A Year with Nature: An Almanac - Hardcover

Crump, Marty

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 022644970X ISBN 13: 9780226449708

Verlag: University of Chicago Pr., 2018

Inhaltsangabe

A Year with Nature is an almanac like none you’ve ever seen: combining science and aesthetics, it is a daily affirmation of the extraordinary richness of biodiversity and our enduring beguilement by its beauty. With a text by herpetologist and natural history writer Marty Crump and a cornucopia of original illustrations by Bronwyn McIvor, this quirky quotidian reverie gazes across the globe, media, and time as it celebrates date-appropriate natural topics ranging from the founding of the National Park Service to annual strawberry, garlic, shrimp, hummingbird, and black bear festivals.

With Crump, we mark the publication of classics like Carson’s Silent Spring and White’s Charlotte’s Web, and even the musical premiere of Tchaikovsky’s Swan Lake. We note the discovery of the structure of DNA and the mountain gorilla, the rise of citizen science projects, and the work of people who’ve shaped how we view and protect nature—from Aristotle to E. O. Wilson. Some days feature US celebrations, like National Poinsettia Day and National Cat Day; others highlight country-specific celebrations, like Australia’s Wombat Day and Thailand’s Monkey Buffet Festival, during which thousands of macaques feast on an ornately arranged spread of fruits and vegetables. Crump also highlights celebrations that span borders, from World Wildlife Conservation Day to International Mountain Day and global festivities for snakes, sea turtles, and chocolate. Interweaving fascinating facts on everything from jellyfish bodies to monthly birth flowers with folkloric entries featuring the Loch Ness Monster, unicorns, and ancient Greek, Roman, and Egyptian mythology, the almanac is as exhaustive as it is enchanting.

A Year with Nature celebrates the wonder and beauty of our natural world as we have expressed it in visual arts, music, literature, science, natural history, and everyday experience. But more than this, the almanac’s vignettes encourage us to contemplate how we can help ensure that future generations will be able to enjoy the landscapes and rich biodiversity we so deeply cherish.

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Marty Crump is adjunct professor of biology at Utah State and Northern Arizona Universities. She is the author, most recently, of Eye of Newt and Toe of Frog, Adder's Fork and Lizard's Leg: The Lore and Mythology of Amphibians and Reptiles, also published by the University of Chicago Press. She lives in Logan, UT.

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A Year with Nature

An Almanac

By Marty Crump, Bronwyn McIvor

The University of Chicago Press

Copyright © 2018 The University of Chicago
All rights reserved.

ISBN: 978-0-226-44970-8

Contents

Preface, 
Daily Entries, 
Acknowledgments, 
Bibliography, 

CHAPTER 1

Daily Entries

January 1

Wisdom of the Platypus

January 1 is World Day of Peace, a good day to appreciate and respect the differences that characterize our human family. As global distances shrink and cultures merge, we are becoming a dazzling kaleidoscope of languages, colors, traditions, and beliefs. Each of us is special, no one better than another. The Wiradjuri, Australian Aboriginals from Central New South Wales, tell a story that expresses this sentiment.

During Dreamtime the Creator made three types of animals: Mammals, Fish, and Birds. He gave Mammals fur to stay warm on land; he gave Fish gills to breathe in water; and he gave Birds the ability to lay eggs out of water. With the leftover bits and pieces, he made Platypus. After a time, Mammals, Fish, and Birds quarreled, each claiming to be the best. Mammals asked Platypus, because of her fur, to join them in their fight against Fish and Birds. Fish encouraged Platypus, because she spends most of her life in water, to join them in their fight against Mammals and Birds. Birds urged Platypus, because she lays eggs out of water, to join them in their fight against Mammals and Fish. Platypus pondered which group to join. At last she declared, "I am part of each of you; I am part of all of you. I will join no group, and I fight against no group. When the Creator made us, he made us different. We should respect each other's differences and live together peaceably."

January 2

Precious Blood

Every two seconds, someone in the United States needs blood. In 1969, President Richard Nixon designated January as National Blood Donor Month. Although an estimated 38 percent of the US population is eligible to donate, fewer than 10 percent of people do so. On average, about 40,000 pints of blood are needed in the country every day. If you can donate, what a way to begin the New Year! Your donation of a pint can be split into plasma, platelets, and red blood cells, potentially saving three lives. We cannot manufacture or synthesize human blood; it must come from generous donors.

