Douglas Chadwick

Four Fifths a Grizzly (eBook, ePUB)

A New Perspective on Nature that Just Might Save Us All

• Format: ePub

Produktbeschreibung

What do you think of when you think of Nature? Prolific author and National Geographic writer Doug Chadwick's fresh look at human's place in the natural world. In his accessible and engaging style, Chadwick approaches the subject from a scientific angle, with the underlying message that from the perspective of DNA humans are not all that different from any other creature. He begins by showing the surprisingly close relationship between human DNA and that of grizzly bears, with whom we share 80 percent of our DNA. We are 60 percent similar to a salmon, 40 percent the same as many insects, and 24 percent of our genes match those of a wine grape. He reflects on the value of exposure to nature on human biochemistry and mentality, that we are not that far removed from our ancestors who lived closer to nature. He highlights examples of animals using "human" traits, such as tools and play. He ends the book with two examples of the healing benefits of turning closer to nature: island biogeography and the Yellowstone to Yukon Conservation Initiative. This book is a reflection on man's rightful place in the ecological universe. Using personal stories, recounting how he came to love and depend on the Great Outdoors and how he learned his place in the system of Nature, Chadwick challenges anyone to consider whether they are separate from or part of nature. The answer is obvious, that we are an indivisible from all elements of a system that is greater than ourselves and should never be neglected, taken advantage of, or exploited. This is a fresh and engaging take on man's relationship to nature by a respected and experienced author.

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Produktdetails

• Verlag: Patagonia
• Erscheinungstermin: 15. Juni 2021
• Englisch
• ISBN-13: 9781952338021
• Artikelnr.: 62052537

Autorenporträt

The combination of experiences with two grizzly groups (presented in Tracking Gobi Grizzlies, published by Patagonia) half a world apart from one another, both long beyond the reach of most human activities and now suddenly subject to the possible impacts of large-scale development, led me to reevaluate my work as a biologist and conservation writer. I knew that we are running out of time to conserve the ever-mounting number of species in peril around the globe. But I had not dealt with the fact that as long as I kept writing about species or places one at a time, case by single case, I could not possibly help bring attention to much more than a tiny sampling of the natural realm being lost.

In reality, no plant or animal - or fungus, for that matter - exists as a separate species to begin with. All of us constantly interact with other life forms, both visible and unseen. We have multitudes of microbial partners around our bodies, among our tissues, and inside virtually every cell. And all creatures are connected at another level by sharing many of the same genes, nature's chemically coded instructions for survival. For instance, when I'm keeping my eye on a grizzly bear, I'm aware that this big-bodied, big-brained powerhouse of a mammal has at least 80 percent of the genes I do. The same figure holds true for wild camels and snows leopards. I knew that the fish-snatching silver wolf among the McNeil bears shared 84 percent of the genes I own, while the salmon and I had least 60 percent of our genes in common.

What does that mean? And what does it mean that more than 40 percent of our genes are also identical to those in many insects, 24 percent of human genes match those of a wine grape, and somewhere around 7 percent match the genes in invisible bacteria? How are you supposed to define a species of vegetation when the roots of around 90 percent of all the types of plants examined so far are physically tied to miles of underground fungi in a mutually beneficial relationship - a symbiosis? And what about the fact that the process of photosynthesis, which produces food for every growing green plant, every plant-eater, and every eater of plant-eaters, is actually carried out by highly modified microbes - the tiny bodies we call chloroplasts - living within the plant's cells? What exactly is the individual creature here?

What is it about the history of human evolution that allows time spent in natural green spaces to automatically lower our heart rate and blood pressure, reduces anxiety and stress, boosts our immune system, and improves our mental clarity? What makes strawberries so extravagantly fragrant and tasty? (Hint: the answer has to do with symbiotic microbes in the plant's tissues.) And why does research on our fellow mammals and a wide range of other kinds of creatures keep uncovering so many mental and emotional qualities previously considered unique to humans?

I could go on... And I do in a new book that Patagonia will publish this coming spring. I wrote it because I realized how vastly different the workings of nature are from what so many people assume to be true. The problem is that most of us still tend to view species as separate, independent organisms the way previous generations did and taught us to do. At the same time, we seem firmly stuck on thinking of ourselves as somehow different from the rest of the living world and superior to it - freed from our animal past. I can't imagine how we're going to step up to begin saving nature faster than it is disappearing until we gain a clearer understanding of the deep, pervasive, absolutely vital, and altogether astonishing interconnections among organisms that have been uncovered in recent years. No matter how we like to define nature, it defines us in countless ways. No matter what we prefer to believe, we are intimately bound to ecosystems around and inside us, to the natural realm that shaped our bodies and minds and continues to do that today.

This fresh view of our relationship with other life doesn't make humankind any less extraordinary and amazingly inventive. On the contrary, it positively expands the idea of what it means to be human. It just might change the way you perceive life on Earth, including your own.

Inhaltsangabe

1. Prologue
2. Chapter One: I am at Least Four-Fifths of a Grizzly
3. Chapter Two: Kaboom
4. Chapter Three: The Living Planet Quick Reference Guide
5. Chapter Four: The State of Our Union
6. Chapter Five: Health Coverage for Primates
7. Chapter Six: Elephants and Excavations
8. Chapter Seven: Daydreaming at the Fair
9. Chapter Eight: Rescue at Sea, Part One
10. Chapter Nine: Rescue at Sea, Part Two
11. Chapter Ten; Ode to a Strawberry
12. Chapter Eleven: Coda to a Strawberry
13. Chapter Twelve: Crowboarding
14. Chapter Thirteen: Why Y2Y
15. Epilogue: Note to (Greater) Self