratives and images, or of the symbolic meanings that the death of species carries in different cultural communities. Ursula Heise makes the case that understanding how and why endangered species come to matter culturally is indispensable for any effective advocacy on their behalf. Heise begins by showing that the tools of conservation science and law need to be viewed as cultural artifacts: biodiversity databases and laws for the protection of threatened species use rhetorical and cultural resources that open up different approaches to the problem of understanding global wildlife. The second half of her book explores ways of envisioning alternative futures for biodiversity. The narrative of nature s decline or even imminent disappearance has been a successful rallying trope for those skeptical of modernization and ideologies of progress. But environmentalists nostalgia for the past and pessimistic outlook on the future have also alienated parts of the public. Heise tells the story of environmental activists, writers, and scientists who are creating new stories to guide the environmental imagination."

Rise of the Necrofauna

Author : Britt Wray
Publisher : Greystone Books Ltd
Page : 233 pages
File Size : 48,7 Mb
Release : 2017-09-30
Category : Science
ISBN : 9781771641630

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Rise of the Necrofauna by Britt Wray Pdf

Jurassic Park meets The Sixth Extinction in Rise of the Necrofauna, a provocative look at de-extinction from acclaimed documentarist and science writer Britt Wray. A New Yorker “The Books We Loved in 2017” Selection A Science News Favorite Book of 2017 A Sunday Times "Must Read" What happens when you try to recreate a woolly mammoth—fascinating science, or conservation catastrophe? In Rise of the Necrofauna, Wray takes us deep into the minds and labs of some of the world's most progressive thinkers to find out. She introduces us to renowned futurists like Stewart Brand and scientists like George Church, who are harnessing the powers of CRISPR gene editing in the hopes of "reviving" extinct passenger pigeons, woolly mammoths, and heath hens. She speaks with Nikita Zimov, who together with his eclectic father Sergey, is creating Siberia's Pleistocene Park—a daring attempt to rebuild the mammoth's ancient ecosystem in order to save earth from climate disaster. Through interviews with these and other thought leaders, Wray reveals the many incredible opportunities for research and conservation made possible by this emerging new field. But we also hear from more cautionary voices, like those of researcher and award-winning author Beth Shapiro (How to Clone a Woolly Mammoth) and environmental philosopher Thomas van Dooren. Writing with passion and perspective, Wray delves into the larger questions that come with this incredible new science, reminding us that de-extinction could bring just as many dangers as it does possibilities. What happens, for example, when we bring an "unextinct" creature back into the wild? How can we care for these strange animals and ensure their comfort and safety—not to mention our own? And what does de-extinction mean for those species that are currently endangered? Is it really ethical to bring back an extinct passenger pigeon, for example, when countless other birds today will face the same fate? By unpacking the many biological, technological, ethical, environmental, and legal questions raised by this fascinating new field, Wray offers a captivating look at the best and worst of resurrection science. A captivating whirlwind tour through the birth and early life of the scientific idea known as “de-extinction.”—Beth Shapiro, author of How to Clone a Mammoth: The Science of De-Extinction Published in Partnership with the David Suzuki Institute.

Extraction to Extinction

Author : David Howe
Publisher : Saraband
Page : 182 pages
File Size : 47,7 Mb
Release : 2022-04-05
Category : Science
ISBN : 9781915089632

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Extraction to Extinction by David Howe Pdf

Tracing our environmental impact through time, David Howe demonstrates how humanity’s exploitation of Earth’s natural resources has pushed our planet to its limit and asks: What’s next for our depleted planet? Everything we use started life in the earth, as a rock or a mineral vein, a layer of an ancient seabed, or perhaps the remains of a 400-million-year-old volcano. Humanity's ability to fashion nature to its own ends is by no means a new phenomenon—we have been inventing new ways to help ourselves to its bounty for tens of thousands of years. But today, we mine, quarry, pump, cut, blast, and crush Earth's resources at an unprecedented rate. We have become a dominant, even dangerous, force on the planet. In Extraction to Extinction, David Howe traces our impact through time to unearth how our obsession with endlessly producing and throwing away more and more stuff could destroy our planet. But is there still time to turn it around?

On Extinction

Author : Melanie Challenger
Publisher : Catapult
Page : 359 pages
File Size : 54,9 Mb
Release : 2021-03-16
Category : Nature
ISBN : 9781640094635

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On Extinction by Melanie Challenger Pdf

Realizing the link between her own estrangement from nature and the cultural shifts that led to a dramatic rise in extinctions, award–winning writer Melanie Challenger travels in search of the stories behind these losses. From an exploration of an abandoned mine in England to an Antarctic sea voyage to South Georgia's old whaling stations, from a sojourn in South America to a stay among an Inuit community in Canada, she uncovers species, cultures, and industries touched by extinction. Accompanying her on this journey are the thoughts of anthropologists, biologists, and philosophers who have come before her. Drawing on their words as well as firsthand witness and ancestral memory, Challenger traces the mindset that led to our destructiveness and proposes a path of redemption rooted in our emotional responses. This sobering yet illuminating book looks beyond natural devastation to examine "why" and "what's next."

