Book shorts
Conservation Refugees
The Hundred-Year Conflict between Global Conservation and Native Peoples
By Mark Dowie
MIT Press, 2009
Yosemite, one of the oldest and most-famous national parks in the U.S., was made into a wilderness area only after the extermination of native people who for centuries had lived in its valley. Conservation Refugees documents their plight along with the stories of peoples from Thailand, Africa, and India. The fiery Mark Dowie, who has for years documented the conflict between conservationists and indigenous peoples, argues that for environmentalists to be truly successful, they must recognize the interests of and work with those whom they’ve long oppressed. ❧
Galapagos at the Crossroads
Pirates, Biologists, Tourists, and Creationists Battle for Darwin’s Cradle of Evolution
By Carol Ann Bassett, National Geographic, 2009
If we fail to protect the biodiversity of the Galapagos, humanity will have lost its last chance to live in harmony with nature; we might as well go live on the moon. So argues one naturalist in Carol Ann Bassett’s account of the precarious state of this famous archipelago. The book is a modern portrait of the islands, and its author examines who has what at stake as tourists, fishermen, and immigrants all exact their toll on the fragile ecosystem. ❧
Witness to Extinction
How We Failed to Save the Yangtze River Dolphin
By Samuel Turvey
Oxford Press 2009
Turvey’s book does not just lament the loss of another species. It’s an engaging story that melds natural history with a retelling of the author’s personal involvement in doomed efforts to save the Chinese bottlenose dolphin. Witness to Extinction explains how international ambivalence, delays, uncertainty, and lack of will all led to the loss of this charismatic cetacean. ❧
Animal Investigators
How the World’s First Wildlife Forensics Lab Is Solving Crimes and Saving Endangered Species
By Laurel Neme
Scribner 2009
Criminal investigators typically have their hands full just trying to pin down a suspect. For forensic scientists tracking illegal wildlife trade, the challenge is not only finding the guilty party but also determining the identity of the victim—who could be one of 30,000 species. Animal Investigators goes behind the scenes of the only wildlife forensics lab in the U.S. as its scientists and agents crack three cases—one involving headless walruses, one looking into the trade of gallbladders from black bears, and one tracing secret shipments of feathered headdresses from the Amazon to the U.S. ❧
Paradise Found
Nature in America at the Time of Discovery
By Steve Nicholls
University of Chicago Press, 2009
In the 1500s, a fisherman off the coast of Newfoundland reported that cod populations there were so dense they occasionally impeded the progress of ships. His account, and thousands of others, form the basis for Paradise Found—a book that retells the European conquest of North America from a natural-history perspective. Author Steve Nicholls has painstakingly reviewed primary documents and modern science in this account. His new book is an indulgence for history and ecology buffs alike. ❧
A Mathematical Nature Walk
By John A. Adam
Princeton University Press 2009
For those of you who’ve wondered how far away a cloud is, how close a storm is, or how high a tree is, consider purchasing John Adam’s book as your next field guide. A Mathematical Nature Walk asks—and answers, using mostly pre-calculus or arithmetic—these and 93 other questions about the natural world. The book is a catalogue of playful inquiries and their mathematical solutions. ❧
A New Conservation Politics
Power, Organization Building, and Effectiveness
By David Johns
Wiley-Blackwell 2009
David Johns is a lawyer and political scientist who sees conservation through these two powerful lenses, and his new book looks at how those fighting to protect biodiversity can learn from other powerful movements in history—from the abolition of slavery to the anti-apartheid movement. ❧
