Award-winning environmentalist, author, and journalist Bill McKibben selects twenty science and nature essays that represent the best examples of the form published in the previous year.
“This was the most anomalous year (so far) in human history,” guest editor Bill McKibben writes, “the year in which the relationship between people and planet showed its most dramatic signs yet of unraveling.” The selections in The Best American Science and Nature Writing 2024 reveal a trying year for our planet—from the Lahaina wildfire tragedy to the lush Amazon jungle slowly turning to savanna—while also celebrating the earth's beautiful and mysterious ways—from the largest beaver dam on earth to the heroic innovation to prevent birds from crashing into Chicago's expanse of glass buildings. These essays offer solace in trying times, showing a way for a better future. They are, as McKibben says, “a reminder that this world is still a lovely and deep place, well worth the fighting for.”
Narrators Eileen Stevens, Stephen Graybill, Lee Osorio, and Gina Daniels use their considerable talents for this broad array of essays and articles on science, nature, and the relationship between the two. In his introduction, narrated by Graybill, editor Bill McKibben lays out his theme for this volume: climate change and its growing impact on the natural world and humanity. The outlook is somewh
