The Accidental Ecosystem
People and Wildlife in American Cities
Failed to add items
Add to Cart failed.
Add to Wish List failed.
Remove from wishlist failed.
Adding to library failed
Follow podcast failed
Unfollow podcast failed
Prime members: New to Audible?Get 2 free audiobooks during trial.
The Accidental Ecosystem
Buy for $17.19
No default payment method selected.
We are sorry. We are not allowed to sell this product with the selected payment method
-
Narrated by:
-
Matt Godfrey
-
By:
-
Peter S. Alagona
About this listen
The Accidental Ecosystem tells the story of how cities across the United States went from having little wildlife to filling, dramatically and unexpectedly, with wild creatures. Today, many of these cities have more wild animals living in them than at any time in at least the past 150 years. Why have so many cities—the most artificial and human-dominated of all Earth's ecosystems—grown rich with wildlife, even as wildlife has declined in most of the rest of the world? And what does this paradox mean for people, wildlife, and nature on our increasingly urban planet?
The Accidental Ecosystem is the first book to explain this phenomenon from a deep historical perspective, and its focus includes a broad range of species and cities. Digging into the natural history of cities and unpacking our conception of what it means to be wild, this book provides fascinating context for why animals are thriving more in cities than outside of them. Considering what it means to live in diverse, multispecies communities and exploring how human and non-human members of communities might thrive together, Peter S. Alagona goes beyond the tension between those who embrace the surge in urban wildlife and those who think of animals as invasive or as public safety hazards.
©2022 Peter S. Alagona (P)2023 TantorListeners also enjoyed...
-
Down from the Mountain
- The Life and Death of a Grizzly Bear
- By: Bryce Andrews
- Narrated by: Jonathan Todd Ross
- Length: 7 hrs and 10 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 84
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 75
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 75
The grizzly is one of North America's few remaining large predators. Their range is diminished, but they're spreading across the West again. Descending into valleys where once they were king, bears find the landscape they'd known for eons utterly changed by the new most dominant animal: humans. In searing detail, award-winning writer, Montana rancher, and conservationist Bryce Andrews tells us about one such grizzly. Millie is a typical mother: strong, cunning, fiercely protective of her cubs. But raising those cubs becomes ever harder as the climate warms and people crowd the valleys.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
A Slice of Montana
- By Traveler on 02-04-21
By: Bryce Andrews
-
Beloved Beasts
- Fighting for Life in an Age of Extinction
- By: Michelle Nijhuis
- Narrated by: Christina Delaine
- Length: 10 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 46
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 41
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 40
In the late 19th century, as humans came to realize that our rapidly industrializing and globalizing societies were driving other animal species to extinction, a movement to protect and conserve them was born. In Beloved Beasts, acclaimed science journalist Michelle Nijhuis traces the movement's history: from early battles to save charismatic species such as the American bison and bald eagle to today's global effort to defend life on a larger scale.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Great Overview and history
- By B on 03-01-22
By: Michelle Nijhuis
-
The Great Displacement
- Climate Change and the Next American Migration
- By: Jake Bittle
- Narrated by: Matt Godfrey
- Length: 10 hrs and 26 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 74
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 60
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 60
Even as climate change dominates the headlines, many of us still think about it in the future tense—we imagine that as global warming worsens over the coming decades, millions of people will scatter around the world, fleeing famine and rising seas. What we often don’t realize is that the consequences of climate change are already visible, right here in the United States. In communities across the country, climate disasters are pushing thousands of people away from their homes.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Where we're headed
- By Dr. Stuart A. Blair on 03-09-23
By: Jake Bittle
-
Finding the Mother Tree
- Discovering the Wisdom of the Forest
- By: Suzanne Simard
- Narrated by: Suzanne Simard
- Length: 12 hrs and 13 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 1,327
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 1,134
-
Story5 out of 5 stars 1,132
Suzanne Simard is a pioneer on the frontier of plant communication and intelligence; her TED talks have been viewed by more than 10 million people worldwide. In this, her first book, now available in audio, Simard brings us into her world, the intimate world of the trees, in which she brilliantly illuminates the fascinating and vital truths—that trees are not simply the source of timber or pulp, but are a complicated, interdependent circle of life.
