The Human Age: The World Shaped by Us

Ackerman is justly celebrated for her unique insight into the natural world and our place in it. In this landmark book, she confronts the unprecedented reality that one prodigiously intelligent and meddlesome creature, Homo sapiens, is now the dominant force shaping the future of planet Earth.

Humans have "subdued 75 percent of the land surface, concocted a wizardry of industrial and medical marvels, strung lights all across the darkness." We tinker with nature at every opportunity; we garden the planet with our preferred species of plants and animals, many of them invasive; and we have even altered the climate, threatening our own extinction. Yet we reckon with our own destructive capabilities in extraordinary acts of hope-filled creativity: we collect the DNA of vanishing species in a "frozen ark," equip orangutans with iPads, and create wearable technologies and synthetic species that might one day outsmart us. With her distinctive gift for making scientific discovery intelligible to the layperson, Ackerman takes us on an exhilarating journey through our new reality, introducing us to many of the people and ideas now creating--perhaps saving--our future and that of our fellow creatures.

A beguiling, optimistic engagement with the changes affecting every part of our lives, The Human Age is a wise and beautiful book that will astound, delight, and inform intelligent life for a long time to come.

Binding Type: Hardcover
Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
Published: 09/10/2014
ISBN: 9780393240740
Pages: 352
Weight: 1.42lbs
Size: 9.52h x 6.61w x 1.09d
Award: National Outdoor Book Awards - Winner

Review Citations: Library Journal Prepub Alert 04/15/2014 pg. 58
Kirkus Reviews 06/15/2014
Booklist 07/01/2014 pg. 10
Publishers Weekly 07/14/2014
Kirkus Reviews Fall Preview 08/15/2014 pg. 23
Library Journal 09/15/2014 pg. 101
Entertainment Weekly 09/12/2014 pg. 70
Discover 10/01/2014 pg. 74
New York Times Book Review 09/07/2014 pg. 10
Shelf Awareness 09/12/2014
New York Times Book Review 09/14/2014 pg. 26
NY Times Notable Bks of Year 12/07/2014 pg. 28
Kirkus Best Nonfiction 12/01/2014 pg. 4
Christian Century 12/10/2014 pg. 26
Booklist Editors Choice/Adult 01/01/2015 pg. 9
BookPage 09/01/2014
Choice 05/01/2015 pg. 1532