We alone : how humans have conquered the planet and can also save it / David Western.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Western, David, author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Environmentalism.

Environmental protection.

Nature--Effect of human beings on.

Nature.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (x, 310 pages, 12 unnumbered pages of plates) : illustrations

Place of Publication:

New Haven, Connecticut ; London, England : Yale University Press, [2020]

Language Note:

In English.

Biography/History:

David Western, a pioneer of community-based conservation, is a former director of the Kenya Wildlife Service and Wildlife Conservation Society International. He founded and chairs the African Conservation Centre in Nairobi, Kenya. His books include Conservation for the Twenty-First Century.

Summary:

A thoughtful exploration of how humans have endangered the Earth but can pull it back from the brink, as told by a renowned conservationist This personal and thoughtful book by renowned Kenya conservationist David Western traces our global conquest from Maasai herders battling droughts in Africa to the technological frontiers of California. Western draws on a half century of research in the savannas and his own life’s journey to argue that conservation is not a modern invention. The success of all societies past and present lies in conservation practices, breaking biological barriers and learning to live in large cooperative groups able to sustain a healthy environment. Our ecological emancipation from nature enabled us to expand our horizons from conserving food and water for survival to saving whales, elephants, and our cultural heritage. In the Anthropocene, our scientific knowledge and modern sensibilities offer hope for combating global warming and creating a planet able to sustain the wealth of life, but only if we use our unique cultural capacity of cooperation to plan our future.

Contents:

Frontmatter

Contents

Preface

Introduction: Confronting the Human Age

Part I. The Roots of Our Success

1. Survival in the Savannas

2. Consuming Passions

3. The Conservation Paradox

4. Limits to Growth: Hope or Despair?

5. Lessons from Disasters

6. Why Some Succeed Where Others Fail

7. Icons of Two Worlds

8. An Altruistic Species

9. Breaking Biological Barriers

10. Domesticating Nature

11. Ecological Emancipation

Part II. The Human Age

12. The Global Express

13. Converging Worlds

14. Our Novel Age

15. The Modern Conservation Movement

Part III. Our Once and Future Planet

16. Unnatural Reconnections

17. New Tools for a New Age

18. Cleaning Our Planetary Nest

19. Nature and Human Well-being

20. Natural Capital

21. The City and the Planet

Conclusion: From Conservation Philosophy to Citizen Action

Notes

Acknowledgments

Index

Notes:

Includes index.

Includes bibliographical references (pages 273-293) and index.

Description based on print version record.

Other Format:

Print version: Western, David. We alone.

ISBN:

0-300-25632-9

9780300256321

0300256329

OCLC:

1204134591