Description
Fifteen essays explore the positives and negatives of increased connectedness born of digital triumphs over distance. Positives of Internet proximity are increased effectivity in fund-raising, group building, and management of natural resources. The primary negative is human sprawl, a.k.a. "selective deconcentration," producing the resultant erasure of wild habitat. Leavitt is director of the Internet and Conservation Project at the Taubman Center for State and Local Government at the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard, and other contributors work primarily for various academic and governmental entities. The book has a companion website, and Island Press prints on recycled paper. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)
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Since the earliest days of our nation, new communications and transportation networks have enabled vast changes in how and where Americans live and work. Transcontinental railroads and telegraphs helped to open the West; mass media and interstate highways paved the way for suburban migration. In our own day, the internet and advanced logistics networks are enabling new changes on the landscape, with both positive and negative impacts on our efforts to conserve land and biodiversity. Emerging technologies have led to tremendous innovations in conservation science and resource management as well as education and advocacy efforts. At the same time, new networks have been powerful enablers of decentralization, facilitating sprawling development into previously undesirable or inaccessible areas.Conservation in the Internet Age offers an innovative, cross-disciplinary perspective on critical changes on the land and in the field of conservation. The book:provides a general overview of the impact of new technologies and networksexplores the potentially disruptive impacts of the new networks on open space and biodiversitypresents case studies of innovative ways that conservation organizations are using the new networks to pursue their missionsconsiders how rapid change in the Internet Age offers the potential for landmark conservation initiativesConservation in the Internet Age is the first book to examine the links among land use, technology, and conservation from multiple perspectives, and to suggest areas and initiatives that merit further investigation. It offers unique and valuable insight into the challenges facing the land and biodiversity conservation community in the early twenty-first century, and represents an important new work for policymakers, conservation professionals, and academics in planning, design, conservation and resource management, policy, and related fields.
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