Synopses & Reviews
Chickens, puffins, eagles, canaries, pelicans, and other birds are recruited by humans to help us interpret changes in our complex and unpredictable world. These amazing creatures continually sample the atmosphere, oceans, forests, and insect populations, signaling toxic and environmental dangers that threaten all vertebrates.
Through personal stories and colorful examples, Nobel prize-winner Peter Doherty shows readers how birds are vital to cutting-edge scientific research. By studying birds, we can further understand the nature of human diseases such as cancer, malaria, and influenza, and develop new vaccines and cures. In his engaging and enthusiastic way, Peter argues that the insights birds provide us will have a significant impact on our future.
By endangering the lives of birds through human activities, we ultimately present a threat to our very own well-being. Their Fate is Our Fate shows why we should give our feathered friends our close and sustained attention.
Review
"Since a dove pointed Noah to land, birds have had a special place as messengers to mankind. In Their Fate Is Our Fate, Peter Doherty takes the reader on a grand tour of the avian world. We learn about the marvels of bird architecture, and why the strongest, most coordinated human will never be able to fly as a simple sparrow does. In engaging and forthright prose, Doherty explains how birds have helped us understand everything from embryology to the development of vaccines, and how birds have inspired music, dance, and poetry. What would the world be without birds? Birds today are bringing us news about global change. This includes disrupted pollination relationships that threaten the food supply. Doherty makes it clear that we have to listen to birds now and make serious change to ensure their survival (and ours)."
--Mary Ellen Hannibal, author of The Spine of the Continent: The Most Ambitious Wildlife Conservation Project Ever Undertaken
Review
"Everyone's heard the expression 'canary in a coal mine.' As this fine book makes clear, it turns out to be true in a much larger way than you ever imagined."
--Bill McKibben, author of Oil and Honey: The Education of an Unlikely Activist
"In engaging and forthright prose, Doherty makes it clear that we have to listen to birds now and make serious changes to ensure their survival (and ours)."
--Mary Ellen Hannibal, author of The Spine of the Continent
Review
"Their Fate Is Our Fate employs authorial charm and real-world anecdotes to present a compelling, engrossing case for paying careful attention to our avian neighbors."
--ForeWord Reviews
". . . Doherty views birds as prophets of a sort, as 'sentinels, sampling the health of the air, seas, forests and grasslands that we share with them.' He presents tales of complicated, messy interactions between birds and humans, often culled from his experience in the world of medicine but also detailing some of the oft-overlooked ways in which subtle human actions can greatly impact birds. To be reminded of this dynamic, Doherty suggests, is to take responsibility for the health of birds, humans and the Earth."
--Slate
"Everyone's heard the expression 'canary in a coal mine.' As this fine book makes clear, it turns out to be true in a much larger way than you ever imagined."
--Bill McKibben, author of Oil and Honey: The Education of an Unlikely Activist
"The author, an enthusiastic bird-watcher, combines bird lore and cutting-edge science in an attractive mix that should inspire citizen scientists to pursue their hobby with renewed vigor and convince others to join in."
--Kirkus Reviews
"A lucid and absorbing account of the relationships between birds, viruses, and environmental degradation. Frightening, but punctuated by humor and historical asides--it will leave you watching and listening to birds with renewed interest."
--Brian Kimberling, author of Snapper
"From the Spanish flu to West Nile virus, disease threatens the integrity of our ecological web. Doherty synthesizes with wit and wisdom the science of disease ecology that he helped create, quickly convincing his readers to learn from the birds that share our disease and destiny."
--John M. Marzluff, Professor of wildlife science, University of Washington and author of Gifts of the Crow
"If human beings have an intuitive sense to regard birds as sentinel species, Peter Doherty tells us in eloquent and precise terms the history, medicine, and biology of why, exactly, we do this. And more to the point, why it is so vital we should attend to the prophetic capabilities of the avian universe--of finches, pelicans, puffins, parrots, turkeys, grouse, eagles, pigeons, and more--as they reveal to us the consequences of a warming climate, habitat loss, and environmental toxins."
--Akiko Busch, author of The Incidental Steward: Reflections on Citizen Science
"In engaging and forthright prose, Doherty makes it clear that we have to listen to birds now and make serious changes to ensure their survival (and ours)."
--Mary Ellen Hannibal, author of The Spine of the Continent
Synopsis
In a time of unprecedented environmental change, we can look to birds for the earliest signs of the challenges we face--and how we can solve them
Nobel Prize-winning immunologist and professor Peter Doherty shows us how watching birds can be much more than a hobby. Our close relatives, birds act as an early warning system for the health of our world, calling our attention to the earliest effects of climate change, emerging disease, and a host of other global challenges to our well-being.
A call for "citizen science," Their Fate Is Our Fate proves that we don't need formal scientific training to make a difference. With nothing more than a willingness to closely observe the birds that are all around us, we can discover the ways that human activity is adversely affecting the planet--and how we can reverse course.
Synopsis
At the heart of this book by Nobel Prize-winning immunologist and professor Peter Doherty is this striking observation: Birds detect danger to our health and the environment before we do. Following a diverse cast of bird species around the world--from tufted puffins in Puget Sound to griffon vultures in India, pigeons in East Asia, and wedge-tailed shearwaters off the islands of Australia's Great Barrier Reef--Doherty illuminates birds' role as an early warning system for threats to the health of our planet and our own well-being.
Their Fate Is Our Fate
About the Author
Peter Doherty is Laureate Professor, Department of Microbiology and Immunology at the University of Melbourne. His pioneering research into human immune systems earned him the Nobel Prize for Physiology and Medicine in 1996, which he shared with Rolf M. Zinkernagel. The following year he was named Australian of the Year and awarded a Companion of the Order of Australia (AO). He divides his time between Melbourne and Memphis.