The Heart of the Wild

Essays on Nature, Conservation, and the Human Future

Ben A. Minteer, Jonathan B. Losos, Bill Adams , Joel Berger

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Hardback

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English

Princeton University Press
01 December 2024

Biology, life sciences; Applied ecology; Conservation of the environment; The Earth: natural history general

Timely and provocative reflections on the future of the wild in an increasingly human world.

The Heart of the Wild brings together some of today's leading scientists, humanists, and nature writers to offer a thought-provoking meditation on the urgency of learning about and experiencing our wild places in an age of rapidly expanding human impacts.

These engaging essays present nuanced and often surprising perspectives on the meaning and value of 'wildness' amid the realities of the Anthropocene. They consider the trends and forces

from the cultural and conceptual to the ecological and technological

that are transforming our relationship with the natural world and sometimes seem only to be pulling us farther away from wild places and species with each passing day. The contributors make impassioned defenses of naturalism, natural history, and nature education in helping us to rediscover a love for the wild at a time when our connections with it have frayed or been lost altogether.

Charting a new path forward in an era of ecological uncertainty, The Heart of the Wild reframes our understanding of nature and our responsibility to learn from and sustain it as the human footprint sinks ever deeper into the landscapes around us.

With contributions by Bill Adams, Joel Berger, Susan Clayton, Eileen Crist, Martha L. Crump, Thomas Lowe Fleischner, Harry W. Greene, Hal Herzog, Jonathan B. Losos, Emma Marris, Ben A. Minteer, Kathleen Dean Moore, Gary Paul Nabhan, Peter H. Raven, Christopher J. Schell, Richard Shine, and Kyle Whyte.

Contributions by: Bill Adams, Joel Berger, Susan Clayton
Edited by: Ben A. Minteer, Jonathan B. Losos
Imprint: Princeton University Press
Country of Publication: United States
Dimensions: Height: 235mm, Width: 156mm,
ISBN: 9780691228624
ISBN 10: 0691228620
Pages: 280
Publication Date: 01 December 2024
Audience: College/higher education , Professional and scholarly , General/trade , Primary , Undergraduate
Format: Hardback
Publisher's Status: Forthcoming

Ben A. Minteer is professor of environmental ethics and conservation at Arizona State University. His books include A Wilder Kingdom: Rethinking Nature in Zoos, Wildlife Parks, and Beyond. Jonathan B. Losos is the William H. Danforth Distinguished University Professor at Washington University in St. Louis and director of the Living Earth Collaborative. His books include How Evolution Shapes Our Lives: Essays on Biology and Society (Princeton). Australian contributor: Richard Shine is a Professor in Biology at Macquarie University in Sydney, Australia. His research aims to develop new approaches to conservation of ectothermic organisms, based on understanding their fundamental ecology. Author of the book Cane Toad War, Shine has published more than 1,000 scientific papers and has won many awards for his research, including the E. O. Wilson Naturalist Award and Robert Whittaker Distinguished Ecologist Award.

Reviews for The Heart of the Wild: Essays on Nature, Conservation, and the Human Future

"""The scientists, humanists, and nature writers whose essays grace this book present subtle, though sometimes striking, differences in defining the term wild. Their thought-provoking essays not only convey the complexities involved—the tensions among preservation, rewilding, and human access—but often surprise with their unconventional attitudes and perspectives. Yet each essayist seems to share a conviction that having a scientific grasp of the perils facing our planet is incomplete without forging a moral and emotional bond with it."" * Kirkus Reviews *"