We also depend on the blood from horseshoe crabs. Instead of white blood cells to fight infection, horseshoe crab blood contains amoebocytes that coagulate around bacterial toxins. We use this capability to our advantage. Each year, over 500,000 horseshoe crabs are collected and bled from tissue around their hearts. Their baby blue blood is used to test for contamination in vaccines, injectable drugs, intravenous solutions, and implantable medical devices like pacemakers and knee replacements. The Limulus amebocyte lysate (LAL) test is nearly instantaneous: coagulation indicates presence of bacteria; if no coagulation occurs, the solution is considered free of bacteria. One quart of horseshoe crab blood is worth $15,000 in an annual global industry valued at $50 million. Horseshoe crabs can be relieved of one-third of their blood and returned to the ocean. Most people in the US have benefited from horseshoe crab blood, as every vaccine and injectable drug certified by the Food and Drug Administration, as well as surgical implants, must pass the LAL test. We are protected by marine arthropods with an evolutionary history dating back 450 million years.

January 3

Snake Respect

Like the colorful striped garters eighteenth- and nineteenth-century gentlemen tied just below their knees to hold up their stockings, garter snakes have yellow, tan, or orange stripes running along the length of their long, slender bodies. Garter snakes are abundant in many places in the US. After two elementary school students from Massachusetts learned that their state had no state reptile, they decided the eastern garter snake should have that designation. The students worked with a local representative, and three years later, on January 3, 2007, then-Governor Mitt Romney declared the eastern garter snake (Thamnophis sirtalis sirtalis) the official reptile of Massachusetts.

Snakes engender the extremes of human emotions. We admire and respect them, or we dislike and fear them. And so it is heartwarming for a herpetologist like myself to hear of children who campaigned for a snake to be featured as a state reptile and of a legislature and governor who supported and signed the bill. School children in Massachusetts now learn about the eastern garter snake. Nature centers, museums, and zoos feature this snake in educational exhibits and fieldtrips. If we can empower people with the knowledge to distinguish harmless from venomous species, what to do if they see a snake, and a little about the animals' fascinating biology, most will come to respect the reptiles.

January 4

From Tadpoles to Ogres

On January 4, 1948, Myanmar (Burma) gained its independence from the United Kingdom. The day marked yet another transformation stage for the Wa, an ethnic group from northern Myanmar who long ago practiced headhunting.

The Wa creation myth tells that as tadpoles, they spent their early years in Nawng Hkeo, a mountain lake at 7000 feet (2134 m) elevation. After they transformed into terrestrial frogs, they lived on a hill called Nam Tao. In time, the frogs became ogres. They lived in a cave; ate deer, wild pigs, goats, and cattle; and were sterile. The Wa searched farther afield for food until one day two ogres encountered humans. They captured and ate a man and returned to their cave with the skull. Eating the man made the Wa fertile, and over time they produced many ogrelets in human form. The parents taught their children that they must keep a man's skull in their settlements to protect against evil spirits and to ensure peace and prosperity.

Tadpoles are a logical focus for a creation myth. Throughout the world frogs symbolize rebirth, reflecting their "magical" transformation from an aquatic, gill-breathing, swimming tadpole into a terrestrial, lung-breathing, leaping frog. Just like frogs, we too pass through critical stages in our lives. Physically, we transition from being bathed in amniotic fluids and getting oxygen through the placenta to breathing air through our lungs once we leave our mother's womb. Emotionally, we experience major changes in our lives and emerge from crises in transformed states.

January 5

National Bird Day

Perhaps because birds can do something we cannot — fly, we have long imbued them with supernatural powers. Birds soar in and out of heaven, messengers of the gods. They can foresee the future. They are visible spirits of the deceased, reincarnated human souls.

Birds play major roles in creation myths, as in the sacred story of the Salinan Native Americans of California. Sea Woman, jealous of Eagle because of his grandeur and power, emptied her great basket that contained the oceans and flooded Earth. Eagle gathered the animals together on the only remaining dry land, the peak of Santa Lucia Mountain. He sent Dove to fetch soil, and from this mud Eagle made a new world. Eagle fashioned a man and a woman from elderberry branches and breathed life into them.

Our "feathered friends" raise our spirits. In 2017, Daniel Cox and his colleagues published a paper in BioScience that examined the relationship between nature-related experiences of people in their...

Details zur Ausgabe

• Verlag: University of Chicago Pr.
• Erscheinungsdatum: 2018
• Sprache: Englisch
• ISBN 10: 022644970X
• ISBN 13: 9780226449708
• Einband: Gebundene Ausgabe
• Anzahl der Seiten: 384
• Kontakt zum Hersteller: The University of Chicago Press; https://press.uchicago.edu/index.html; ; 5801 S. Ellis Avenue; Chicago; IL; 60637; USA
• Verantwortliche Person: Nicht verfügbar