So I was thinking yesterday that it had been a while since I saw any news about EAGER, and wondering if all the buzz was finally dying down. Then i did a google search and happened to be about two hours behind the publication of this story.
Ten Of The Best Books About Climate Change, Conservation And The Environment of 2018
Whether you are giving gifts to others or to yourself, this list of the best popular science books of 2018 about climate change, conservation and the environment is a great place to start reading and gifting
Eager: The Surprising, Secret Life of Beavers and Why They Matter by Ben Goldfarb
Before white settlers arrived in North America, the continent was home to millions of beavers. Thanks to these industrious rodents’ activities, the landscape was covered in an intertwined system of streams and wetlands that resembled a “bowl of spaghetti”, making the land much wetter than it is today. After white settlers arrived, beavers almost disappeared because their fur was intensely popular for making hats for English gentlemen. But beavers are a keystone species whose presence supports entire biological communities, so the dramatic reduction of these animals resulted in the loss of many critically important habitats. Additionally, the loss of beavers’ “ecosystem services” affected humans too by reducing groundwater retention, thereby increasing the frequency and severity of floods, droughts, erosion and wildfires, and intensifying the effects of climate change. In this impassioned and educational book, environmental journalist Ben Goldfarb highlights the ecological importance of beavers, shares important facts about their natural history, and corrects persistent misconceptions about them. He also interviews a variety of experts, ranging from scientists and environmentalists to ranchers and citizen scientists, and shares scientific arguments espousing the restoration of the beaver to its ancestral lands. Includes lots of useful references.
“Written with clarity, intelligence, and humor, this engaging book will appeal to basically everyone.”
Wow! Forbes magazine! Congratulations Ben, I knew your wonderful book was going to take beavers many interesting places but i never thought it would take them to Forbes! We especially love that last sentence of the review and couldn’t agree more. “Written with clarity, intelligence and humor”. So true!
And beavers, don’t forget the beavers.
i was also surprised to see that our old friend Phys.org forgot to mention how important beavers were for the problem they discussed yesterday. When there’s an obvious solution you should say so, don’t you think?
Freshwater wildlife face an uncertain future
Pacific salmon are one of Canada’s iconic creatures. Each summer, they complete their, on average, four- to five-year-long life cycle by returning from their rich ocean feeding grounds to the creeks and streams where they were born. Here, following in the “footsteps” of their parents, they will lay eggs, die and give rise to the next generation of salmon.
For our research on the migration and conservation of Pacific salmon, we have looked at how freshwater ecosystems—lakes, rivers, streams and wetlands—are changing around the globe. Society has its finger on the pulse of the oceans, but what about our too often forgotten fresh waters?
While fresh waters make up just a fraction (0.01 per cent) of all the water on the planet, they are home to nearly 10 per cent of the Earth’s known animal species, including one third of all vertebrates (anything with a backbone). There are even more species of fish in freshwater ecosystems than there are in the ocean.
This picture is, sadly, changing quickly. The World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) recently published the “Living Planet Report 2018,” showing that freshwater species loss is more severe than species declines on land or in the ocean.
Alarmingly, populations of freshwater species on average have declined by more than 80 per cent in 50 years, while populations of land-dwellers and ocean creatures have fallen by less than half that.
Gulp. That’s a huge loss for salmon and trout, frog, otter and herons. if only there were SOME animal that worked tirelessly to make freshwater wetlands that more animals can use. I’m scratching my head here. It’ll come to me in a moment. It’s right on the tip of my tongue.
But the solution does not rest solely with technological advancements to reverse past errors. We need to meet the freshwater needs of both people and nature by changing the way we treat fresh waters, for example, through our day-to-day actions, by joining or supporting the Alliance for Freshwater Life and pressing our governments to join the global effort to preserve freshwater.
