num_pages: 312
description: In an era of global warming natural disasters endangered species and devastating pollution contemporary writing on the environment largely focuses on doomsday scenarios. Eben Kirksey suggests we reject such apocalyptic thinking and instead find possibilities in the wreckage of ongoing disasters as symbiotic associations of opportunistic plants animals and microbes are flourishing in unexpected places. Emergent Ecologies uses artwork and contemporary philosophy to illustrate hopeful opportunities and reframe key problems in conservation biology such as invasive species extinction environmental management and reforestation. Following the flight of capital and nomadic forms of lifethrough fragmented landscapes of Panama Costa Rica and the United StatesKirksey explores how chance encounters historical accidents and parasitic invasions have shaped present and future multispecies communities. New generations of thinkers and tinkerers are learning how to care for emergent ecological assemblagesinvolving frogs fungal pathogens ants monkeys people and plantsby seeding them nurturing them protecting them and ultimately letting go. 
language: English
title: Emergent Ecologies
publisher: Duke University Press Books