SECTION 7: It’s In Our Hands
In our book, we have seen time and again the damage that so-called progress has inflicted on the natural world. And so long as never-ending economic growth remains the goal of our governments and our major financial institutions, and the corporate bottom line remains immediate profit above the our children’s future, the crimes against Read More
The basic idea behind a Safe Harbor agreement is that landowners who have committed to restoring or enhancing wildlife habitats on their land should not be penalized if an endangered species shows up. This is important since, as we have seen, the government’s laws for protecting endangered species are strict so that many people Read More
There is one other kind of agreement to mention here. Conservation easements are voluntary agreements signed by landowners that enable them to protect their land for conservation in perpetuity, often in return for tax benefits. In other words, easements provide landowners with incentives to help protect endangered species and their habitats. Once the agreement Read More
I meet so many people, as I travel around the world, who are utterly dismayed at what is happening to our environment, to our health, and to wildlife. The media is continually publishing, among a great deal of mother-shocking news, stories of deadly pollution, devastated landscapes, loss of species, shrinking water supplies—and all the Read More
I have never been a bird-watcher per se, but I have loved to watch birds my whole life. When I was a child, England was cooler, and we always had snow in Bournemouth in the winter. And then we fed the birds and identified those who came to the bird table. One winter when Read More
When I was in Cape Town in the summer of 2008, I drove past the Cape Flats. This area is now home to some of the poorest communities in the area. But one housing project there got lucky. The original plan called for lawns down to the vlei (an Afrikaans word pronounced flay that Read More
I came across one story that I cannot get out of my mind. The description of the Limestone Barrens of Newfoundland is bleak—a flat, seemingly desolate area where few trees grow. Because I grew up surrounded by verdant vegetation, because of my years in the magical forests of Gombe, the thought of these barrens Read More
There would be little point in all the hard work and heartache that is being invested in protecting wildlife and habitats if, at the same time, we are not ensuring that the next generations of children grow up to become better, wiser stewards of the planet than we have been. We must help our Read More
The magical hippo pool (credit: Addison Fischer).
This is the story of Yahaya Selemani, who lives in a small isolated village in southern Tanzania, near Lindi on the coast. For nearly a Read More
Recently, I took part in the 2008 Roots & Shoots China Summit in Beijing. More than fifty groups were represented, MOSTLY high school and university students with a smattering of younger children. There were groups from Tianjin and Liaoning, not far from Beijing, but also from Inner Mongolia, Shandong, Guangxi, and Gansu Provinces. There Read More
