The Fate of Nature: Rediscovering Our Ability to Rescue the Earth

Are we, by nature, like hermit crabs, wearing “discarded snail shells as armor against other hermit crabs, whom they attack in hopes of getting a better shell?” This wide-ranging book confronts the “competitive paradigm” to contend that “stronger than our greed and materialism, most of us feel a connection to other people, to animals and wild places, and when we're faced with a choice between meaning and material gain, we prefer fairness and the bonds of the heart over getting ahead.” Wohlforth, L.A. Times Book Prize winner (The Whale and the Supercomputer ) and lifelong Alaskan, takes readers on a heart-wrenching journey through the tumultuous history of the state and its fragile land and seascape, from the complex, mysterious culture of killer whales through the clash of Native worldview and Hobbesian self-interest with the arrival of Europeans, the origins of the conservation movement and its ongoing battle with development, and the devastating Valdez oil spill. Wohlforth concludes, optimistically, provocatively, but convincingly, that “stepping off the material treadmill isn't denial, it's freedom.” (June)