In April 1996, two men working at a convalescent center wrote a letter to the journal Nature proposing that a new word be adopted to designate a person who is the last in the lineage: endling. This had come up because of patients who were dying and thought of themselves as the …
Biodiverse 21, no. 2 (2016): 10-11. This short popular science article argues that decisions about which animals to list as endangered on red lists and which to exclude as ‘foreign’ species often rely on history. Each country sets a “date line” that determines whether or not a species can count …
This chapter addresses where two issues – the problem of not seeing at a certain time and the idea of a static nature over time – converge in two historical searches for the last: the European beaver (Castor fiber) in Sweden at the end of the nineteenth century and the thylacine …
In this chapter I present an experiment: five pseudo-posts about blogging. I call them pseudo-posts because unlike the true online format of a blog, clickable links and embedded visuals are not possible. Yet I’ve tried to simulate the reading of a blog through indicated links (they are underlined and you …
The global extraction of forest and water resources has led to habitat degradation, biodiversity loss, and declines in ecosystem services. As a consequence, ecological restoration has become a global priority. Restoration efforts to offset this trend, however, are not always effective. One reason is that many restoration projects target single …
This exhibit review discusses the Welcome to the Anthropocene: The Earth in Our Hands exhibit at the Deutsches Museum, Munich, within the context of how history of technology should engage with the Anthropocene concept. We argue that technology is the linchpin in the Anthropocene as an idea, and thus historians and museums of technology need …
During the first half of the twentieth century a number of individuals in Norway participated in the transfer of animals from both the Arctic to the Antarctic regions and vice versa. These projects may be conceptualized as a form of imperial acclimatization, following in the footsteps of earlier attempts to …
David Bell, Joakim Hjältén, Christer Nilsson, Dolly Jørgensen, Therese Johansson Ecosphere 6, no. 12: [online]. DOI: 10.1890/ES14-00551.1 [Open Access] Umbrella species are often spatially demanding and have limited ability to adapt to environmental changes induced by human land-use. This makes them vulnerable to human encroachment. In Sweden, broadleaved trees are disadvantaged by forestry, and commercially managed …
The late medieval period has complex and contradictory developments in the thinking about animal blood from butchery. It is both a potential pollutant to watercourses and soil, as well as a valuable ingredient in food for human consumption as blood pudding. It is a practical necessity, but also infused with …
Ecological restoration as objective, target and tool in international biodiversity policy. Ecology and Society 20, no. 2 (2015):43. http://dx.doi.org/10.5751/ES-08149-200443 [Open Access] Ecological restoration has been mainstreamed in international biodiversity policies in the last five years. I analyze statements about restoration in three international policies: the Convention for Biodiversity Strategic Plan 2011-2020 and …
