人類と環境の歴史（英訳） Cataclysms : An Environmental History of Humanity

Testot, Laurent

University of Chicago Press（2020/11発売）

• 製本 Hardcover:ハードカバー版／ページ数 480 p.
• 言語 ENG
• 商品コード 9780226609126
• DDC分類 304.209

Full Description

Humanity is by many measures the biggest success story in the animal kingdom; but what are the costs of this triumph? Over its three million years of existence, the human species has continuously modified nature and drained its resources. In Cataclysms, Laurent Testot provides the full tally, offering a comprehensive environmental history of humanity's unmatched and perhaps irreversible influence on the world. Testot explores the interconnected histories of human evolution and planetary deterioration, arguing that our development from naked apes to Homo sapiens has entailed wide-scale environmental harm. Testot makes the case that humans have usually been catastrophic for the planet, "hyperpredators" responsible for mass extinctions, deforestation, global warming, ocean acidification, and unchecked pollution, as well as the slaughter of our own species. Organized chronologically around seven technological revolutions, Cataclysms unspools the intertwined saga of humanity and our environment, from our shy beginnings in Africa to today's domination of the planet, revealing how we have blown past any limits along the way--whether by exploding our own population numbers, domesticating countless other species, or harnessing energy from fossils. Testot's book, while sweeping, is light and approachable, telling the stories--sometimes rambunctious, sometimes appalling--of how a glorified monkey transformed its own environment beyond all recognition.

In order to begin reversing our environmental disaster, we must have a better understanding of our own past and the incalculable environmental costs incurred at every stage of human innovation. Cataclysms offers that understanding and the hope that we can now begin to reform our relationship to the Earth.

Contents

Introduction

Part I: Monkey Conquers the World

1 We Are the Children of the Climate
2 The End of the Elephants
3 The Wheat Deal
4 Collapse

Part II: Monkey Dominates Nature

5 When Gods Guide the Way
6 All Empires Will Fall
7 After Summer Comes Winter
8 Biological Hazards
9 Demographic Hazards

Part III: Monkey Transforms the Earth

10 The Promises of Quicksilver
11 Cold, Cold Earth
12 Dying for the Forest
13 Unlimited Energy
14 The Cold Chill of Catastrophe
15 A Time of Excess
16 The Blind Flock
17 Tomorrow's World
Conclusion
Epilogue to the English Edition: Two and a Half Years after the French Edition . . .
  Appendix A: Glossary
Appendix B: Chronology
Notes
Bibliography
Index