The Unnatural World, David Biello
The Unnatural World, David Biello
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The Unnatural World
The Race to Remake Civilization in Earth's Newest Age

Author: David Biello

Narrator: Peter Berkrot

Unabridged: 12 hr 29 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Tantor Media

Published: 02/14/2017

Synopsis

The Unnatural World chronicles a disparate band of unlikely heroes: an effervescent mad scientist who would fertilize the seas; a pigeon obsessive bent on bringing back the extinct; a low-level government functionary in China doing his best to clean up his city, and more. These scientists, billionaires, and ordinary people are all working toward saving the best home humanity is ever likely to have.

What is the threat? It is us. In a time when a species dies out every ten minutes, when summers are getting hotter, winters colder, and oceans higher, some people still deny mankind's effect on the Earth. But all of our impacts on the planet have ushered in what qualifies as a new geologic epoch, thanks to global warming, mass extinction, and such technologies as nuclear weapons or plastics. The Unnatural World examines the world we have created and analyzes the glimmers of hope emerging from the efforts of incredible individuals seeking to change our future. Instead of a world without us, this history of the future shows how to become good gardeners, helping people thrive along with an abundance of plants, animals, all the exuberant profusion of life on Earth—a better world with us.

About David Biello

David Biello is an award-winning journalist who has been reporting on the environment and energy since 1999. He is currently an editor at Scientific American, where he has been a contributor since 2005, and he also contributes frequently to the Los Angeles Review of Books, Yale e360, Nautilus, and Aeon. David has been a guest on radio shows, such as WNYC's The Takeaway, NHPR's Word of Mouth, and PRI's The World. He hosts the ongoing duPont-Columbia award-winning documentary Beyond the Light Switch for PBS. The Unnatural World is his first book.

Reviews

Goodreads review by David on February 05, 2017

Um, because I wrote it.......more

Goodreads review by Michael on March 25, 2017

Of the books waiting to be read on my bedside table, this was the one I wanted to read the least. It turns out to be the one I reacted to the most strongly. I wanted to be more informed about the challenges facing the planet, but feared the book would merely be a litany of doom. The author writes th......more

Goodreads review by David on December 11, 2016

The author takes on a huge problem; too much carbon dioxide in the air. But as in any large issue, humans are using their thoughts and energy to reach solution. It is a very tough one to solve. So how do you capture the gas we do not relish heating up our planet? Do we move it to rocks? Set up artific......more

Goodreads review by Ryan on May 23, 2021

This book consisted of a series of in depth interviews with very disparate people and the work they were involved with, from trying to revive extinct species, to seeding oceans with iron to spur plankton blooms and ending with a chapter largely about Elon Musk. While Biello is undoubtedly a skilled......more

Goodreads review by Albert on July 19, 2017

Biello takes on a big topic, but can't find a proper balance between actually making a point and meandering away. 'Wide-ranging' is a promoting tagline on the cover, but the wide scope of the Anthropocene topic got hold of Biello rather than the other way around. It's not easy to find the take-aways......more

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