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A review by cameliarose
Darwin Comes to Town by Menno Schilthuizen
4.0
Menno Schilthuizen is an optimist and pragmatist regarding the ongoing human vs nature (other species). If you skip the first and last chapter, and if you desperately want to believe humans are not the worst enemies of nature, you probably will feel happier after reading this book. I can understand the author's worry that rightwing anti-intellectuals or climate-change-deniers may misinterpret his book.
Darwin Comes to Town: How the Urban Jungle Drives Evolution is about the evolution brought on by humans, especially in cities. The author clarifies in the first chapter that the purpose of the book is not against nature conservation. He believes we should conserve as much wilderness as possible. However, he also thinks outside the pristine wilderness areas, traditional conversation practices--eradicating exotic species, vilifying weeds and pests--may in fact destroying echo systems that may sustain humankind in the future. He then argues for embracing and harnessing the evolution forces shaping novel ecosystems in the urban areas, and allowing nature to grow in the heart of cities.
In each chapter, the author gives an example of evolutions triggered or sped up by humans-- English peppered moth evolution, parakeet colonies in major European cities, birds changing their songs in cities, dandelion on the city pavement producing heavier seeds than those in the meadows, to name a few. Are crows pests or just smart birds filling up the new evolution niche created by humans? City blackbirds stop migration and could soon become a different species than their countryside cousins.
"Natural selection here is so strong that urban life forms evolute rapidly, but we must also remember all the examples of urban evolution in this book form a biased samples of those life forms that are pre-adapted variables or simply lucky enough to evolve and survive. For each successful urban species, there are dozens of other species could not adapt to city life and disappeared."
To my understanding, the author attempts to draw up a second-best scenario, where humans coexist with other species "peacefully".
Nature survive despite of us, not because of us.
Darwin Comes to Town: How the Urban Jungle Drives Evolution is about the evolution brought on by humans, especially in cities. The author clarifies in the first chapter that the purpose of the book is not against nature conservation. He believes we should conserve as much wilderness as possible. However, he also thinks outside the pristine wilderness areas, traditional conversation practices--eradicating exotic species, vilifying weeds and pests--may in fact destroying echo systems that may sustain humankind in the future. He then argues for embracing and harnessing the evolution forces shaping novel ecosystems in the urban areas, and allowing nature to grow in the heart of cities.
In each chapter, the author gives an example of evolutions triggered or sped up by humans-- English peppered moth evolution, parakeet colonies in major European cities, birds changing their songs in cities, dandelion on the city pavement producing heavier seeds than those in the meadows, to name a few. Are crows pests or just smart birds filling up the new evolution niche created by humans? City blackbirds stop migration and could soon become a different species than their countryside cousins.
"Natural selection here is so strong that urban life forms evolute rapidly, but we must also remember all the examples of urban evolution in this book form a biased samples of those life forms that are pre-adapted variables or simply lucky enough to evolve and survive. For each successful urban species, there are dozens of other species could not adapt to city life and disappeared."
To my understanding, the author attempts to draw up a second-best scenario, where humans coexist with other species "peacefully".
Nature survive despite of us, not because of us.