Readings

Read More from E.O. Wilson:

  • Half-Earth: Our Planet’s Fight for Life. New York: Liveright Publishing, 2017. The book that catalyzed the Half-Earth movement. A must read.

  • “The 8 Million Species We Don’t Know” – The New York Times Opinion, March 3, 2018. Wilson presents the background and rationale for Half-Earth Project.

  • “The Global Solution to Extinction” – The New York Times Opinion, March 12, 2016. Wilson argues it is not too late to halt the alarming loss of species and biodiversity threatening life on the planet.

  • Biophilia: The Human Bond with Other Species, Cambridge, MA: Harvard Univ Press, 1986. Wilson’s most personal book, an evocation of his own response to nature and an eloquent statement of the conservation ethic.

Read Books About Biodiversity and the Threats it Faces:

  • Nature’s Best Hope: How You Can Save the World in Your Own Yard by Douglas Tallamy. New York: Workman Publishing Co, 2023. Doug Tallamy’s groundbreaking book on planting native and removing invasive species in your backyard has been adapted for young readers.

  • Nature’s Best Hope: A New Approach to Conservation That Starts in Your Yard by Douglas Tallamy. New York: Workman Publishing Co, 2020. A prominent entomologist makes the case for a homegrown national park, where homeowners create natural habitat in their yards.

  • Bringing Nature Home: How You Can Sustain Wildlife with Native Plants by Douglas Tallamy. New York: Workman Publishing Co, 2007. Tallamy expertly reveals the critical link between native plant species and native wildlife. In doing so, he invites readers to use more native plant species to welcome wildlife into their yards, gardens, and landscapes.

  • The Sixth Extinction: Patterns of Life and the Future of Mankind by Richard Leakey. New York: Penguin, 1996. Leakey, an evolutionary scientist, turns his eye to the future and considers how the grand sprawl of human life is inexorably wreaking havoc around the world. 

  • The Sixth Extinction: An Unnatural History by Elizabeth Kolbert. New York: Henry Holt and Company, 2014. Kolbert exposes the threat posed by human behavior to global biodiversity, arguing that the Earth is in the middle of a sixth, man-made extinction.

  • The Soil Will Save Us: How Scientists, Farmers, and Foodies are Healing the Soil to Save the Planet by Kristin Ohlson. New York: Penguin, 2014. Ohlson convincingly argues that if we want to save the environment we have to start from the ground up. The biodiversity of the soil is the foundation of life.

  • The Hidden Half of Nature by Anne Bikle and David Montgomery. New York: Norton, 2015. A scientific explanation combined with a personal exploration about Earth’s smallest creatures—microbes—and how they are in as much danger as the megafauna.

Read Articles About Biodiversity and the Threats it Faces:

  • “Tiny Forests With Big Benefits” - The New York Times (August 24, 2023) by Cara Buckley. Tiny forests have been planted across Europe, in Africa, throughout Asia and in South America, Russia and the Middle East. Now tiny forests are slowly but steadily appearing in the United States. They grow more quickly, support more biodiversity, and sequester more carbon than conventional tree plantations.

  • “Nations promise to protect 30 percent of planet to stem extinction” - The Washington Post (December 19, 2022) by Dino Grandoni. Delegates at the COP15 biodiversity summit in Canada made a major conservation commitment to try to halt the loss of hundreds of thousands of plants and animals. But it remains to be seen if nations will follow through.

  • “Yo-Yo Ma Is Finding His Way Back to Nature Through Music” - The New York Times (December 15, 2022) by Joshua Barone. This superstar cellist’s latest project, which has taken him to America’s national parks, aims to newly understand our place in the world.

  • “Animals Are Running Out of Places to Live” - The New York Times (December 9, 2022) by Catrin Einhorn and Lauren Leather. Wildlife is disappearing around the world, in the oceans and on land. The main cause on land is perhaps the most straightforward: Humans are taking over too much of the planet, erasing what was there before. Climate change and other pressures make survival harder.

