Description
Book SynopsisSHORTLISTED FOR THE WAINWRIGHT PRIZE FOR WRITING ON GLOBAL CONSERVATION
''Pilcher is both very funny and very, very clever.'' Gillian Burke
''Richly entertaining throughout.'' Sunday Times
For the last three billion years or so, life on Earth was shaped by natural forces. Evolution tended to happen slowly, with species crafted across millennia. Then, a few hundred thousand years ago, along came a bolshie, big-brained, bipedal primate we now call Homo sapiens, and with that, the Earth's natural history came to an abrupt end. We are now living through the post-natural phase, where humans have become the leading force shaping evolution.
This thought-provoking book considers the many ways that we've altered the DNA of living things and changed the fate of life on earth. We have carved chihuahuas from wolves and fancy chickens from jungle fowl. We've added spider genes to goats and coral genes to tropical fish. It's possible to buy
Trade Review
Tackles how humans are altering existing animal life. It has some good lines and is richly entertaining throughout, but under the surface it is pretty serious.' * Sunday Times *
Helen Pilcher takes on the unenviable task of describing how our species has been on a collision course, spanning roughly 300,000 years of history, with the rest of life on earth. It shouldn't make for good reading but, mercifully, Pilcher is both very funny and very, very clever. -- Gillian Burke, biologist and TV presenter
With warm wit and glorious pace, Life Changing delivers an eloquent commentary on this, the age of post-natural history. Expertly pulling together and detailing the work of hundreds of scientists around the world, Pilcher encourages us to ask timely questions about our role as stewards and curators of a planet struggling under our influence. -- Jules Howard, naturalist, science writer and author of Sex on Earth
Table of Contents
Introduction Chapter 1: The Wolf that Rolled Over Chapter 2: Strategic Moos and Golden Gnus Chapter 3: Super Salmon and Spider-Goats Chapter 4: Game of Clones Chapter 5: Screwworms and Suicide Possums Chapter 6: The Age of the Chicken Chapter 7: Sea-Monkeys and Pizzly Bears Chapter 8: Darwin’s Moth Chapter 9: Resilient Reefs Chapter 10: Love Island Chapter 11: Pigs and Purple Emperors Chapter 12: The New Ark Additional Reading Acknowledgements Index