X-Risk

Author : Thomas Moynihan
Publisher : MIT Press
Page : 481 pages
File Size : 42,6 Mb
Release : 2020-11-03
Category : Social Science
ISBN : 9781913029845

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X-Risk by Thomas Moynihan Pdf

How humanity came to contemplate its possible extinction. From forecasts of disastrous climate change to prophecies of evil AI superintelligences and the impending perils of genome editing, our species is increasingly concerned with the prospects of its own extinction. With humanity's future on this planet seeming more insecure by the day, in the twenty-first century, existential risk has become the object of a growing field of serious scientific inquiry. But, as Thomas Moynihan shows in X-Risk, this preoccupation is not exclusive to the post-atomic age of global warming and synthetic biology. Our growing concern with human extinction itself has a history. Tracing this untold story, Moynihan revisits the pioneers who first contemplated the possibility of human extinction and stages the historical drama of this momentous discovery. He shows how, far from being a secular reprise of religious prophecies of apocalypse, existential risk is a thoroughly modern idea, made possible by the burgeoning sciences and philosophical tumult of the Enlightenment era. In recollecting how we first came to care for our extinction, Moynihan reveals how today's attempts to measure and mitigate existential threats are the continuation of a project initiated over two centuries ago, which concerns the very vocation of the human as a rational, responsible, and future-oriented being.

A World in a Shell

Author : Thom van Dooren
Publisher : MIT Press
Page : 300 pages
File Size : 47,9 Mb
Release : 2023-10-17
Category : Nature
ISBN : 9780262547345

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A World in a Shell by Thom van Dooren Pdf

Following the trails of Hawai‘i’s snails to explore the simultaneously biological and cultural significance of extinction. In this time of extinctions, the humble snail rarely gets a mention. And yet snails are disappearing faster than any other species. In A World in a Shell, Thom van Dooren offers a collection of snail stories from Hawai‘i—once home to more than 750 species of land snails, almost two-thirds of which are now gone. Following snail trails through forests, laboratories, museums, and even a military training facility, and meeting with scientists and Native Hawaiians, van Dooren explores ongoing processes of ecological and cultural loss as they are woven through with possibilities for hope, care, mourning, and resilience. Van Dooren recounts the fascinating history of snail decline in the Hawaiian Islands: from deforestation for agriculture, timber, and more, through the nineteenth century shell collecting mania of missionary settlers, and on to the contemporary impacts of introduced predators. Along the way he asks how both snail loss and conservation efforts have been tangled up with larger processes of colonization, militarization, and globalization. These snail stories provide a potent window into ongoing global process of environmental and cultural change, including the largely unnoticed disappearance of countless snails, insects, and other less charismatic species. Ultimately, van Dooren seeks to cultivate a sense of wonder and appreciation for our damaged planet, revealing the world of possibilities and relationships that lies coiled within a snail’s shell.

Field Notes from a Catastrophe

Author : Elizabeth Kolbert
Publisher : Bloomsbury Publishing USA
Page : 321 pages
File Size : 45,9 Mb
Release : 2015-02-03
Category : Political Science
ISBN : 9781620409893

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Field Notes from a Catastrophe by Elizabeth Kolbert Pdf

A new edition of the book that launched Elizabeth Kolbert's career as an environmental writer--updated with three new chapters, making it, yet again, "irreplaceable" (Boston Globe). Elizabeth Kolbert's environmental classic Field Notes from a Catastrophe first developed out of a groundbreaking, National Magazine Award-winning three-part series in The New Yorker. She expanded it into a still-concise yet richly researched and damning book about climate change: a primer on the greatest challenge facing the world today. But in the years since, the story has continued to develop; the situation has become more dire, even as our understanding grows. Now, Kolbert returns to the defining book of her career. She has added a chapter bringing things up-to-date on the existing text, plus three new chapters--on ocean acidification, the tar sands, and a Danish town that's gone carbon neutral--making it, again, a must-read for our moment.

