Crossings
How Road Ecology Is Shaping the Future of Our Planet
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Average rating4.6
An eye-opening account of the global ecological transformations wrought by roads, from the award-winning author of Eager.
Some 40 million miles of roadways encircle the earth, yet we tend to regard them only as infrastructure for human convenience. While roads are so ubiquitous they’re practically invisible to us, wild animals experience them as entirely alien forces of death and disruption. In Crossings, environmental journalist Ben Goldfarb travels throughout the United States and around the world to investigate how roads have transformed our planet. A million animals are killed by cars each day in the U.S. alone, but as the new science of road ecology shows, the harms of highways extend far beyond roadkill. Creatures from antelope to salmon are losing their ability to migrate in search of food and mates; invasive plants hitch rides in tire treads; road salt contaminates lakes and rivers; and the very noise of traffic chases songbirds from vast swaths of habitat.
Yet road ecologists are also seeking to blunt the destruction through innovative solutions. Goldfarb meets with conservationists building bridges for California’s mountain lions and tunnels for English toads, engineers deconstructing the labyrinth of logging roads that web national forests, animal rehabbers caring for Tasmania’s car-orphaned wallabies, and community organizers working to undo the havoc highways have wreaked upon American cities.
Today, as our planet’s road network continues to grow exponentially, the science of road ecology has become increasingly vital. Written with passion and curiosity, Crossings is a sweeping, spirited, and timely investigation into how humans have altered the natural world—and how we can create a better future for all living beings.
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Well-Documented Examination Of How Roads Affect Animals. The subtitle of this book in particular is at least slightly misleading, as the book isn't so much about all the ways roads impact ecology as much as how roads impact animals. It also isn't so much about the "future of our planet" so much as it is about preventing extinction of migratory animals in particular.
But for what it *is*, this is actually a well documented (38% of the overall text) examination of how roads impact animals and how we can make them better for the wildlife around us... and thus ultimately safer for us. (As Goldfarb points out, at least at one point deer were the most deadly animal in America, far surpassing sharks or even snakes or even insect stings, due to the sheer volume of people killed in crashes wherein they either hit deer directly or swerved to avoid doing so.)
Indeed, much of the book is spent discussing largely three topics: roadkill, animal crossings, and to a slightly lesser extent, noise pollution and how it affects animal crossings and roadkill. Along the way we get sidetracked to a discussion of LA's cougars, Tasmania's world record roadkill, Interstates preventing deer migration in the Rocky Mountains, and even some discussion of salmon migration in the Pacific Northwest, among others.
If you're looking for a book about the *totality* of how roads affect ecology... this isn't that.
If you're looking for a historical/ current look at how roads affect animal life... you've come to the right place.
And yes, Goldfarb has rather frequent leftist political rants sprinkled throughout the text, but none anywhere near as severe as the ultra leftist reviews eviscerating this book, so take that for what it's worth - while annoying, I've read books with far worse rants with far fewer interesting facts, so I personally didn't think it was *too* terrible - hence the reason I didn't deduct a star for it. But your mileage will absolutely vary there, so just be aware of this before coming into this book.
Recommended.
Originally posted at bookanon.com.
