Nature in Crisis

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1. 21. Okt.

   ‘Extraction: The Frontiers of Green Capitalism’ by Thea Riofrancos

   Lithium-ion batteries are at the heart of the transition away from fossil fuels. But lithium, like the copper, cobalt and rare earths that renewable technologies also require, has to be mined. ‘Everywhere that mines are dug up to provide ra
   23 min
2. 23. Sept.

   ‘The Rise of Ecofascism: Climate Change and the Far Right’ by Alex Roberts and Sam Moore

   ‘The Rise of Ecofascism: Climate Change and the Far Right’ is a different kind of book from the others Meehan and Peter have discussed so far in their series, even as their focus has shifted from biology to society. Its authors, Sam Moore a
   15 min
3. 24. Aug.

   ‘Lessons for Survival’ by Emily Raboteau

   Over the past twelve years, the walls and shop shutters of Upper Manhattan have been gradually filled by giant paintings of climate-threatened birds, inspired by the species depicted by the artist John James Audubon, who lived in the area.
   11 min
4. 27. Juli

   ‘Impasse’ by Roy Scranton

   At Chaco Canyon in the New Mexico desert lie the ruins of a once vibrant and extensive Ancestral Puebloan civilisation. Sometime in the 12th century the society fell into decline, as a fifty-year drought may have helped to push the settleme
   15 min
5. 29. Juni

   ‘Braiding Sweetgrass’ by Robin Wall Kimmerer

   Through folktales, memoir and hard science, Robin Wall Kimmerer’s 'Braiding Sweetgrass' argues for the intertwining of Indigenous knowledge systems and empirical science, to support ‘mutual flourishing’ between humans and the environment. '
   15 min
6. 3. Juni

   ‘Is a River Alive?’ by Robert Macfarlane

   The idea that a river is a living being has important legal consequences. But it also has imaginative consequences, which can, in George Eliot’s words, ‘enlarge the imagined range for self to move in’. In ‘Is a River Alive?’ (2025), Robert
   14 min
7. 4. Mai

   'Gaia: A New Look at Life on Earth' by James Lovelock

   In ‘Gaia: A New Look at Life on Earth’ (1979), James Lovelock proposed that the Earth is something like a single living organism, capable of manipulating its circumstances and the environment to suit its needs. While many scientists reject
   28 min
8. 6. Apr.

   ‘The Burning Earth’ by Sunil Amrith

   The ‘great acceleration’ is a term used to describe the dramatic surge in the 1950s of both human and earth systems indicators that marked a shift from a relatively stable planetary state to one that's characterised by increasing environmen
   12 min
9. 9. März

   ‘Blue Machine’ by Helen Czerski

   In Blue Machine (2024), Helen Czerski refigures the ocean as an enormous planetary engine, converting light and heat into motion. Her book invites us to see the ocean not as an ‘absence’ but an intricate series of operations that makes life
   14 min
10. 9. Feb.

    ‘The Light Eaters’ by Zoë Schlanger

    In The Light Eaters (2024), Zoë Schlanger reports from the frontiers of botany, where researchers are discovering forms of sensing, signalling and responding that challenge our ideas of plants as passive life forms. Meehan Crist and Peter G
    15 min
11. 12. Jan.

    ‘Silent Spring’ by Rachel Carson

    After following up a lead from a birdwatcher, Rachel Carson drew a web of connections that led to one of the most influential books of the 20th century. Silent Spring (1962) investigated the synthetic pesticides that proliferated after the
    15 min
12. 1. Jan.

    Introducing ‘Nature in Crisis’

    In a time of climate breakdown and mass extinction there is a new urgency to environmental writing, both as literature and as science. So In their series, Meehan Crist and Peter Godfrey-Smith consider some of the most significant books publ
    4 min