-
3 out of 5 stars
-
Couldn't finish, will try the hard copy
- By primrose on 07-22-21
By: Suzanne Simard
-
Entangled Life
- How Fungi Make Our Worlds, Change Our Minds & Shape Our Futures
- By: Merlin Sheldrake
- Narrated by: Merlin Sheldrake
- Length: 9 hrs and 32 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall5 out of 5 stars 3,977
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars 3,377
-
Story5 out of 5 stars 3,369
When we think of fungi, we likely think of mushrooms. But mushrooms are only fruiting bodies, analogous to apples on a tree. Most fungi live out of sight, yet make up a massively diverse kingdom of organisms that supports and sustains nearly all living systems. Fungi provide a key to understanding the planet on which we live, and the ways we think, feel, and behave.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Mycology for Everyone
- By Cephalopods Revenge on 05-12-20
By: Merlin Sheldrake
-
Crossings
- How Road Ecology Is Shaping the Future of Our Planet
- By: Ben Goldfarb
- Narrated by: Malcolm Hillgartner
- Length: 11 hrs and 52 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 59
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 51
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 51
Some 40 million miles of roadways encircle the earth, yet we tend to regard them only as infrastructure for human convenience. While roads are so ubiquitous they're practically invisible to us, wild animals experience them as entirely alien forces of death and disruption. In Crossings, environmental journalist Ben Goldfarb travels throughout the United States and around the world to investigate how roads have transformed our planet. A million animals are killed by cars each day in the US alone, but as the new science of road ecology shows, the harms of highways extend far beyond roadkill.
-
4 out of 5 stars
-
Great book, but narration doesn’t fit.
- By Anonymous User on 09-22-23
By: Ben Goldfarb
-
Down from the Mountain
- The Life and Death of a Grizzly Bear
- By: Bryce Andrews
- Narrated by: Jonathan Todd Ross
- Length: 7 hrs and 10 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 84
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 75
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 75
The grizzly is one of North America's few remaining large predators. Their range is diminished, but they're spreading across the West again. Descending into valleys where once they were king, bears find the landscape they'd known for eons utterly changed by the new most dominant animal: humans. In searing detail, award-winning writer, Montana rancher, and conservationist Bryce Andrews tells us about one such grizzly. Millie is a typical mother: strong, cunning, fiercely protective of her cubs. But raising those cubs becomes ever harder as the climate warms and people crowd the valleys.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
A Slice of Montana
- By Traveler on 02-04-21
By: Bryce Andrews
-
Beloved Beasts
- Fighting for Life in an Age of Extinction
- By: Michelle Nijhuis
- Narrated by: Christina Delaine
- Length: 10 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 46
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 41
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 40
In the late 19th century, as humans came to realize that our rapidly industrializing and globalizing societies were driving other animal species to extinction, a movement to protect and conserve them was born. In Beloved Beasts, acclaimed science journalist Michelle Nijhuis traces the movement's history: from early battles to save charismatic species such as the American bison and bald eagle to today's global effort to defend life on a larger scale.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Great Overview and history
- By B on 03-01-22
By: Michelle Nijhuis
-
The Great Displacement
- Climate Change and the Next American Migration
- By: Jake Bittle
- Narrated by: Matt Godfrey
- Length: 10 hrs and 26 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 74
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 60
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 60
Even as climate change dominates the headlines, many of us still think about it in the future tense—we imagine that as global warming worsens over the coming decades, millions of people will scatter around the world, fleeing famine and rising seas. What we often don’t realize is that the consequences of climate change are already visible, right here in the United States. In communities across the country, climate disasters are pushing thousands of people away from their homes.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Where we're headed
- By Dr. Stuart A. Blair on 03-09-23
By: Jake Bittle
-
Finding the Mother Tree
- Discovering the Wisdom of the Forest
- By: Suzanne Simard
- Narrated by: Suzanne Simard
- Length: 12 hrs and 13 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 1,327
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 1,134
-
Story5 out of 5 stars 1,132
Suzanne Simard is a pioneer on the frontier of plant communication and intelligence; her TED talks have been viewed by more than 10 million people worldwide. In this, her first book, now available in audio, Simard brings us into her world, the intimate world of the trees, in which she brilliantly illuminates the fascinating and vital truths—that trees are not simply the source of timber or pulp, but are a complicated, interdependent circle of life.
