Download The Ghosts of Evolution by Connie Barlow PDF
By Connie Barlow
A clean voice in technology and nature writing offers an enticing first-person account of a revolution in ecological pondering a brand new imaginative and prescient is sweeping via ecological technological know-how: The dense internet of dependencies that makes up an atmosphere has won an extra dimension-the size of time. each box, woodland, and park is stuffed with residing organisms tailored for relationships with creatures which are now extinct. In a vibrant narrative, Connie Barlow indicates how the belief of "missing companions" in nature developed from remoted, curious examples into an concept that's reworking how ecologists comprehend the complete wildlife of the Americas. This attention-grabbing e-book will improve and deepen the event of an individual who enjoys a walk during the woods or perhaps down an city sidewalk. yet this data has a gloomy part too: Barlow's "ghost tales" train us that the ripples of biodiversity loss round us now are only the vanguard of what could develop into perilous cascades of extinction.
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Extra resources for The Ghosts of Evolution
Example text
But actually it isn't quite right. " Richard Dawkins made that statement to a gathering in London in 1 9 9 8 . As we shall see, exemplars of his message include plants with big fruits or ferocious thorns in tropical and temperate America. These botanical features—all made anachronistic by the loss of once influential partners—are a subset of Dawkins's broader mix of examples. They are all examples of biology out of sync. "The genes that survive down the generations," Dawkins continued, "add up to a description of what it took to survive back then.
A long paragraph of examples and argument follows, concluding with: "Natural selection will never produce in a being anything injurious to itself, for natural selection acts solely by and for the good of each. No organ will be formed, as Paley has remarked, for the purpose of causing pain or for doing an injury to its possessor. If a fair balance be struck between the good and evil caused by each part, each will be found on the whole advantageous. " Yes, indeed, Darwin does anachronisms—though he does not highlight the haunted variety, nor does he suggest a name for the idea.
An amazing lack of interest in the diet of Mexican cattle," he wrote, "is endemic among both animal science experts and 'pure' ecologists in this part of the world. I've come to appreciate the range cattle of Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument [southern Arizona], which all conservationists profess to hate, or at least insist be removed. " The most sophisticated equipment Janzen used in his horse experiments were canvas duffel bags reengineered to serve as dung catchers. Seeds were sorted by hand: "The dung was put into solution by running water into a bucket half full of dung.