End of the wild

Those places where nature and civilization intersect are critical zones. When the wilderness of indigenous peoples meets invading modern cultures, it typically results in net loss as unique cultures and biologically diverse ecosystems fall beneath the wheels of progress. In The Ragged Edge of the World: Encounters at the Frontier Where Modernity, Wildlands and Indigenous Peoples Meet, veteran journalist Eugene Linden (National Geographic, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal) looks at places and peoples who are losing ground to the cluster of technology and culture we call progress. Borneo, New Guinea, Polynesia or the Arctic, our progress is their loss. Linden writes memoir style, but his observations are completed by citations of experts. He doesn’t limit himself to humans, covering the ravages of progress and climate change on chimpanzees (based on his reporting on Jane Goodall) and on the wolves of Yellowstone National Park, making clear that the world is ragged now for animals other than ourselves.