-
3 out of 5 stars
-
Couldn't finish, will try the hard copy
- By primrose on 07-22-21
By: Suzanne Simard
-
Entangled Life
- How Fungi Make Our Worlds, Change Our Minds & Shape Our Futures
- By: Merlin Sheldrake
- Narrated by: Merlin Sheldrake
- Length: 9 hrs and 32 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall5 out of 5 stars 3,977
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars 3,377
-
Story5 out of 5 stars 3,369
When we think of fungi, we likely think of mushrooms. But mushrooms are only fruiting bodies, analogous to apples on a tree. Most fungi live out of sight, yet make up a massively diverse kingdom of organisms that supports and sustains nearly all living systems. Fungi provide a key to understanding the planet on which we live, and the ways we think, feel, and behave.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Mycology for Everyone
- By Cephalopods Revenge on 05-12-20
By: Merlin Sheldrake
-
Crossings
- How Road Ecology Is Shaping the Future of Our Planet
- By: Ben Goldfarb
- Narrated by: Malcolm Hillgartner
- Length: 11 hrs and 52 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 59
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 51
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 51
Some 40 million miles of roadways encircle the earth, yet we tend to regard them only as infrastructure for human convenience. While roads are so ubiquitous they're practically invisible to us, wild animals experience them as entirely alien forces of death and disruption. In Crossings, environmental journalist Ben Goldfarb travels throughout the United States and around the world to investigate how roads have transformed our planet. A million animals are killed by cars each day in the US alone, but as the new science of road ecology shows, the harms of highways extend far beyond roadkill.
-
4 out of 5 stars
-
Great book, but narration doesn’t fit.
- By Anonymous User on 09-22-23
By: Ben Goldfarb
-
An Immense World
- How Animal Senses Reveal the Hidden Realms Around Us
- By: Ed Yong
- Narrated by: Ed Yong
- Length: 14 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall5 out of 5 stars 1,764
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars 1,476
-
Story5 out of 5 stars 1,468
The Earth teems with sights and textures, sounds and vibrations, smells and tastes, electric and magnetic fields. But every kind of animal, including humans, is enclosed within its own unique sensory bubble, perceiving but a tiny sliver of our immense world. In An Immense World, Ed Yong coaxes us beyond the confines of our own senses, allowing us to perceive the skeins of scent, waves of electromagnetism, and pulses of pressure that surround us.
-
2 out of 5 stars
-
If you’ve never read about the wonder of animal sensory capabilities this is for you
- By MediaBaron on 06-27-22
By: Ed Yong
-
Survival of the Friendliest
- Understanding Our Origins and Rediscovering Our Common Humanity
- By: Brian Hare, Vanessa Woods
- Narrated by: René Ruiz
- Length: 6 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 156
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars 139
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 139
A powerful new theory of human nature suggests that our secret to success as a species is our unique friendliness. For most of the approximately 300,000 years that Homo sapiens have existed, we have shared the planet with at least four other types of humans. All of these were smart, strong, and inventive. But around 50,000 years ago, Homo sapiens made a cognitive leap that gave us an edge over other species. What happened?
-
1 out of 5 stars
-
Weak Arguments and Bad Science
- By R. MacDonald on 04-09-21
By: Brian Hare, and others
-
Pests
- How Humans Create Animal Villains
- By: Bethany Brookshire
- Narrated by: Courtney Patterson
- Length: 10 hrs and 51 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 54
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 45
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 45
A squirrel in the garden. A rat in the wall. A pigeon on the street. Humans have spent so much of our history drawing a hard line between human spaces and wild places. When animals pop up where we don’t expect or want them, we respond with fear, rage, or simple annoyance. It’s no longer an animal. It’s a pest. At the intersection of science, history, and narrative journalism, Pests is not a simple call to look closer at our urban ecosystem. It’s not a natural history of the animals we hate. Instead, this book is about us.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Amazing Conclusion!
