Archive by category | Conservation science

O brave new world of fantastic beasts

O brave new world of fantastic beasts

From the start, European visitors to the New World have celebrated its fantastic biodiversity. What looks like a scarlet macaw embellishes German cartographer Martin Waldseemüller’s 1507 world map, the first to name these lands “America”. Eighty years later the English artist John White, a governor during England’s first attempt at settling North Carolina, was painting fireflies, “which in the night [emit] a flame of fire” (a sight of pure magic on a warm summer’s evening).  Read more

Biophilia in the Anthropocene

Biophilia in the Anthropocene

Are we all feeling a bit epochal? The Anthropocene — the brave new era of pervasive human impact on Earth systems — is due for scientific acceptance (or not) in 2016. Meanwhile, it is proving fertile ground for pop-sci, from Diane Ackerman’s The Human Age to Gaia Vince’s Adventures in the Anthropocene (reviewed here and here). Now the notion has floated far enough down the mainstream to reach TV with the five-part PBS Earth: A New Wild, kicking off tonight.  Read more