  • “In a first, U.S. appoints a diplomat for plants and animals” - The Washington Post (September 29, 2022) by Dino Grandoni and Vanessa Montalbano. As temperatures rise and habitats shrink, hundreds of thousands of plant and animal species around the world are at risk of vanishing. For the first time, the United States is designating a special diplomat to advocate for global biodiversity amid what policymakers here and overseas increasingly recognize as an extinction crisis.

  • “As many as one in six U.S. tree species is threatened with extinction” - The Washington Post (August 23, 2022) by Sarah Kaplan. Climate change is supercharging tree diseases as invasive species ravage American forests.

  • “Washington Might Be About to Do Something Right for America’s Wildlife” - The New York Times (June 20, 2022) by Margaret Renkl. Landmark legislation, known in conservation circles as RAWA, is poised to become the single most effective tool in combating biodiversity loss since the Endangered Species Act.

  • “A Lake in Florida Suing to Protect Itself” - The New Yorker (April 11, 2022) by Elizabeth Kolbert. Lake Mary Jane, in central Florida, could be harmed by development. A first-of-its-kind lawsuit asks whether nature should have legal rights.

  • “The Rise — and Beauty — of the Native Plant” - The Washington Post (April 4, 2022) by Chris Moody. Ecologists have been touting native plants for decades. As climate change escalates, are American homeowners and landscapers finally ready to listen?

  • “This Map Shows Where Biodiversity Is Most at Risk in America” - The New York Times (March 3, 2022) by Catrin Einhorn and Nadja Popovich. New maps are an important tool for officials and scientists working to protect threatened species. The original article was published in Ecological Applications.

  • “Meet an Ecologist Who Works for God (and Against Lawns)” - The New York Times (December 3, 2021) by Cara Buckley and Karsten Moran. As an ecologist and a Catholic, Mr. Jacobs believes humans can help fight climate change and repair the world right where they live. Mr. and Mrs. Jacobs grow native plants to serve the higher purpose of providing habitat and food to wildlife, inspiring neighbors along the way.

  • “Conserving Plant Diversity in New England” by the Native Plant Trust and The Nature Conservancy (June 19, 2021). A groundbreaking new report that provides a scientific framework and detailed roadmap for conservation action and land protection at the species, habitat, and parcel scales that will save plant diversity—and thus overall biodiversity—in New England as the climate changes.

  • “America’s New Whale Is Now at Extinction’s Doorstep” – The New York Times Opinion (March 6, 2021) by Joe Roman. An evolutionary biologist and professor at the University of Vermont, Roman writes about “The American Whale,” and the dangers it faces in the Gulf of Mexico from plastic, ships, and oil.  

  • "Our Great Reckoning: Eileen Crist On The Consequences Of Human Plunder" – The Sun (December 2020) by Leath Tonino. An interview of Eileen Crist, the author of the 2019 book, Abundant Earth: Toward an Ecological Civilization. Crist addresses why so little is being done to address the planetary emergency of biodiversity loss and ecological collapse. About the Half-Earth Project, Crist says it is “bold, visionary, and necessary.”

  • “Protect the Last of the Wild” – Nature (November 1, 2018) by James E. M. Watson, James R. Allan and others. The authors contend that protecting existing wilderness areas is key to sustaining biodiversity and mitigating the effects of climate change, and towards this end propose that “100% of all remaining intact ecosystems” be adopted as an international goal.

  • “What is Biodiversity and Why Does It Matter to Us?” - The Guardian (March 12, 2018) by Damian Carrington. The air you breathe, the water you drink and the food you eat all rely on biodiversity, but right now it is in crisis – because of us. What does this mean for our future and can we stop it?

