Synopses & Reviews
A unique introduction to how understanding archaeology can support modern-day sustainability efforts, from restoring forested land to reducing overfishing.
An essential and hopeful book for climate-conscious readers.
The world faces an uncertain future with the rise of climate change, biodiversity loss, deforestation, overfishing, and other threats. Understanding Imperiled Earth meets this uncertainty head-on, presenting archaeology and history as critical guides to addressing the modern environmental crisis. Through archaeology, scientists can discover the location and composition of native forests and vegetation communities, records of changing atmospheric conditions and how living things responded, and the ways people have influenced their environments for thousands of years.
Anthropologist Todd J. Braje draws connections between deep history and today's hot-button environmental news stories to reveal how the study of the ancient past can help build a more sustainable future. The book covers a diverse array of interconnected issues, from the extinction of megafauna like dire wolves and woolly rhinoceros to the conservation work of Indigenous communities to the need for interdisciplinary perspectives and collaboration to combat environmental challenges, with chapters that include:
Chapter One Nature, Humans, and History
Chapter Two Out of Africa and Around the Globe
Chapter Three Climate of Change, Now and Then
Chapter Four No Trees for Notre-Dame
Chapter Five Disappearing Birds of Hawai'i
Chapter Six how fish scarcity drives demand and price, like the single blue-fin tuna fish that sold for three million dollars in 2019.
Epilogue Planet Earth in the Age of Humans
The book explores the consequences of global phenomena, like mass deforestation in medieval Europe or overharvesting of ocean resources. Braje examines how their historical roots offer a necessary baseline for a healthier Earth, because that understanding of how the the planet used to be is fundamental to creating effective restoration efforts moving forward through vertical farming, urban forests, sustainable food webs, and more. Imperiled Earth offers an illuminating, hopeful, and actionable approach to some of the world's most urgent problems.
Review
"This clearly written and compelling book should appeal to a wide variety of readers who are interested in understanding and appreciating how the historical, behavioral, and environmental sciences can offer useful insights into how we can better face the many crucial challenges facing our planet today." Jeremy A. Sabloff, External Faculty Fellow and Past President, Santa Fe Institute
Review
"Understanding Imperiled Earth is an important book written to persuade the general reader that historical perspectives matter — that history can help us find solutions to our current environmental crises. To make his case, Braje provides an overview of historical ecology and its links to science and the humanities, then he goes deeper with several broadly appealing examples: the trees of Notre-Dame, Hawaiian birds, and tuna fisheries. Although Braje honestly lays out the challenges we face, this is not a book of doom and gloom. The clear takeaway is this: archaeology and history provide essential context for our current environmental dilemmas, which can guide policy and practices in productive ways. Braje implores readers to set aside the handwringing. He pushes us to roll up our sleeves and get to work — particularly drawing on insights from the past." Virginia Butler, archaeologist and professor at Portland State University
About the Author
Todd J. Braje received his PhD in anthropology from the University of Oregon and is the executive director of the University of Oregon Museum of Natural and Cultural History, after more than a decade spent as a professor at San Diego State University. He's the author of several books, including Islands through Time and Modern Oceans, Ancient Sites, and has published more than one hundred academic journal articles and book chapters. His research focuses on the archaeology of maritime societies, the application of archaeological records to modern resource management, and the peopling of the New World.