Show Notes

Podcast

Podcast

Jim Chats with...

Christopher J. Preston

Episode 012

November 2024

Wildlife, Technology, and Biophilia
in the 21st Century

How should humans respond to the impact
of climate change and loss of biodiversity?

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Should we double down with more technology or should we sit back and let nature reset itself?

What roll does biophilia play in our response?

In this interview with Christopher J. Preston, author of Tenacious Beasts and expert in wildlife, technology, and climate change, we discuss:

  • animals coming back from the brink of extinction

  • whales and whale vomit

  • The Great Whale Conveyor

  • the impact of bison on creeks and forests

  • the impact beavers have on land and water

  • the impact fashion has on beavers

  • the impact of sea otters on kelp

  • indigenous people's relationship with sea otters

  • the Shifting Baseline Syndrome

  • and much much more.

I hope this conversation helps change the way you look at wildlife, technology, and climate change. And hopefully stokes up your sense of biophilia (your love and connection with nature).

And perhaps motivate you to take proactive steps to help innovate and implement solutions to the many challenges that we are facing.

Who is Christopher J. Preston?

Christopher J. Preston is a writer and professor based in Missoula, MT.

His academic research centers on wildlife, technology, and climate change.

Christopher has written for The Atlantic, Smithsonian Magazine, Discover, Orion, The Conversation, the Wall Street Journal, and The BBC. 

His recent book Tenacious Beasts: Wildlife Recoveries That Change How We Think About Animals investigates a number of species that came back from the brink of extinction.

Tenacious Beasts was listed by the New Yorker as one of their Best Books of 2023. And won the 2024 High Plains Book Award for non-fiction.

His previous book, The Synthetic Age: Out designing Evolution, Resurrecting Species, and Reengineering Our World, has been translated into six languages and won a silver medal from Nautilus in the ecology and environment category.

Christopher gives talks in state parks, libraries, and breweries across Montana to audiences interested in conservation and technology.

In early 2023, he won an annual award from the International Society for Environmental Ethics for his work as a public philosopher.

Books by Christopher J. Preston

Tenacious Beast:
Wildlife Recoveries That Change How We Think About Animals

(Author’s description)

At the end of my book, The Synthetic Age, I told a story about a seasonal worker killed by a grizzly bear in Yellowstone National Park. After ten chapters on technologies designed to transform our surroundings, I wanted to emphasize that every attempt at control falls short.

The biological world still startles us, pushing back against our best-laid plans.

Tenacious Beasts  is about nature’s formidable resilience. It is filled with hopeful stories about wildlife. I profile a dozen recovering species and ask what they have to teach. Wolves in Europe, bison on America’s Great Plains, and humpback whales in the Atlantic and Pacific are among the species experiencing spectacular comebacks. Through interviews, site visits, and detailed research, I investigate how the turnarounds have happened.

Recovering animals can be uplifting, for sure, but they also challenge us. They make demands on those accustomed to living without them. They force changes in perspective and shifts in values. On farmland, prairie, rivers, forests, and oceans, I investigate how to think differently about wildlife so we can successfully coexist.

Tenacious Beasts is a blend of optimism and surprise about living harmoniously alongside our animal kin.

The Synthetic Age:
Outdesigning Evolution, Resurrecting Species, and Reengineering Our World

(Description from MIT Press)

Imagining a future in which humans fundamentally reshape the natural world using nanotechnology, synthetic biology, de-extinction, and climate engineering.

A world designed by engineers and technicians means the birth of the planet's first Synthetic Age.

Preston describes a range of technologies that will reconfigure Earth's very metabolism: nanotechnologies that can restructure natural forms of matter; “molecular manufacturing” that offers unlimited repurposing; synthetic biology's potential to build, not just read, a genome; “biological mini-machines” that can outdesign evolution; the relocation and resurrection of species; and climate engineering attempts to manage solar radiation by synthesizing a volcanic haze, cool surface temperatures by increasing the brightness of clouds, and remove carbon from the atmosphere with artificial trees that capture carbon from the breeze.

What does it mean when humans shift from being caretakers of the Earth to being shapers of it? And in whom should we trust to decide the contours of our synthetic future? These questions are too important to be left to the engineers.

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Guest Resources

Links you can use to follow and connect with Christopher J. Preston.

Christopher J. Preston Website - https://christopherjpreston.com/

University of Montana Philosophy Dept. - https://www.umt.edu/philosophy/people/default.php

7 Value Bombs

1) “You Don’t need to dial back the conditions on earth back to what they were 10,000 years ago for some of these species to survive.

Some of these animals are extraordinarily resilient and can do extraordinarily well if you just make a few moves that favor them rather than make moves that destroy them.”

2) The Need to Balance Self Interests and the Interests of the Community

How do you balance what’s important for an individual with what’s important for a community?

3) Today’s college students have been taught about biodiversity and climate change crises since they were 7 years old. They need hope not more doom and gloom.