Read About the Vermont Alliance for Half-Earth & Other Vermont Stories:

  • “Wildlands in New England: Past, Present, and Future" - Wildlands Woodlands Farmlands & Communities (May 2023). This is the first U.S. study to map and characterize all permanently conserved lands in one region that are managed to be forever wild. The report answers three important questions: 1) Where are Wildlands located in New England?; 2) What are the characteristics of these Wildlands?; and 3) What is their current protection status?

  • “Fighting Vermont’s Biodiversity Crisis Together” - Audubon Vermont (November 15, 2022) by Thomas Patti. Conservation organizations convene to explore a statewide biodiversity coalition

  • Our Better Nature: Hopeful Excursions in Saving Biodiversity edited by Curt Lindberg and Eric Hagen. Vermont Alliance for Half-Earth, 2022. Grounded in experience and science, Our Better Nature presents readers with stories, essays, and resources to guide and inspire action in favor of nature everywhere. Our Better Nature inspires individuals and communities to carry Vermont’s thriving framework for sustaining biodiversity beyond all borders and into meaningful actions that protect nature around the world.

  • "A Homegrown National Park: Doug Tallamy’s call to preserve half our planet" - VNRC News & Stories (September 7, 2021). A story on the event held by Lareau Farm and American Flatbread, Vermont Alliance for Half-Earth, and Vermont Natural Resources Council titled “Growing a Homegrown State Park.” VNRC highlights the impetus behind Homegrown National Park and outlines some tips on how each of us can get started and preserve biodiversity.

  • “Creating a homegrown national park” – The Barre Montpelier Times Argus (September 4, 2021) by Sarah Galbraith. A feature on the event titled “Growing a Homegrown State Park.” Entomologist and author Doug Tallamy spoke to a full house about simple ways each of us can contribute to conservation and biodiversity preservation.

  • “Vermont’s Backyard Diversity” – VNRC Vermont Environmental Report (Summer/Fall 2021). The Vermont Alliance for Half-Earth and Alliance member Charlie Wanzer are highlighted in the Vermont Natural Resources Council’s Vermont Environmental Report. This report contains a wonderful series of articles about what you can do to address global environmental challenges (PDF).

  • "Half-Earth – Biodiversity and Nature’s Fight for Survival" - The Valley Reporter (November 2020). A feature about the Vermont Alliance for Half-Earth: first in a series of articles about what area residents are doing on their land to preserve biodiversity and what people can do in their yards and in The Valley.

  • “Protecting Biodiversity in Vermont” – VNRC Vermont Environmental Report (Summer 2020). Curt Lindberg, a founder of the Vermont Alliance for Half-Earth, is featured in the Vermont Natural Resources Council’s Vermont Environmental Report (PDF).

  • "Biodiversity Matters – Here’s Why" - The Valley Reporter (September 2019) by Lauren Milideo. A feature about an event held by the Vermont Alliance for Half-Earth to discuss biodiversity in the Mad River Valley of Vermont. The event was titled: “Celebrating Biodiversity in the Mad River Valley: A Free Community Workshop and Dinner.”

  • "Bioblitz at Warren Elementary School" - The Valley Reporter (September 2019) by Lisa Loomis. Vermont Alliance for Half-Earth helped with the Warren Elementary School bioblitz. The goal is for students to look for and count as many species as they can on school property or close by.

  • "Workshop to Explore Mad River Valley Biodiversity" - The Valley Reporter (August 2019). Vermont Alliance for Half-Earth invites the community to join an event: “Celebrating Biodiversity in the Mad River Valley: A Free Community Workshop and Dinner.”

  • “Half-Earth Here” – The Valley Reporter (December 5, 2018) by George Schenk, Curt Lindberg, Claire Lindberg. Three residents of the Mad River Valley in Vermont, introduce Half-Earth to their neighbors and explore what they can be done to preserve biodiversity (PDF).

  • "How Businesses Can Help Make Half-Earth a Reality: Combating Invasive Species" - Half-Earth Project Blog (September 2018) by Mark Aspelin. Learn about the costs of invasive species and how prevention, early detection, and rapid-response actions can help.