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Author
Language
English
Description
Why did Eurasians conquer, displace, or decimate Native Americans, Australians, and Africans, instead of the reverse? In this groundbreaking book, evolutionary biologist Jared Diamond stunningly dismantles racially based theories of human history by revealing the environmental factors actually responsible for history's broadest patterns. Here, at last, is a world history that really is a history of all the world's peoples, a unified narrative of human...
Author
Publisher
Dutton, an imprint of Penguin Random House LLC
Language
English
Description
"An historically unprecedented disconnect between humanity and the heavens has opened. Jo Marchant's book can begin to heal it. For at least 20,000 years, we have led not just an earthly existence but a cosmic one. Celestial cycles drove every aspect of our daily lives. Our innate relationship with the stars shaped who we are--our art, religious beliefs, social status, scientific advances, and even our biology. But over the last few centuries we have...
Author
Language
English
Description
Have you ever wondered why we stop to watch the orange glow that arrives before sunset, or why we flock to see cherry blossoms bloom in spring? Is there a reason that people -- regardless of gender, age, culture, or ethnicity -- are mesmerized by baby animals, and can't help but smile when they see a burst of confetti or a cluster of colorful balloons? We are often made to feel that the physical world has little or no impact on our inner joy. Increasingly,...
Author
Language
English
Formats
Description
Our ancestors crossed deserts, mountains, and oceans-- feats of endurance that now seem impossible without modern technology. Can we hack our bodies and use the environment to stimulate our inner biology? Carney explores the true connection between the mind and the body and reveals the science that allows us to push past our perceived limitations.
Author
Publisher
Candlewick Press
Pub. Date
2023.
Language
English
Appears on list
Description
"In an alternate past--or possible future--a mighty tree stands on the banks of a winding river, bearing silent witness to the flow of time and change. A family farms the fertile valley. Soon, a village sprouts, and not long after, a town. Residents learn to harness the water, the wind, and the animals in order to survive and thrive. The growing population becomes ever more industrious and clever, bending nature itself to their will and their ambition:...
Author
Language
English
Description
Recounts how the author's family moved multiple times throughout the country before she decided to adopt their latest town as a permanent home by identifying reasons to love it, sharing her findings about the psychology of place attachment and the motivations of people dedicated to improving their cities. --Publisher's description.
The average restless American will move 11.7 times in a lifetime. For Melody Warnick, it was move #6, from Austin, Texas,...
Author
Publisher
Alfred A. Knopf
Pub. Date
2023.
Language
English
Appears on list
Description
"Global warming is one of the greatest dangers mankind faces today. Even as temperatures increase, sea levels rise, and natural disasters escalate, our current environmental crisis feels difficult to predict and understand. But climate change and its effects on us are not new. In a bold narrative that spans centuries and continents, Peter Frankopan argues that nature has always played a fundamental role in the writing of history. From the fall of...
Author
Language
English
Formats
Description
In this book the author argues that a strong connection to nature is essential for human health. Supported by research, anecdotal evidence, and personal stories, the author shows how tapping into the restorative powers of the natural world can boost mental acuity and creativity; promote health and wellness; build smarter and more sustainable businesses, communities, and economies; and ultimately strengthen human bonds. He outlines seven precepts he...
Author
Language
English
Formats
Description
"In an era of cell phone addiction and ever-expanding cities, many of us fear we've lost our connection to nature--but Peter Wohlleben is convinced that age-old ties linking humans to the forest remain alive and intact. Whether we observe it or not, our blood pressure stabilizes near trees, the color green calms us, and the forest sharpens our senses. Drawing on new scientific discoveries, The Heartbeat of Trees reveals the profound interactions humans...
12) Collisions of earth and sky: connecting with nature for nourishment, reflection, and transformation
Author
Language
English
Formats
Description
"Spending time in nature provides countless benefits. But our lives leave little room for connecting with the natural world, and a history of colonization complicates our relationship to the land. Guided by wellness coach Heidi Barr, this journey of self-inquiry calls you to embrace wildness as an integral part of being fully alive."--
Author
Publisher
MCD / Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Pub. Date
2021.
Language
English
Description
"From the author of Losing Earth, a deeply reported and beautifully told exploration of how we live in a post-natural world"--
We live at a time in which scientists race to reanimate extinct beasts, our most essential ecosystems require monumental engineering projects to survive, chicken breasts grow in test tubes, and multinational corporations conspire to poison the blood of every living creature. No rock, leaf, or cubic foot of air on Earth has...
Author
Pub. Date
2022.
Language
English
Appears on list
Formats
Description
"A book for middle-school-aged children about previous extinctions and possible threats to humans, from volcanoes, to asteroids, to pollution and diseases"--
Scientists estimate that 99% of all species that have ever existed are now extinct. So it is not unreasonable to predict humans are doomed to become fossil records as well. But what could lead to our demise? Supervolcanos? Asteroids? The sun going dark? Climate change? Humans may be capable...
Author
Language
English
Formats
Description
"In March 2011, people in a coastal Japanese city stood atop a seawall watching the approach of the tsunami that would kill them. They believed--naively--that the huge concrete barrier would save them. Instead they perished, betrayed by the very thing built to protect them. Erratic weather, blistering drought, rising seas, and ecosystem collapse now affect every inch of the globe. Increasingly, we no longer look to stop climate change, choosing instead...
Author
Language
English
Formats
Description
"We've always lived on a dangerous planet, but its disasters aren't what they used to be. How the World Breaks gives us a breathtaking new view of crisis and recovery on the unstable landscapes of the Earth's hazard zones. Father and son authors Stan and Paul Cox take us to the explosive fire fronts of overheated Australia, the future lost city of Miami, the fights over whether and how to fortify New York City in the wake of Sandy, the Indonesian...
Author
Publisher
Pantheon Books
Pub. Date
[2024]
Language
English
Description
"H Is for Hawk meets Joan Didion in the Pyrocene in this arresting combination of memoir, natural history, and literary inquiry that chronicles one woman's experience of life in Northern California during the worst fire season on record. Told in luminous, perceptive prose, The Last Fire Season is a deeply incisive inquiry into what it really means-now-to live in relationship to the elements of the natural world. When Manjula Martin moved from the...
Author
Publisher
Oxford University Press
Pub. Date
[2021]
Language
English
Description
"[The author] draws out the complex relationship between religion and climate change. He shows that the religious movements and ideas that emerge from climate shocks often last for many decades, and become a familiar part of the religious landscape, even though their origins in particular moments of crisis may be increasingly consigned to remote memory" -- From jacket flap.
Author
Language
English
Formats
Description
"A dominant, human-centered worldview has brought us to the brink of social, ecological, and climate collapse. Braiding poetic storytelling, deep cultural and climate justice analyses, and knowledge of Earth-centered cultures, The Story is in Our Bones opens a portal to restoration and justice beyond the end of a world."--
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