The Human Age, Diane Ackerman
The Human Age, Diane Ackerman
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The Human Age
The World Shaped By Us

Author: Diane Ackerman

Narrator: Barbara Caruso

Unabridged: 12 hr 26 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Recorded Books

Published: 09/10/2014

Synopsis

"Our relationship with nature has changed . . . radically, irreversibly, but by no means all for the bad. Our new epoch is laced with invention. Our mistakes are legion, but our talent is immeasurable." Our finest literary interpreter of science and nature, Diane Ackerman is justly celebrated for her unique insight into the natural world and our place (for better and worse) in it. In this landmark book, she confronts the unprecedented fact that the human race is now the single dominant force of change on the planet. Humans have "subdued 75 percent of the land surface, concocted a wizardry of industrial and medical marvels, strung lights all across the darkness." We now collect the DNA of vanishing species in a "frozen ark," equip orangutans with iPads, create wearable technologies and synthetic species that might one day outsmart us. Ackerman takes us on an exciting journey to understand this bewildering new reality, introducing us to many of the people and ideas now creating-perhaps saving-our future. The Human Age is a beguiling, optimistic engagement with the earth-shaking changes now affecting every part of our lives and those of our fellow creatures-a wise book that will astound, delight, and inform intelligent life for a long time to come.

About Diane Ackerman

Diane Ackerman is the bestselling author of many nonfiction books, including A Natural History of the Senses, An Alchemy of Mind, Cultivating Delight, A Natural History of Love, and The Zookeeper's Wife, winner of the 2008 Orion Book Award. In addition, she has had her poetry published in leading literary journals and in the books Origami Bridges, I Praise My Destroyer, Jaguar of Sweet Laughter, and others. Diane has received many prizes and awards, including a Guggenheim Fellowship and a John Burroughs Nature Award. She has taught at a variety of universities, including Columbia, the University of Richmond, and Cornell. Her essays about nature and human nature have appeared in the New York Times, the Smithsonian, Parade, the New Yorker, and National Geographic, and she hosted a five-hour PBS television series inspired by A Natural History of the Senses.

Reviews

Goodreads review by Jim on February 12, 2018

Narrated by Barbara Caruso who also narrated Sue Hubbell's books Broadsides from the Other Orders: A Book of Bugs & Waiting for Aphrodite: Journeys into the Time Before Bones. This book is very much in the same vein, often almost poetic yet filled with facts & interesting tidbits. The Good: I really l......more

Goodreads review by Nicky on September 25, 2014

I got a proof copy of this from Bookbridgr, so I'm not sure how many of the issues are going to be dealt with before the completed book is rolled out. There were still a lot of errors at this stage -- a bit where some words were struck out, problems with punctuation, etc. I think the purple prose wi......more

Goodreads review by Nancy on August 03, 2014

Welcome to the Anthropocene Era Apes playing with iPads, Japanese tourists visiting industrial sites, the great black marble that is the earth ringed with lights at night: all these are manifestations of the Anthropocene Era, the era in which man is the dominant force shaping the world. The book is a......more

Goodreads review by Ryan on March 04, 2015

I think the author tried to cram too many subjects into the book. With a title like that, admittedly it's a lot of ground to cover. I thought it would be mainly about how we have altered the physical landscape and ecosystems of the Earth, but it also went into how the latest technologies have reshap......more

Goodreads review by Kathryn on November 15, 2014

It seems like I should have really liked this book, but I ended up not quite finishing it. It covers some very interesting topics about how human beings have shaped, and continue to shape, the world we live in, and it is very optimistic about how we can use our cleverness to solve the problems that......more

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