Showing titles in Ecosystems & Habitats

Once a killing ground for whalers hunting a leviathan they called the "devilfish," the San Ignacio Lagoon in Baja, Mexico, is now an environmental and spiritual sanctuary—the only place in the world where animals in their natural aquatic environment routinely seek out human contact. A nursery for the gray whale since before recorded history, the lagoon and its stories, told here by James Michael Dorsey, illuminate the magic of human connection to animals, and what those bonds teach us about ourselves and our purpose on this shared planet.

Signed on November 24, 1922, the Colorado River Compact is body of laws colloquially called the "Law of the River" that governs how human beings use water from the river system dubbed the "American Nile." No fewer than forty million people have come to rely on the Colorado River system in modern times-a system immersed in an unprecedented, unrelenting megadrought for more than two decades. Attempting to navigate this "new normal," policymakers are negotiating new management rules for the river system, a process coinciding with the compact's centennial that must be completed by 2026.

In The Last Empty Places, bestselling author Peter Stark takes the listener to four of the most remote, wild, and unpopulated areas of the United States outside of Alaska, and mainly not part of protected wilderness: the rivers and forests of Northern Maine; the rugged, unpopulated region of Western Pennsylvania, that lies only a short distance from the East's big cities; the haunting canyons of Central New Mexico; and the vast, arid basins of Southeast Oregon.

Mehr Wildnis wagen - für ein vollkommen neues Verhältnis zur Natur. "Rewilding" ist die Antwort auf die Klimakrise. Es bedeutet: Kontrolle abgeben und die Natur sich selbst überlassen. In der Folge entstehen intakte Ökosysteme, die nicht nur Tieren und Pflanzen neue Lebensräume bieten, sondern auch für saubere Luft, sauberes Wasser und fruchtbare Böden sorgen. Die Kohlendioxid binden und vor Hochwasser und anderen Klimaextremen schützen. Simone Böcker verbreitet die positive Botschaft: Das Artensterben ist nicht nur aufzuhalten, es kann umgekehrt werden.

The seafood industry on the coast of Mississippi has attracted waves of immigrants and other workers, oftentimes folks who were either already acquainted with maritime livelihoods or those who quickly adapted to the resources of the region. For generations, the industry has provided employment and sustenance to Coast peoples.

When Chris Dombrowski burst onto the literary scene with Body of Water, the book was acclaimed as “a classic” (Jim Harrison) and its author compared with John McPhee. Dombrowski begins the highly anticipated The River You Touch with a question as timely as it is profound: “What does a meaningful, mindful, sustainable inhabitance on this small planet look like in the anthropocene?”

From seals' frisky behavior to red squirrels making their last stand in the battle against the greys, here are the mammals of Britain as you've never seen them before. Join Fiona Mathews and Tim Kendall on an overnight stakeout in search of the elusive pine marten. Follow them down mines inhabited by greater horseshoe bats, cavers, ravers and teenagers smoking unusual substances. Meet water voles thriving in the East End of Glasgow—despite the lack of water—and observe the brilliance of wild boar in your back garden.

What would you do in a worldwide food shortage? Do you want to learn how to source organic-free food whilst enjoying time with friends and family? If you want to learn the number one most underrated survival skill, then keep listening….

Das Wattenmeer zwischen Deich und Dünen bleibt sich niemals gleich. Alte Weisheiten trägt die Ebbe fort und mit jeder Flut strömt neues Leben in diese Wechselwelt aus Wasser, Sand und Schlick. Karsten Reise erforscht die Nordseeküste seit nunmehr 50 Jahren. Er kennt jede Wattwurmhöhle und Muschelbank zwischen den nordfriesischen Inseln, die Sandkörner und Strömungen, weiß vom unaufhaltsamen Steigen des Meeres bei aufgeheiztem Klima. Deiche erhöhen allein reicht da nicht mehr aus. Ändert sich das Meer, sollten auch wir uns ändern und amphibischer werden in unserer Lebensweise.