Mere Extinction

Author : Evie Christie
Publisher : ECW Press
Page : 65 pages
File Size : 46,8 Mb
Release : 2021-04-06
Category : Poetry
ISBN : 9781773056814

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Mere Extinction by Evie Christie Pdf

“Christie’s audacious writing pulses with life and, yes, movement.” — Globe and Mail In Evie Christie’s third book mothers nurse babies as the world comes to an end, fathers hustle or drift, the pastoral and the present collide, violence, love, and death gently fill the space and time they have been given. As surreal as they are domestic, Christie’s poems navigate the world they are in, struggle with history, the immediate, and what Richard Polt’s investigation of Heidegger would describe as “the emergency being.” Bog Girl After Seamus Heaney I waited too long, was left waiting and here I am in my fruit-white youth, too young to go untouched, a balmy small-town dream touched up with pink where it mattered. Remember the ways you wanted to touch and did not and finally broke in through the window and did until I got smart and found their sophistication: loveless bliss, made over and over ’til the earth packed under my nails was gone. Find me here, waiting, gone blue and winter cold, make out my parts from the windowsill, not gleaming, all the same, the same as ever.

Driven to Extinction

Author : Richard Pearson
Publisher : Union Square + ORM
Page : 240 pages
File Size : 48,7 Mb
Release : 2011-03-01
Category : Science
ISBN : 9781402788734

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Driven to Extinction by Richard Pearson Pdf

“A primer on one of the most contentious topics in modern ecology . . . an effective counter to misinformation elsewhere.” —Frontiers of Biogeography Could more than a million species disappear in the twenty-first century? Written by a leading scientist in the field, Driven to Extinction draws upon fascinating case studies from around the world, providing balanced and well-reasoned insight into the potential impacts of climate change on the diversity of life. Richard Pearson focuses on the science of the issue, revealing what has happened––as well as what is likely to happen––to some of the world’s weirdest and most wonderful species as global temperatures continue to rise. “A nuanced and fascinating book about the interrelationship of two of the greatest challenges humanity will face in this century—holding climate change within manageable bounds and preserving biodiversity in the face of rapidly changing habitat and a changing climate.” —John Topping, President of the Climate Institute “The ideal resource for citizens concerned about the dangers of climate change and the future of biodiversity.” —Spirituality & Practice “A carefully crafted and highly readable analysis . . . devoid of jargon and excessive technical terminology, Pearson’s work is highly recommended to anyone with interest in nature conservation or broader climate change issues.” —Biological Conservation “A wonderfully written revelation of how nature is stirring in response to climate change—and a wake-up call to what could happen to our fellow inhabitants on the living planet. Required reading for every citizen.” —Thomas E. Lovejoy, Biodiversity Chair, the Heinz Center, and Senior Advisor to the United Nations Foundation

After Extinction

Author : Richard Grusin
Publisher : U of Minnesota Press
Page : 263 pages
File Size : 55,6 Mb
Release : 2018-03-20
Category : Philosophy
ISBN : 9781452956329

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After Extinction by Richard Grusin Pdf

A multidisciplinary exploration of extinction and what comes next What comes after extinction? Including both prominent and unusual voices in current debates around the Anthropocene, this collection asks authors from diverse backgrounds to address this question. After Extinction looks at the future of humans and nonhumans, exploring how the scale of risk posed by extinction has changed in light of the accelerated networks of the twenty-first century. The collection considers extinction as a cultural, artistic, and media event as well as a biological one. The authors treat extinction in relation to a variety of topics, including disability, human exceptionalism, science-fiction understandings of time and posthistory, photography, the contemporary ecological crisis, the California Condor, systemic racism, Native American traditions, and capitalism. From discussions of the anticipated sixth extinction to the status of writing, theory, and philosophy after extinction, the contributions of this volume are insightful and innovative, timely and thought provoking. Contributors: Daryl Baldwin, Miami U; Claire Colebrook, Pennsylvania State U; William E. Connolly, Johns Hopkins U; Ashley Dawson, CUNY Graduate Center; Joseph Masco, U of Chicago; Nicholas Mirzoeff, New York U; Margaret Noodin, U of Wisconsin–Milwaukee; Jussi Parikka, U of Southampton; Bernard C. Perley, U of Wisconsin–Milwaukee; Cary Wolfe, Rice U; Joanna Zylinska, Goldsmiths, U of London.

Extinction

Author : Bradley Somer
Publisher : Blackstone Publishing
Page : 203 pages
File Size : 51,5 Mb
Release : 2022-11-22
Category : Fiction
ISBN : 9798212011211

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Extinction by Bradley Somer Pdf

“Tale of wilderness survival and pursuit, told in lean, propulsive prose, but with a twist...Somer raises disquieting questions about our relationship with nature, and the debt we owe to the beings with whom we share our planet – even, or perhaps especially, when there is no longer any chance of restitution.” —The Guardian In a lonely valley, deep in the mountains, a ranger watches over the last surviving grizzly bear. With the natural world exhausted and in tatters, Ben has dedicated himself to protecting this single fragment of the wild. One night, he hears voices in the valley—poachers, come to hunt his bear. A heart-pounding chase begins, crossing forests and mountainsides, passing centuries of human ruins. Sometimes hunter, sometimes prey—Ben must choose the bear’s fate and his own. Is he willing to lay down his life for a dying breed? Is he willing to kill for it?