- By Anonymous User on 01-29-23
-
Otherlands
- A Journey Through Earth's Extinct Worlds
- By: Thomas Halliday
- Narrated by: Adetomiwa Edun
- Length: 11 hrs and 6 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 219
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 182
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 180
The past is past, but it does leave clues, and Thomas Halliday has used cutting-edge science to decipher them more completely than ever before. In Otherlands, Halliday makes sixteen fossil sites burst to life.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Great book brilliantly read
- By Dipam on 04-06-22
By: Thomas Halliday
-
Eight Bears
- Mythic Past and Imperiled Future
- By: Gloria Dickie
- Narrated by: Cassidy Brown
- Length: 8 hrs and 40 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 17
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 15
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 15
Bears have always held a central place in our collective memory, from Indigenous folklore and Greek mythology to nineteenth-century fairytales and the modern toy shop. But as humans and bears come into ever-closer contact, our relationship nears a tipping point. Today, most of the eight remaining bear species are threatened with extinction. Some, such as the panda bear and the polar bear, are icons of the natural world; others, such as the spectacled bear and the sloth bear, are far less known.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Well researched. Excellent work.
- By Jessica D. Allred on 06-30-24
By: Gloria Dickie
-
Wild Souls
- Freedom and Flourishing in the Non-Human World
- By: Emma Marris
- Narrated by: Amy Landon
- Length: 10 hrs and 39 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 21
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 17
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 17
Transporting listeners into the field with scientists tackling these profound challenges, Emma Marris tells the affecting and inspiring stories of animals around the globe - from Peruvian monkeys to Australian bilbies, rare Hawai'ian birds to majestic Oregon wolves. And she offers a companionable tour of the philosophical ideas that may steer our search for sustainability and justice in the non-human world. Revealing just how intertwined animal life and human life really are, Wild Souls will change the way we think about nature-and our place within it.
-
4 out of 5 stars
-
Stay until the end
- By Michael T Yadrick on 07-22-23
By: Emma Marris
-
Of Wolves and Men
- By: Barry Lopez
- Narrated by: Matt Godfrey
- Length: 10 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 76
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 67
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 67
Humankind's relationship with the wolf is the sum of a spectrum of responses ranging from fear to admiration and affection. Lopez's classic, careful study has won praise from a wide range of reviewers and improved the way books on wild animals are written. Of Wolves and Men explores the uneasy interaction between wolves and civilization over the centuries, and the wolf's prominence in our thoughts about wild creatures.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
To Better Know Wolves
- By REV on 08-20-22
By: Barry Lopez
-
The End of Eden
- Wild Nature in the Age of Climate Breakdown
- By: Adam Welz
- Narrated by: Jason Keller
- Length: 10 hrs and 18 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall5 out of 5 stars 6
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars 6
-
Story5 out of 5 stars 6
The stories we usually tell ourselves about climate change tend to focus on the damage inflicted on human societies by big storms, severe droughts, and rising sea levels. But the most powerful impacts are being and will be felt by the natural world and its myriad species, which are already in the midst of the sixth great extinction. Rising temperatures are fracturing ecosystems that took millions of years to evolve, disrupting the life forms they sustain--and in many cases driving them towards extinction. The natural Eden that humanity inherited is quickly slipping away.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Great book, worth every minute
- By LK on 10-16-23
By: Adam Welz
-
Under a White Sky
- The Nature of the Future
- By: Elizabeth Kolbert
- Narrated by: Rebecca Lowman
- Length: 6 hrs and 21 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 850
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 709
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 702
That man should have dominion “over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth” is a prophecy that has hardened into fact. So pervasive are human impacts on the planet that it’s said we live in a new geological epoch: the Anthropocene. The question we now face is: Can we change nature, this time in order to save it? Elizabeth Kolbert, the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Sixth Extinction, takes a hard look at the new world we are creating.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Feel Sorry For Your Grandchildren
- By Allen Moody on 02-28-21
-
You Look Like a Thing and I Love You
- How Artificial Intelligence Works and Why It's Making the World a Weirder Place
- By: Janelle Shane
- Narrated by: Xe Sands
- Length: 5 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 255
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 219
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 221
"You look like a thing and I love you" is one of the best pickup lines ever...according to an artificial intelligence trained by scientist Janelle Shane, creator of the popular blog AI Weirdness. She creates silly AIs that learn how to name paint colors, create the best recipes, and even flirt (badly) with humans — all to understand the technology that governs so much of our daily lives.
