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Exploring one of the greatest potential contributors to climate change—thawing permafrost—and the anxiety of extinction on an increasingly hostile planet

 

Climate scientists point to permafrost as a “ticking time bomb” for the planet, and from the Arctic, apocalyptic narratives proliferate on the devastating effects permafrost thaw poses to human survival. In Earth, Ice, Bone, Blood, Charlotte Wrigley considers how permafrost—and its disappearance—redefines extinction to be a lack of continuity, both material and social, and something that affects not only life on earth but nonlife, too.

Earth, Ice, Bone, Blood approaches the topic of thawing permafrost and the wild new economies and mitigation strategies forming in the far north through a study of the Sakha Republic, Russia’s largest region, and its capital city Yakutsk, which is the coldest city in the world and built on permafrost. Wrigley examines people who are creating commerce out of thawing permafrost, including scientists wishing to recreate the prehistoric “Mammoth steppe” ecosystem by eventually rewilding resurrected woolly mammoths, Indigenous people who forage the tundra for exposed mammoth bodies to sell their tusks, and government officials hoping to keep their city standing as the ground collapses under it. Warming begets thawing begets economic activity— and as a result, permafrost becomes discontinuous, both as land and as a social category, in ways that have implications for the entire planet. Discontinuity, Wrigley shows, eventually evolves into extinction.

Offering a new way of defining extinction through the concept of “discontinuity,” Earth, Ice, Bone, Blood presents a meditative and story-focused engagement with permafrost as more than just frozen ground.

These days, earthly coexistence often feels bad. As environmental crises amass, they cast a shadow over an imagined future and the promises of better—or at least predictable—days to come. In times of climate chaos, mass extinction, and rampant environmental injustice, it is easy to despair. But, here and there, a glimmer of joy or optimism shines forth and reminds us that it is possible—even necessary—to love and to hope amid the ruins. The contributors to this volume grapple with a plurality of interrelated ecological feelings: care, concern, contempt, empathy, fear, grief, hope, joy, numbness, optimism, possessiveness, regret, and saudades. Informed by a rhetorical perspective, the essays collected here reveal what sets our ecological feelings into motion. Crucially, they also uncover some of the rhetorical practices through which we might collectively feel our way into a more harmonious earthly coexistence.

Project Quinte was a Canadian multi-agency collaborative initiative—launched in 1972 and lasting until 2018—that generated the longest ecosystem-based data set in the Great Lakes. The project produced a special bulletin of the Canadian Journal of Fisheries Science in 1986 and two special issues of Aquatic Ecosystem Health & Management more recently. This monograph provides a broad sweep of the many facets of aquatic ecosystem structure and function that were explored in efforts to define and solve the challenges to ecosystem health present in the Bay of Quinte ecosystem and to sustain it hopefully far into the future. Many papers provide a long-term perspective that highlights the need to maintain monitoring programs while increasing our basic knowledge. Long-term studies of ecosystems like Quinte continually reveal new questions and challenges beyond the scope of controlled laboratory experiments. The health of the Bay of Quinte is much improved as a result of the long-term participation of people, time, and resources reflected in this book. The monograph through its twenty-six in-depth chapters opens a wide panorama for exploration and application of the ecosystem approach and the resulting productivity, with much remaining to be done by those that follow in these footsteps. Approximately one hundred scientists have collectively participated toward the preparation of various chapters included in this meticulously peer-reviewed monograph.

This installment of the Ecovision World Monograph Series provides an in-depth look at the remediation and restoration of the forty-three most polluted areas of the Great Lakes, which are designated Areas of Concern (AOCs). This restoration effort, a collaboration between Canada and the United States, is unique in that it has fostered the use of locally designed ecosystem approaches to restoring impaired beneficial uses, as called for in the Canada-U.S. Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement. In total, thirty-seven Canadian and U.S. scientists contributed to this comprehensive evaluation of what has been achieved and learned from more than three decades of remediation and restoration efforts. This monograph will be an excellent resource to researchers, resource managers, university faculty, and students in the Great Lakes Basin Ecosystem, as well as for those interested in restoring degraded aquatic ecosystems throughout the world. No other monograph or text book provides such a comprehensive evaluation of AOCs. A foreword is provided by Dr. Diane Saxe, former Environmental Commissioner of Ontario. Leading primary contributors include J. Hartig, M. Munawar, L. Richman, S. Pickard, M. Tuchman, R. Stewart, J. Ridgeway, R. Sherman, N. French, K. Williams, G. Krantzberg, and C. McLaughlin.

