Strange Encounters: Adventures of a Renegade Naturalist

Abstract

Most people only dream of having the life Daniel B. Botkin has led. He has studied whales and elephants, tramped over high mountain passes and through rainforests, worked with NASA, and spent substantial time walking in the footsteps of Lewis and Clark and Henry David Thoreau. In this delightful narrative, Botkin does for the natural world what Richard Feynman did for physics and Oliver Sacks for human behavior. Whether rebuilding an old mill in New Hampshire while ruminating on notions of "progress, " researching the most weight-efficient high-protein food source for space travel, or working in a radioactive forest on an early Cold War research project, Botkin's adventures illuminate the complex and ever-changing relationship between human beings and their environment. "Strange Encounters is the most personal and accessible work in Daniel Botkin's long career as a writer. His most influential book, "Discordant Harmonies: A New Ecology for the Twenty-first Century, helped change the way citizens, governments, and corporations view environmental issues, bringing the concept of "sustainability" to center stage. Botkin is the coauthor of one of the most widely adopted textbooks on environmental science.