-
4 out of 5 stars
-
Funny and smart, but biased on bias
- By Razter on 11-11-19
By: Janelle Shane
-
The Extended Mind
- The Power of Thinking Outside the Brain
- By: Annie Murphy Paul
- Narrated by: Annie Murphy Paul
- Length: 11 hrs and 25 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 258
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 213
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 213
Use your head. That’s what we tell ourselves when facing a tricky problem or a difficult project. But a growing body of research indicates that we’ve got it exactly backwards. What we need to do, says acclaimed science writer Annie Murphy Paul, is think outside the brain. A host of “extra-neural” resources—the feelings and movements of our bodies, the physical spaces in which we learn and work, and the minds of those around us— can help us focus more intently, comprehend more deeply, and create more imaginatively.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Must Read for Artists, Designers, Strategists
- By Cassie Phillips on 05-28-22
-
Fuzz
- When Nature Breaks the Law
- By: Mary Roach
- Narrated by: Mary Roach
- Length: 9 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 1,489
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 1,253
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 1,244
What’s to be done about a jaywalking moose? A bear caught breaking and entering? A murderous tree? Three hundred years ago, animals that broke the law would be assigned legal representation and put on trial. These days, as New York Times best-selling author Mary Roach discovers, the answers are best found not in jurisprudence but in science: the curious science of human-wildlife conflict, a discipline at the crossroads of human behavior and wildlife biology.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
The footnotes
- By Alex on 09-24-21
By: Mary Roach
Related to this topic
-
The Nature of Nature
- Why We Need the Wild
- By: Enric Sala
- Narrated by: Will Damron
- Length: 6 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 74
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars 61
-
Story5 out of 5 stars 61
In this inspiring manifesto, an internationally renowned ecologist makes a clear case for why protecting nature is our best health insurance, and why it makes economic sense.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Amazing
- By Lars Pardo on 11-21-24
By: Enric Sala
-
Nature's Best Hope
- A New Approach to Conservation that Starts in Your Yard
- By: Douglas W. Tallamy
- Narrated by: Adam Barr
- Length: 6 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall5 out of 5 stars 460
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars 395
-
Story5 out of 5 stars 390
Douglas W. Tallamy's first book, Bringing Nature Home, awakened thousands of individuals to an urgent situation: wildlife populations are in decline because the native plants they depend on are fast disappearing. His solution? Plant more natives. In this new book, Tallamy takes the next step and outlines his vision for a grassroots approach to conservation.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
A must read for everybody! Not just nature lovers.
- By Steve Ebert on 06-11-20
-
The Last Hours of Ancient Sunlight: Revised and Updated
- The Fate of the World and What We Can Do Before It's Too Late
- By: Thom Hartmann, Neale Donald Walsch - associate editor
- Narrated by: Paul Boehmer
- Length: 18 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 93
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 79
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 80
While everything appears to be collapsing around us - ecodamage, genetic engineering, virulent diseases, water shortages, global famine, wars - we can still do something about it and create a world that will work for us and for our children's children. The inspiration for Leonardo DiCaprio's feature documentary movie The 11th Hour, The Last Hours of Ancient Sunlight details what is happening to our planet, the reasons for our culture's blind behavior, and how we can fix the problem.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
One of the Most Important Books of our Time
- By Jana on 04-24-20
By: Thom Hartmann, and others
-
Silent Earth
- Averting the Insect Apocalypse
- By: Dave Goulson
- Narrated by: Dave Goulson
- Length: 9 hrs and 54 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall5 out of 5 stars 30
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars 25
-
Story5 out of 5 stars 25
In the tradition of Rachel Carson’s groundbreaking environmental classic Silent Spring, an award-winning entomologist and conservationist explains the importance of insects to our survival and offers a clarion call to avoid a looming ecological disaster of our own making.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Important book for all
- By Wren Jen on 03-24-24
By: Dave Goulson
-
Population Wars
- A New Perspective on Competition and Coexistence
- By: Greg Graffin
- Narrated by: Tom Zingarelli
- Length: 10 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall5 out of 5 stars 124
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 107
-
Story5 out of 5 stars 109
From the very beginning, life on Earth has been defined by war. Today, those first wars continue to be fought around and literally inside us, influencing our individual behavior and that of civilization as a whole. War between populations - whether between different species or between rival groups of humans - is seen as an inevitable part of the evolutionary process. The popular concept of "the survival of the fittest" explains and often excuses these actions.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Life Changing Book. No other like it.