Discover the wonders of ecology through the changing seasons of the natural world.

Whit Gibbons and Anne R. Gibbons’s Ecoviews Too: Ecology for All Seasons is based on the popular weekly column “Ecoviews,” published by numerous newspapers for more than thirty years. A follow-up to Ecoviews: Snakes, Snails and Environmental Tales, this lively and entertaining book provides a fascinating and thought-provoking look at the ecology of animals, plants, and their habitats, and promotes awareness of pressing environmental issues.

Because nature, in all its myriad and amazing manifestations, can be enjoyed all year round, this collection is conveniently divided into four sections paralleling the seasons and tracking the adaptations and responses of wildlife to the relentless changes that occur at any location over time. The ecological vignettes focus on seasonal happenings in the cycle of life. The authors not only draw parallels between the natural world and human activities but also highlight unique behaviors of various plant and animal species. They often use humor to get across their message regarding the need to protect our native species and the habitats they depend on for survival.

An intriguing and captivating publication, Ecoviews Too is comprised of fifty informative essays that address ecological topics such as camouflage and mimicry, hibernation and estivation, the human need to encounter scary animals, the mysteries of plant dormancy in winter, the comeback of the wild turkey coinciding with the decline of bobwhites, the chemistry behind the color change in fall leaves, and the top ten environmental problems facing the world today. Educating, entertaining, and delighting a general audience, especially those with an interest in nature, Ecoviews Too provides a useful resource for students and scientists alike.

Predominantly native to the U.S. Southwest, Mexico, and the Caribbean, the various species of Bursera have been prized throughout history for their distinctive aromas, medicinal properties, workable wood, and attractive appearance. Despite its extensive past and current use as incense in religious ceremonies, and its resourceful antiseptic ability to treat a range of maladies, no comprehensive book exists on this vital yet overlooked plant. Highlighting bursera’s importance and impact within the desert Southwest and Mexico, this volume will be the first book to describe the ecology, evolution, ethnobotany, and peculiar chemistry of the many species of Bursera.

In the United States, Bursera is represented by the short, contorted, and aromatic elephant tree of the hot Sonoran Desert and the stately and colorful gumbo limbo of southern Florida, while in the torrid lowlands of southern Mexico, the engines of evolution have produced forests dominated by dozens of species of Bursera, each with a peculiar ecological slot. This evolutionary tableau presents a complicated sex life that puzzles scientists. Recent research also reveals a gripping narrative of an epic struggle between trees and the insects that would subsist on their leaves: the insects seeking to exploit a food resource, the trees reacting with ever-changing, dramatic counter strategies. In addition to the fascinating and intricate workings of the genus’s ecological adaptations, burseras play a formative role in the lives of indigenous populations. Native peoples relish the plants’ aromatic resin, workable wood, and often colorful bark as a source for endless human applications.

Written in an engaging style, enhanced with two hundred color photographs, and complete with a compendium of species descriptions, this book will be an essential reference on a significant North American plant.

Originally published in 1995, soon after Death Valley National Park became the fifty-third park in the US park system, The Explorer’s Guide to Death Valley National Park was the first complete guidebook available for this spectacular area. Now in its fourth edition, this is still the only book that includes all aspects of the park. Much more than just a guidebook, it covers the park’s cultural history, botany and zoology, hiking and biking opportunities, and more. Information is provided for all of Death Valley’s visitors, from first-time travelers just learning about the area to those who are returning for in-depth explorations.

This new edition features a number of important changes—including information on the boundary and wilderness changes that resulted from the Dingell Act of 2019, the reopened Keane Wonder Mine area, the devastating flash flooding of Scotty’s Castle, scenic river designations, the Inn and Ranch resorts, renovated and now operated as the Oasis at Death Valley—as well as new maps and updated color photos. With extensive input from National Park Service resource management, law enforcement, and interpretive personnel, as well as a thorough bibliography for suggested reading, The Explorer’s Guide to Death Valley National Park, Fourth Edition is the most up-to-date, accurate, and comprehensive guide available for this national treasure.