The Rambunctious Garden Saving Nature in a Post-Wild World

by Marris, Emma

• ISBN13: 9781608190324
• ISBN10: 1608190323
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2011-08-30
• Publisher: Bloomsbury USA
• More Book Details
• Purchase Benefits

Summary

A new paradigm shift is roiling the environmental world. For decades people have unquestioningly accepted the idea that our goal is to preserve nature in its pristine, pre-human state. But many scientists have come to see that this concept is an outdated dream that prevents us from having a fuller relationship with nature and thwarts bold new plans to save the environment. Humans have changed and managed the landscapes they inhabit since prehistory, and climate change means even the remotest places now bear the fingerprints of humanity. Nature will never get back to its original state (which Marris argues may not always be a bad thing) so why waste time and effort trying? The new model is the "rambunctious garden," a hybrid of wild nature and human influence. In this optimistic book, readers meet leading scientists and environmentalists, visit imaginary Edens, designer ecosystems, and empty lot jungles. Marris describes the new approaches, including rewilding, assisted migration, and the so-called novel ecosystems. Rambunctious Gardenis short on gloom and long on interesting theory and fascinating narratives, all of which bring home the idea that we must give up our romantic notions of pristine wilderness and replace them with the idea of a global, half-wild rambunctious garden, tended by us. We have forever altered the earth. We can't now abandon it to fate.

Author Biography

Emma Marris grew up in Seattle, Washington. Since 2004, she has written for the world's foremost science journal, Nature, on ecology, conservation Biology and other topics. Her articles have also appeared in Wired, the Christian Science Monitor, and Conservation. She currently lives in Columbia, MO with her husband and daughter.

Table of Contents

"Potentially the most optimistic and controversial work about the future of nature to appear in years." - Grist.com

"Ms Marris’s book is an insightful analysis of the thinking that informs nature conservation." - Economist

"Marris argues that the conservation and appreciation of nature can take place at far less exotic locations, such as backyards, city parks, farms, and even parking lots....This gracefully written and well-argued book deserves a wide readership." - Reason

"[Marris] doesn't just dwell in the imperfections of the past. She also offers forward-looking innovations." –Mother Jones

 

"Covering the world of ecology and conservation from the ancient forests of Poland to the urban waterways of Seattle, Washington, Marris calls for a new kind of conservation that eschews the defensive stance of the past and embraces the challenges of acknowledging, understanding, protecting, and restoring the nature of the present and the future.  This is a thought-provoking book that should be widely read and more widely discussed." –Kent H. Redford, director, Wildlife Conservation Society

"In Rambunctious Garden, Emma Marris weeds through a jungle of ecological dogma, yanking and hacking at our most cherished perceptions of Nature’s purity. Marris asks us to look beyond the black-and-white world of pest and weed versus native and natural. And to humbly accept our duty, as tenders of a garden rambunctious beyond our ken, but not beyond our care." –William Stolzenburg, author of Rat Island and Where the Wild Things Were

  "This is reality-based ecology at its best. It leads to far better science and conservation practices than the ideology of pristine ecosystems ever could. --Stewart Brand, author of Whole Earth Discipline

"Great environmental books tell a story and change our thinking—Emma Marris has written such a book.  She shows conservation a way out of its sullen addiction to the parable of relentless decline, and offers instead a vision of a lively nature—poking itself rambunctiously into every human habitat and finding ways to run free in those rare places where humans do not step quite so heavily. I am hoping that everyone who works in conservation or somehow supports or cares about conservation and nature reads this book. It is Rachel Carson for the twenty-first Century." –Peter Kareiva, chief scientist, The Nature Conservancy