- By Abraham R. Herrick-Rough on 05-16-16
By: Greg Graffin
-
Pandora's Seed
- The Unforeseen Cost of Civilization
- By: Spencer Wells
- Narrated by: Spencer Wells
- Length: 6 hrs and 40 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 169
-
Performance4 out of 5 stars 68
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 69
This new book by Spencer Wells, the internationally known geneticist, anthropologist, author, and director of the Genographic Project, focuses on the seminal event in human history: mankind's decision to become farmers rather than hunter-gatherers.
-
3 out of 5 stars
-
Short and unfocused, but often quite interesting.
- By Alan on 06-23-10
By: Spencer Wells
-
The Nature of Nature
- Why We Need the Wild
- By: Enric Sala
- Narrated by: Will Damron
- Length: 6 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 74
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars 61
-
Story5 out of 5 stars 61
In this inspiring manifesto, an internationally renowned ecologist makes a clear case for why protecting nature is our best health insurance, and why it makes economic sense.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Amazing
- By Lars Pardo on 11-21-24
By: Enric Sala
-
Nature's Best Hope
- A New Approach to Conservation that Starts in Your Yard
- By: Douglas W. Tallamy
- Narrated by: Adam Barr
- Length: 6 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall5 out of 5 stars 460
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars 395
-
Story5 out of 5 stars 390
Douglas W. Tallamy's first book, Bringing Nature Home, awakened thousands of individuals to an urgent situation: wildlife populations are in decline because the native plants they depend on are fast disappearing. His solution? Plant more natives. In this new book, Tallamy takes the next step and outlines his vision for a grassroots approach to conservation.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
A must read for everybody! Not just nature lovers.
- By Steve Ebert on 06-11-20
-
The Last Hours of Ancient Sunlight: Revised and Updated
- The Fate of the World and What We Can Do Before It's Too Late
- By: Thom Hartmann, Neale Donald Walsch - associate editor
- Narrated by: Paul Boehmer
- Length: 18 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 93
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 79
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 80
While everything appears to be collapsing around us - ecodamage, genetic engineering, virulent diseases, water shortages, global famine, wars - we can still do something about it and create a world that will work for us and for our children's children. The inspiration for Leonardo DiCaprio's feature documentary movie The 11th Hour, The Last Hours of Ancient Sunlight details what is happening to our planet, the reasons for our culture's blind behavior, and how we can fix the problem.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
One of the Most Important Books of our Time
- By Jana on 04-24-20
By: Thom Hartmann, and others
-
Silent Earth
- Averting the Insect Apocalypse
- By: Dave Goulson
- Narrated by: Dave Goulson
- Length: 9 hrs and 54 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall5 out of 5 stars 30
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars 25
-
Story5 out of 5 stars 25
In the tradition of Rachel Carson’s groundbreaking environmental classic Silent Spring, an award-winning entomologist and conservationist explains the importance of insects to our survival and offers a clarion call to avoid a looming ecological disaster of our own making.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Important book for all
- By Wren Jen on 03-24-24
By: Dave Goulson
-
Population Wars
- A New Perspective on Competition and Coexistence
- By: Greg Graffin
- Narrated by: Tom Zingarelli
- Length: 10 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall5 out of 5 stars 124
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 107
-
Story5 out of 5 stars 109
From the very beginning, life on Earth has been defined by war. Today, those first wars continue to be fought around and literally inside us, influencing our individual behavior and that of civilization as a whole. War between populations - whether between different species or between rival groups of humans - is seen as an inevitable part of the evolutionary process. The popular concept of "the survival of the fittest" explains and often excuses these actions.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Life Changing Book. No other like it.
- By Abraham R. Herrick-Rough on 05-16-16
By: Greg Graffin
-
Pandora's Seed
- The Unforeseen Cost of Civilization
- By: Spencer Wells
- Narrated by: Spencer Wells
- Length: 6 hrs and 40 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 169
-
Performance4 out of 5 stars 68
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 69
This new book by Spencer Wells, the internationally known geneticist, anthropologist, author, and director of the Genographic Project, focuses on the seminal event in human history: mankind's decision to become farmers rather than hunter-gatherers.
