Diane Ackerman: The Human Age: The World Shaped By Us

KPFA Radio 94.1FM presents:

Hosted by Vijaya Nagarajan

$12 advance tickets: 800-838-3006 or independent bookstores, $15 door, KPFA benefit http://www.kpfa.org/events
Co-Sponsored by St. John's Presbyterian Church

"Our relationship with nature has changed...radically, irreversibly, but by no means all for the bad. Our new epoch is laced with invention. Our mistakes are legion, but our talent is immeasurable." - Diane Ackerman

"Diane Ackerman's vivid writing, inexhaustible stock of insights, and unquenchable optimism have established her as a national treasure and as one of our greatest authors...If you haven't read her previous books, you're now about to become addicted to Diane Ackerman."
- Jared Diamond, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Guns, Germs, and Steel

Our finest literary interpreter of science and nature, Ackerman is justly celebrated for her unique insight into the natural world and our place (for better and worse) in it. In this landmark book, she confronts the unprecedented fact that the human race is now the single dominant force of change on the planet. Humans have "subdued 75% of the land surface, concocted a wizardry of industrial and medical marvels, strung lights all across the darkness. We now collect the DNA of vanishing species in a "frozen ark," equip orangutans with iPads, create wearable technologies and synthetic species that might one day outsmart us.

Diane Ackerman has been the finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for Nonfiction. She is the author of The Zookeeper's Wife, A Natural History of the Senses, An Alchemy of Mind, Jaguar of Sweet Laughter, Dawn Light, and One Hundred Names for Love, among many other exceptional books.

Professor Vijaya Nagarajan teaches courses on Hinduism, Religion and Environment, Spiritual Autobiography, and Community Internships. Her other research projects include: On the Languages of the Commons; Tree Temples, Mangroves and Temple Forests.