Nature’s Ghosts examines how the planet would have looked before humans scrubbed away its diversity: from landscapes carved out by megafauna to the primeval forests that emerged following the last Ice Age, and from the eagle-haunted skies of the Dark Ages to the flower-decked farms of more recent centuries.
By surveying the work of palaeoecologists, biologists and anthropologists, Yeo digs into landscapes of the past to uncover lessons for conservationists today.
“At a time of unprecedented ecological collapse, it is our duty to restore something of that lost world,” writes Yeo.
For thousands of years, humans have been the architects of the natural world. Our activities have permanently altered the environment – for good and for bad. Uncovering the stories of the people who have helped to shape the landscape, Sophie Yeo seeks out their footprints even where it seems there are none to be found. And she explores the timeworn knowledge that can help to fix our broken relationship with the earth.
Today, the natural world is more vulnerable than ever; the footprints of humanity heavier than they have ever been. But, as this urgent book argues, from the ghosts of the past, we may learn how to build a more wild and ancient future.
“Sophie writes fantastically, chronicling the most important issues facing nature conservationists today”, said Chris Packham
Nature’s Ghosts (Harper North) will be released on the 23rd of May, 2024.