Excerpt from Strange Encounters: Adventures of a Renegade Naturalist by Daniel B. Botkin.How many hours does a whale sleep?" I asked into the telephone receiver. If anybody could have seen my red face, he would have known how embarrassed I felt asking this question. I was working as a research scientist at the Marine Biological Laboratory in Woods Hole, Massachusetts, … [Read more...]
Newsletter April 15, 2014
Hello Readers,I've started a new Video Newsletter, which I thought you might interest you. This is an outgrowth of a print-only newsletter I wrote for several years and then took a break. In these new video issues, I will discuss a wide variety of topics: science, music, poetry, and art as they form a context for life in our time and especially what we believe to be … [Read more...]
Daniel B. Botkin Professional Experience
Adjunct Professor of Biology, University of Miami, Coral Gables, Florida, and Professor (Emeritus), Department of Ecology, Evolution and Marine Biology, University of California, Santa Barbara.The New York Times has called him "one of the world's leading environmental researchers," who has "done much to popularize the concept of using yet maintaining the world's natural … [Read more...]
New Speech Topic: The Future of Our National Parks: How Should They Fit into the 21st Century?
2016 will be the centennial of the National Park Service and it faces many challenges, which I will discuss and make recommendations. These include: appealing to America’s ever more diverse population; conservation of biodiversity as the environment changes; invasive species; introduction of endangered species; the role of the parks in responses to climate change; the use of … [Read more...]
Is it People Versus Nature or People Within Nature?
Among the many stories that have come out of the Australasian Antarctic Expedition that got stuck in the ice, is this quote: “It's fantastic—I love it when the ice wins and we don't," marine ecologist Tracy Rogers told the BBC journalist onboard, adding: "It reminds you that as humans, we don't control everything and that the natural world—it's the winner here." It’s an … [Read more...]
Thinking about Goals for People and the Environment
Having worked in ecology and dealt with applied environmental problems for 45 years, I think about what are the leading environmental problems that face us today in the 21st century. Climate change has captured people’s attention, but there are other issues that we need to consider. Here’s my start of a list, which I discuss in the postscript to my most recent book, The Moon … [Read more...]
My Natural History Travels Following the Life of Henry David Thoreau: Concord, Walden, Maine Woods, and Cape Cod.
I have followed the travels of Henry David Thoreau as he tried to understand nature, wildness, wilderness, and civilization during his lifetime (July 12, 1817 – May 6, 1862). He lived most of his life in Concord, MA, traveling and writing books about: the woods of Maine including his hike up Mt. Katahdin, the state’s tallest mountain; his travels to Cape Cod; and his life at … [Read more...]
My Natural History Travels Following the Trail of Lewis and Clark
I have followed the trail of Lewis and Clark from the beginning near modern St. Louis, Missouri, up the Missouri River, across the Rocky Mountains, and down the Columbia River to the Pacific Ocean. President Thomas Jefferson had instructed them to"record the mineral productions of every kind... Volcanic appearances ... Climate, as characterized by the thermometer, by the … [Read more...]