-
3 out of 5 stars
-
Short and unfocused, but often quite interesting.
- By Alan on 06-23-10
By: Spencer Wells
-
Pandemic
- Tracking Contagions, from Cholera to Ebola and Beyond
- By: Sonia Shah
- Narrated by: Sonia Shah
- Length: 9 hrs and 34 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 381
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 334
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 333
Interweaving history, original reportage, and personal narrative, Pandemic explores the origin of epidemics, drawing parallels between the story of cholera - one of history's most disruptive and deadly pathogens - and the new pathogens that stalk humankind today, from Ebola and avian influenza to drug-resistant superbugs.
-
3 out of 5 stars
-
You will probably enjoy "Spillover" more
- By serine on 03-01-16
By: Sonia Shah
-
Coyote America
- A Natural and Supernatural History
- By: Dan Flores
- Narrated by: Elijah Alexander
- Length: 8 hrs and 51 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 3,890
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 3,414
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 3,415
Coyote America is both an environmental and a deep natural history of the coyote. It traces both the five-million-year-long biological story of an animal that has become the "wolf" in our backyards and its cultural evolution from a preeminent spot in Native American religions to the hapless foil of the Road Runner. A deeply American tale, the story of the coyote in the American West and beyond is a sort of Manifest Destiny in reverse.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Very Enjoyable Book, Subject Matter, and Reader
- By John Townsend on 03-17-17
By: Dan Flores
-
Work
- A Deep History, from the Stone Age to the Age of Robots
- By: James Suzman
- Narrated by: Nicholas Guy Smith
- Length: 13 hrs and 47 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 330
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars 279
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 278
Work defines who we are. It determines our status and dictates how, where, and with whom we spend most of our time. It mediates our self-worth and molds our values. But are we hardwired to work as hard as we do? Did our Stone Age ancestors also live to work and work to live? And what might a world where work plays a far less important role look like? To answer these questions, James Suzman charts a grand history of "work" from the origins of life on Earth to our ever more automated present, challenging some of our deepest assumptions about who we are.
-
2 out of 5 stars
-
if you like Jared Diamond's work, you'll like this
- By Mark on 04-09-22
By: James Suzman
-
Collapse
- How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed
- By: Jared Diamond
- Narrated by: Michael Prichard
- Length: 27 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 1,703
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 1,470
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 1,462
In Jared Diamond’s follow-up to the Pulitzer-Prize winning Guns, Germs and Steel, the author explores how climate change, the population explosion, and political discord create the conditions for the collapse of civilization. Environmental damage, climate change, globalization, rapid population growth, and unwise political choices were all factors in the demise of societies around the world, but some found solutions and persisted.
-
4 out of 5 stars
-
Jared Diamond Downs You in Explanation
- By Rob on 07-20-18
By: Jared Diamond
-
Water in Plain Sight
- Hope for a Thirsty World
- By: Judith D. Schwartz
- Narrated by: Tia Rider
- Length: 8 hrs and 25 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall5 out of 5 stars 34
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars 27
-
Story5 out of 5 stars 26
Water scarcity is on everyone's mind. Long taken for granted, water availability has entered the realm of economics, politics, and people's food and lifestyle choices. But as anxiety mounts - even as a swath of California farmland has been left fallow and extremist groups worldwide exploit the desperation of people losing livelihoods to desertification - many are finding new routes to water security with key implications for food access, economic resilience, and climate change.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Crucial solutions
- By Shane Emanuelle on 07-25-19
-
The Ocean of Life
- The Fate of Man and the Sea
- By: Callum Roberts
- Narrated by: Sean Pratt
- Length: 13 hrs and 45 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 73
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 70
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 70
Who can forget the sense of wonder with which they discovered the creatures of the deep? In this vibrant hymn to the sea, Callum Roberts - one of the world’s foremost conservation biologists - leads listeners on a fascinating tour of mankind’s relationship to the sea, from the earliest traces of water on Earth to the oceans as we know them today. In the process, Roberts looks at how the taming of the oceans has shaped human civilization and affected marine life. Like Four Fish and The Omnivore’s Dilemma, The Ocean of Life takes a long view to tell a story in which each one of us has a role to play.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Immediate fan of Mr Roberts