Lakes might be the most misunderstood bodies of water on earth. And while they may seem commonplace, without lakes our world would never be the same. In this revealing look at these lifegiving treasures, John Richard Saylor shows us just how deep our connection to still waters run.

O grande pesquisador e contador de histórias leva os ouvintes numa instigante jornada pelos imensos sistemas naturais que tornam a vida na Terra possível.

Encounters in Avalanche Country tells the story of mountain communities' responses to disaster over a century of social change and rapid industrialization. As mining and railway companies triggered new kinds of disasters, ideas about environmental risk and responsibility were increasingly negotiated by mountain laborers, at the elite levels among corporations, and in socially charged civil suits.

Author Stephen Harrigan spent months diving on the coral reefs of Grand Turk Island in the Caribbean. In this evocative account, he describes his many explorations, both personal and natural. Though he is there to learn about the history of the coral reef, Harrigan freely admits that his true motivation is to become, at least for a time, his “underwater self”.

For over 200 years, the Catskill Mountains have been repeatedly and dramatically transformed by New York City. In Making Mountains, David Stradling shows the transformation of the Catskills landscape as a collaborative process, one in which local and urban hands, capital, and ideas have come together to reshape the mountains and the communities therein. This collaboration has had environmental, economic, and cultural consequences.

North Georgia has more than forty lakes, and not one is natural. The state's controversial decision to dam the region's rivers for power and water supply changed the landscape forever. 

Join Todd McLeish as he travels high above the Arctic circle. McLeish consults logbooks kept by whalers and explorers and interviews folklorists and historians to tease out the relationship between the real narwhal and the mythical unicorn. In Colorado, he visits climatologists studying changes in the seasonal cycles of the Arctic ice. From a history of the trade in narwhal tusks to descriptions of narwhals' vocalizations as heard through hydrophones, Narwhals reveals the beauty and thrill of the narwhal and its habitat and the threat it faces from a rapidly changing world.

Dall'infinitamente grande all'infinitamente piccolo, la natura è un'esplosione di creatività e bellezza. E se per gli "infinitamente" servono attrezzature sofisticate in grado di cogliere macrostrutture e dettagli invisibili, i nostri occhi e una mente capace di lasciarsi meravigliare sono lo strumento più potente per avvicinarci ai mondi incredibili che brulicano di vita attorno a noi, anche sotto lo zerbino di casa.

Desde hace unos años se suceden episodios de muerte súbita y generalizada de árboles en bosques de todo el mundo. En muchos casos el cambio climático y las sequías desempeñan un papel importante, pero no son la única causa, ya que se combina con la historia de la explotación humana y con la proliferación de plagas y de incendios cada vez más virulentos. El profesor Francisco Lloret recorre algunos de los bosques más importantes de Norteamérica, Patagonia, Europa y África para mostrarnos, con luminosa claridad y rigor, los procesos que están provocando su colapso.

Crateri infuocati e foreste incontaminate, isole perdute e popoli primitivi, fiumi e scogli leggendari, ghiacciai, savane e deserti sconfinati, paradisi nascosti. E poi, animali preistorici, leoni e coccodrilli, orsi e serpenti. I racconti di Walter Bonatti ci riportano al suo fianco, nei suoi fantastici viaggi ai confini della Terra. Le sue sembrano cronache di un altro secolo e di un altro mondo... e lo sono.

Paddling a canoe into the sunrise. Watching a child take her first kayak ride with her father. Dodging campfire smoke while burning marshmallows and telling scary stories to wide-eyed kids. These are some of the moments and memories depicted in Summers at the Lake. The essays—often humorous, sometimes tinged with a sweet melancholy—celebrate the people and events marking the progress of the seasons, from the budding of the first leaves of May to their falling, gold and scarlet, in September. These prose poems capture the joy of simple, lakeside living and quiet reflection.