Tag: Ecology
‘Crossings’ explores the science of road ecology
Crossings
Ben Goldfarb
W.W. Norton & Co., $30
Nearly 65 million kilometers of roadway crisscross the Earth — enough to encircle the planet more than 1,600 times — and that number will likely double by 2050. These roads have intruded into even the most remote corners of the world, and that has come at a cost: Vehicles are responsible for a staggering number of animal deaths. For instance, 1 million vertebrates are thought to die daily in collisions in the
The Great Salt Lake Is Becoming Too Salty to Support Life
Salt Lake City, Utah—Antelope Island, the largest island in Utah’s Great Salt Lake, has not been an island for many years; indeed, its southern shore now extends into Salt Lake City. An eight-foot fence has been built to keep the island’s bison from roaming into the nearby airport and to protect its herd of bighorn sheep from cattle diseases. As the lake shrinks, Farmington Bay, to the island’s east, is rapidly disappearing too, so that … Read more
The Tricky Politics of Ecological Restoration
In her new book, Wild by Design: The Rise of Ecological Restoration, environmental historian Laura J. Martin charts the history of a practice devoted to mending damaged ecosystems, which she argues is currently the most important mode of environmental management in the world. Martin, an assistant professor of environmental studies at Williams College, defines ecological restoration as “a mode of reconciliation with the human past.”