- By Anna on 06-25-24
By: Callum Roberts
-
The Humane Economy
- How Innovators and Enlightened Consumers Are Transforming the Lives of Animals
- By: Wayne Pacelle
- Narrated by: Eric Jason Martin
- Length: 12 hrs and 18 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 80
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 69
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 68
A major new exploration of the economics of animal exploitation and a practical road map for how we can use the marketplace to promote the welfare of all living creatures from the renowned animal-rights advocate Wayne Pacelle, president and CEO of the Humane Society of the United States and New York Times best-selling author of The Bond.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
For all lovers of animals--even the most sensitive
- By monique on 05-01-16
By: Wayne Pacelle
-
The Vertical Farm
- Feeding the World in the 21st Century
- By: Dickson Despommier
- Narrated by: Sean Runnette
- Length: 6 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 116
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 71
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 72
When Columbia professor Dickson Despommier set out to solve America's food, water, and energy crises, he didn't just think big - he thought up. The vertical farm has excited scientists, architects, and politicians around the globe. These farms, grown inside skyscrapers, would provide solutions to many of the serious problems we currently face.
-
3 out of 5 stars
-
Excellent Brainstorming - Not reality
- By Texas Community Project on 01-25-11
-
Apocalypse Never
- Why Environmental Alarmism Hurts Us All
- By: Michael Shellenberger
- Narrated by: Stephen Graybill
- Length: 12 hrs and 18 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall5 out of 5 stars 2,998
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 2,578
-
Story5 out of 5 stars 2,568
Michael Shellenberger has been fighting for a greener planet for decades. He helped save the world’s last unprotected redwoods. He co-created the predecessor to today’s Green New Deal. And he led a successful effort by climate scientists and activists to keep nuclear plants operating, preventing a spike of emissions. But in 2019, as some claimed "billions of people are going to die", contributing to rising anxiety, including among adolescents, Shellenberger decided that he needed to speak out to separate science from fiction.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Environmentalist with integrity!
- By Wayne on 07-01-20
-
American Serengeti
- The Last Big Animals of the Great Plains
- By: Dan Flores
- Narrated by: Michael Kramer
- Length: 8 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 1,641
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 1,447
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 1,445
America's Great Plains once possessed one of the grandest wildlife spectacles of the world, equaled only by such places as the Serengeti, the Masai Mara, or the veld of South Africa. Pronghorn antelope, gray wolves, bison, coyotes, wild horses, and grizzly bears: less than 200 years ago these creatures existed in such abundance that John James Audubon was moved to write "it is impossible to describe or even conceive the vast multitudes of these animals".
-
3 out of 5 stars
-
Could have been great, but
- By An Amazon Buyer on 08-29-18
By: Dan Flores
-
The Hidden Life of Trees
- What They Feel, How They Communicate - Discoveries from a Secret World
- By: Peter Wohlleben
- Narrated by: Mike Grady
- Length: 7 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 6,423
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 5,514
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 5,476
How do trees live? Do they feel pain or have awareness of their surroundings? Research is now suggesting trees are capable of much more than we have ever known. In The Hidden Life of Trees, forester Peter Wohlleben puts groundbreaking scientific discoveries into a language everyone can relate to.
-
4 out of 5 stars
-
Tree Hugger
- By Darwin8u on 04-18-19
By: Peter Wohlleben
-
Our Wild Calling
- How Connecting with Animals Can Transform Our Lives - and Save Theirs
- By: Richard Louv
- Narrated by: Graham Winton
- Length: 11 hrs and 14 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 51
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 42
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 42
Richard Louv's landmark book, Last Child in the Woods, inspired an international movement to connect children and nature. Now Louv redefines the future of human-animal coexistence. Our Wild Calling explores these powerful and mysterious bonds and how they can transform our mental, physical, and spiritual lives, serve as an antidote to the growing epidemic of human loneliness, and help us tap into the empathy required to preserve life on Earth.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Sharing our world
- By Scott Br on 10-06-21
By: Richard Louv