Nature's Ghosts

by Sophie Yeo

ISBN: 9780008474126

Published: 2024-05-23

What history can teach us about how to avoid ecological catastrophe 'Sophie writes fantastically, chronicling the most important issues facing nature conservationists today.' Chris Packham For thousands of years, humans have been the architects of the natural world. Our activities have permanently altered the environment - for good and for bad. In Nature's Ghosts, award-winning journalist Sophie Yeo examines how the planet would have looked before humans scrubbed away its diversity: from landscapes carved out by megafauna to the primeval forests that emerged following the last Ice Age, and from the eagle-haunted skies of the Dark Ages to the flower-decked farms of more recent centuries. Uncovering the stories of the people who have helped to shape the landscape, she seeks out their footprints even where it seems there are none to be found. And she explores the timeworn knowledge that can help to fix our broken relationship with the earth. Along the way, Sophie encounters the...