Junglekeeper
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER - Most people assume that the world has been explored and true adventure is dead: This book is one man's rebuttal. Explorer and conservationist Paul Rosolie shares his incredible life in the Amazon rainforest--and what we can learn from the people fighting to protect it. "On behalf of the forests that I love, thank you, Paul, for writing this book."--Jane Goodall Deep in the Peruvian jungle, there exists a corner of the world that remains untouched--one teeming with giant anacondas, where the haunting cries of howler monkeys send brightly colored macaws shooting across the canopy. It's an ecosystem of stupendous biodiversity, uncontacted tribes, and adventures that most people don't even dare to dream of. When he first set foot in the jungle, Rosolie was a dyslexic kid from Brooklyn who struggled to graduate from high school but had an undeniable calling to the outdoors. He was lucky enough to meet the indigenous naturalist Juan Julio Durand, and together, over two decades, they have created Junglekeepers, an organization that has found a way to halt deforestation and protect more than 110,000 acres--inspiring millions along the way by documenting their progress online. But this work takes grit, and years in, Rosolie and Durand are past their "barefoot machete days," grappling with chain saws, massive fires, illegal miners, and the worst of humanity. Here, Rosolie brings you up close and personal with one of the wildest places on the planet and tells the incredible story of "first contact" with one of the most mysterious uncontacted tribes on Earth: the Mashco Piro. This book is about the profound power of saying yes: yes to one's calling, yes to sticking with your dream when it comes at a high cost, and yes to taking a stand to save what might otherwise be gone in a generation. It's a story of calling, connectedness, and hope.
Reefs of Time
How fossilized reefs hold clues to the survival of corals in the Anthropocene With rising global temperatures, pollution, overfishing, ocean acidification, and other problems caused by humans, there's no question that today's coral reefs are in trouble. As predictions about the future of these ecosystems grow increasingly dire, scientists are looking in an unlikely place for new ways to save corals: the past. The reefs of yesteryear faced challenges too, from changing sea level to temperature shifts, and understanding how they survived and when they faltered can help guide our efforts to help ensure a future for reefs. Lisa Gardiner weaves together the latest cutting-edge science with stories of her expeditions to tropical locales to show how fossils and other reef remains offer tantalizing glimpses of how corals persisted through time, and how this knowledge can guide our efforts to ensure a future for these remarkable organisms. Gardiner takes readers on an excursion into "the shallow end of deep time"--when marine life was much like today's yet unaffected by human influence--to explore the cities of fossilized limestone left behind by corals and other reef life millennia ago. The changes in reefs today are unlike anything ever seen before, but the fossil record offers hope that the coral reefs of tomorrow can weather the environmental challenges that lie ahead. A breathtaking journey of scientific discovery, Reefs of Time reveals how lessons from the past can help us to chart a path forward for coral reefs struggling for survival in an age of climate crisis and mass extinction.
Faces In The Rocks
Joel Simpson's FACES IN THE ROCKS: Beyond Landscape to Psycho-Geological Photography pushes the boundaries of original landscape photography. It starts with extraordinary landscapes-caves, drone views, and more-then launches into imaginative domains of entirely natural abstract compositions and figuration ("Faces" in the rocks). These surrealist-tinged images, always faithful to their found forms (NO AI), reveal unique photographic perspectives and original ways of seeing that expand the horizons of photographic imagination.For those seeking creative photo approaches in a crowded field, this photographic vision book shows how to rise above convention by enhancing creative vision and unlocking untapped originality.The images themselves range among the perverse, ironic, grotesque, monstrous, prophetic, satirical, enchanted, mythological, paleontological, erotic, scientific, commercial, and cartoonish. The accompanying text provides an analytical and historical framework, offering challenges to traditional landscapes while proposing fresh avenues for creative expression.Finally, the book embraces photographic fiction: real rock formations (and dried mud), captured through a fisheye lens and recontextualized as imaginary heavenly bodies-asteroids, moons of made-up planets, and "Anthropocene Ruins" of a fearsome future.A practical how-to section guides photographers to the best locations for discovering subjects and demonstrates editing techniques critical for transforming raw rock and ice into powerful artworks. The book concludes with brief color photo essays on six of the author's favorite image-hunting grounds, plus a bibliography and site list.
Phytopolis
A renowned plant expert explains how we can make urgent, positive changes to our cities that protect against and reduce global warming. The conquest of new lands has been the greatest occupation of our species: for hundreds of thousands of years, humans have searched for new territories to inhabit, finding in the city the best place to live in the last hundred years. Looking at the parabola of our geographical expansion, it appears that humans have gone from being a generalist species, capable of colonizing any environment, to very quickly becoming a specialized species, capable of thriving only within a particular habitat. The city seems to have become the only place where we can expect to thrive and reproduce, because it is the only place where our specialization gives us the best chance of survival, and quality of life. However, "species specialization" is effective only in a stable environment: in changing environmental conditions, it becomes dangerous. And if the resources the city needs to thrive are not unlimited, global warming can permanently change the environment of our cities--an event that would be fatal. But it is the city itself, as it is today, that is the main driver of environmental destruction. Humankind is confronted with a paradox: we must rethink our cities and make them a lasting ecological niche. In this clear, accessible, and fascinating work, Stefano Mancuso proposes a green solution: how would our cities be transformed if their framework were modeled on plants?
Wild Earth, Wild Soul
Humankind has the capacity and know-how to create Earth-honoring cultures in a new way for new times. By tapping into ancestral memories, taking what's best from the human potential movement, and collaborating with present-day indigenous peoples, we can find our way home. Practicing the key ingredients of a lasting culture is an ecstatic way to live. This book shows you how.
Imperial Weather
Tropical weather in colonial Malaya presented an unknown atmosphere that manifested in extremes and uncertainties. From 1840 to 1940, the Indigenous landscapes of Singapore and Penang Islands were altered in ways that will never be reclaimed, the natural ecology of much of the peninsula forever changed by the British colonial government. With this book, Fiona Williamson revisits the fraught relationship between climate, weather science, and empire within the Straits Settlements in the long nineteenth century. Her book examines official and scientific responses to local weathers within the multicultural ports and peripheries of Singapore and George Town, Malaysia. The challenges of creating a livable environment in tropical conditions, she explains, frequently pushed the colonial government beyond its capacities, and solutions often came at the expense of nature, which, ironically, made managing the weather more problematic. Imperial Weather offers a deep exploration of various official attempts to understand and apply structure to the previously unknown or uncontrollable through knowledge gathering, institutionalization, and technological and infrastructural change. Drawing from the history of science--especially the history of meteorology--and environmental history, it explores the multiple interests, capacities, and capabilities at play, including the state of scientific knowledge and the economy, funding, and importantly, socioenvironmental needs and practicalities.
Blue Growth - GIS and Remote Sensing in Seaweed Cultivation
