Saving nature has never been easy. The historical record is replete with failed campaigns and myriad extinctions: the passenger pigeon; the damming of Yosemite s Hetch Hetchy valley. And currently, accelerating climate change, rapid urbanization and suburban sprawl, agricultural intensification, metastasizing fire regimes, the spread of invasive species and other quickening anthropogenic forces have made saving nature even more vexed. The wilderness is more dynamic than ever, and so too need to be the preservation campaigns ...
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Saving nature has never been easy. The historical record is replete with failed campaigns and myriad extinctions: the passenger pigeon; the damming of Yosemite s Hetch Hetchy valley. And currently, accelerating climate change, rapid urbanization and suburban sprawl, agricultural intensification, metastasizing fire regimes, the spread of invasive species and other quickening anthropogenic forces have made saving nature even more vexed. The wilderness is more dynamic than ever, and so too need to be the preservation campaigns and philosophies constructed to protect it. "After Preservation" brings together a diverse and distinguished set of writers to consider whether and how the American preservationist ideal might survive the Age of Humans, or the Anthropocene. The contributors include some of the most prominent environmental scientists, historians, philosophers, environmental writers, journalists, advocates, and policy activists working today. Their original essays include spirited arguments for a greater human role in environmental systems, alongside deeply skeptical assessments of the more human-centered vision for nature conservation and environmentalism. But there are also attempts to build a middle ground, between pragmatism and the pristine in nature preservation. There are ruminations on the meaning and value of wilderness preservation half a century after the passage of the Wilderness Act, as well as reflections on the management and enduring challenges of conservation, preservation, and restoration on public and private lands. Some write on species lost, and others on species saved. As a whole, the work is a thoughtful meditation on the challenge of coping with a rapidly changing landscape and society."
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