The Moon by Whale Light and Other Adventures Among Bats, Peng... by Diane Ackerman

Our culture has been evolving at speed, and it functions as another kind of environment, one we also adapt to, and it’s a powerful source of biological change. I’d go further and say our impact is on all of nature, including human evolution. She also draws from the scientific fields from nanotechnology to biomimicry.I was puzzled by certain questions : Why does the world seem to be racing under our feet? Why is this the first year Canada geese didn’t migrate from many New England towns? The world is being ravaged by record heat, drought and floods can we fix what we’ve done to the weather? What sort of stewards of the future planet will today’s “digital children” be? Are they altering the wiring of their brains, and how will that affect our evolution as a species? What will it mean to travel when we can go anywhere on our computers, with little cost or effort? With all the medical changes to the human body – including carbon blade legs, bionic fingers, silicon retinas, computer screens worn over one eye with the ability to text by blinking, bionic suits that make it possible to lift colossal weights and a wonderland of brain enhancers to improve focus, memory and mood – will adolescents still be asking “Who am I?” or “What am I?” How will cities, wild animals and our own biology have changed in 50 years?Īn international coalition of geologists was arguing that our impact on the whole planet was now so profound that we need to change the name of our geologic era to the Anthropocene, which translates as the human age. Ackerman explores ways in which the natural and the human world are now completely dependent on one another. The Human Age: The World Shaped By Us is Ackerman’s exploration into our human capacity both for destruction and for invention, and the way these duel obsessions will shape the future of our planet.

The book was later made into a movie starring Jessica Chastain. The story focuses on Antonina’s life as a zookeeper’s wife. The zoo came to be known as The House Under a Crazy Star.

They would take the refugees and put them in empty animal cages, giving them animal names and calling animals by human names. The Zookeeper’s Wife: A War Story follows two Polish zookeepers, Jan and Antonina, who go on to save hundreds of people from the Nazis after the bombing of their zoo.

If You Like Diane Ackerman Books, You’ll Love… Twilight of the Tenderfoot: A Western MemoirĪn Alchemy of Mind: The Marvel and Mystery of the Brainĭawn Light: Dancing with Cranes and Other Ways to Start the Day The Rarest of the Rare: Vanishing Animals, Timeless WorldsĪ Slender Thread: Rediscovering Hope at the Heart of CrisisĬultivating Delight: A Natural History of My Garden

The Moon by Whale Light and Other Adventures Among Bats, Penguins, Crocodilians and Whales

The Moon by Whale Light and Other Adventures Among Bats, Peng... by Diane Ackerman