4) The Three C’s (Cores, Corridors, and Carnivores)

You need Core areas where animals can survive without getting harassed.

You need Corridors that connect those Core areas.

You need Carnivores to maintain ecological health.

5) European Bison have been introduced to a UK Woodland to restore the forest for free
(these are the first bison in UK in 30,000 years)

6) Environmental Generational Amnesia (aka Shifting Baseline Syndrome)

(Some people have a job/challenge of moving that baseline where it should be.)

7) A Deep Puzzle: What should our response be to the Anthropocene?

(Should we double down our influence on nature and wildlife or find places to pause and back away to let the natural world reassert itself?)

About Biophilia

A growing love and connection with nature and wildlife can significantly improve your mental health. It can help:

  • reduce stress and anxiety

  • boost your mood

  • enhance creativity

  • improve focus and concentration

  • foster a sense of wellbeing

  • promote a greater appreciation for the environment, potentially leading to more environmentally conscious behaviors.

May your love and connection to nature and wildlife grow each and every day.

The quality of your life and the quality of life on this planet may depend upon it.

Sponsors

This episode is brought to you by Audible.

Audible: Audible is the leading producer and provider of audiobooks.

Finding the opportunity to read can be a challenge. Many people rely on audiobooks when they don’t have time to read. An audiobook allows you to listen to the latest bestseller, learn a new skill, and gain new insights, while commuting, cooking dinner, or cleaning up the house.

I recommend listening to the following books:

Show Notes - Outline

Introduction

Christopher Preston’s Origin Story

What is Philosophy

What are the biggest problems we face these days?

The Need to Balance Self Interests vs Interests of the Whole
(Self interest vs Interest of the Community) (Tragedy of the Commons)
How do you balance what’s important for an individual with what’s important for a community? (A perennial human problem)

Book: Synthetic Age (Fear that technology will replace the natural world)

Book: Tenacious Beasts (Lessons from animals that naturally came back from near extinction)

The Recovery of the Humpback Whales

Environmental Benefit: The Great Whale Conveyor (Whales Positive Impact on the Climate)

Whale Vomit (aka Dragon Spital)

Climate Benefit of Sea Otter Recovery (Sea Otter impact on Kelp)

Sea Otters Aided by Law in 1911 and Nuclear Tests in Alaska

A Change in Fashion Saves the Beaver

Recovery of Beavers and Benefits of Beaver Dams

Positive Impact of Bison on Creeks - Bison are Ecosystem Engineers

Appreciating the role that a single animal has on a system

Nature is being replaced by technology

Deep Changes and Biotechnology

Resurrecting species - De-extinction

The Environment’s Capacity to Adapt to fewer Species
(The number of animals around us today is just 1/3 of number that were around 50 years ago) Since 1970 species have lost 60+% of their numbers)

Providing Some Hope with the book Tenacious Beast

You Don’t Have to Roll Back the Clock 10,000 years

Dam removals and fish recovery

Connectivity and Recovery

30 by 30 Conservation Effort

The Three C’s (Cores, Corridors, and Carnivores)

Natural systems perform many of the services humans need for free  

Book “Eager” by Ben Goldfarb

European Bison introduced to a UK Woodland restore forest for free (the First bison in UK in 30,000 years)

The intersection of Entrepreneurs and climate change technologies

Electric Cars and Batteries

Clawing Back (Capturing) Carbon from the atmosphere

What about Biophilia?

Different Motivations for Change

Uses for Kelp/Seaweed and their economic challenges

Environmental Generational Amnesia (aka Shifting Baseline Syndrome)

About the Anthropocene and Human Influence on the Earth

A Deep Puzzle: What should our response be to the Anthropocene?
(Should we double down on our influence or find places to pause and back away
and let the natural world reassert itself?)

Lessons learned from indigenous people

Coexisting with Sea Otters (hunting and protecting)

What Excites you these days

What’s Your Vision for the future (Human health, Energy Abundance, Biodiversity and Wildlife)

Obstacles that are keeping people from making connections to nature.

“You Don’t need to dial back the conditions on earth back to what they were 10,000 years ago for some of these species to survive.

Some of these animals are extraordinarily resilient and can do extraordinarily well if you just make a few moves that favor them rather than make moves that destroy them.”

– Christopher J. Preston

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Books Mentioned in This Interview

How a Single Paper Grew Into a Forest

Handprint co-founder Dr. Ryan Merrill was commissioned to write a paper by the United Nations on “Digital Sustainability.”

His research paper won the Financial Times “Paper of the Year.”

His work helped giant payments platform Alipay in China to launch a campaign called Ant Forest on the Alipay mobile client in August 2016.

It encourages users to lower carbon emissions by planting trees when users engage in activities that reduce carbon emissions.

They planted 350 million trees in the first 8 months of the launch of the app.

Dr. Ryan Merrill’s paper inspired the creation of Ant Forest which has planted hundreds of millions of trees.

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