April 12, 2021
Environmental journalist Marris (Rambunctious Garden) ruminates on the "unpredictable complexity" and "strange beauty" of the nonhuman world in this wide-ranging if superficial appeal for humans to reconsider the ethics of their relationships with other species. Noting that, by weight, there is now "ten times as much humanity as wild mammals in the world," Marris describes modern humans as "super influencers" with uncanny effects on the natural world. Climate change and such human activities as farming and deforestation have created "moral dilemmas" for which conservationists have failed to find solutions, she writes, and wonders, for example, if humans are obligated to feed animals whose hunting grounds have been destroyed by human activity. Because of this, humans' relationships with animals have grown "knottier." Marris touches on many examples of odd (and at times troubling) human-animal relations, arguing that Justin Bieber's hybrid cats function as ornaments, and describing the strange new species Europeans introduced to New Zealand in the 18th century. But she fails to go deep in her advice, and some solutions seem unlikely (she imagines feeding endangered polar bear populations plant-based food). Readers hoping for a more grounded discussion of environmental issues should look elsewhere. Agent: Abigail Koons, Park & Fine Literary and Media.
May 1, 2021
Many people who identify as environmentalists say they love animals and the wilderness and want the wild to stay wild, but in our anthropocentric world, are there any animals left that are truly wild? If we can better understand our obligations to the nonhuman animals with whom we share the planet, we can improve how we manage those animals and their habitats. Marris, who considered our assumptions about nature and wilderness in Rambunctious Garden (2011), here tackles the moral philosophy behind our management of the wild, of killing some animals to save other species, of captive breeding and supplemental feeding, of the blurry line between invasive species and a changing ecosystem, and of the value of an individual animal versus the value of a complex ecosystem. As she joins scientists on treks in various lands, from Hawaii to Australia, she muses on religion and philosophy, wrestles with the idea that humans are a disease on this planet, and marvels at our need for pets. Marris' engrossing examination of the human-animal connection is free of polemics and offers much to ponder.
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