Nature Night: Finding Hope in Conservation History
In the late nineteenth century, humans came at long last to a devastating realization: their rapidly industrializing and globalizing societies were driving scores of animal species to extinction. Over the decades since, the conservation movement has evolved from early campaigns to save charismatic species like the American Bison into an effort to defend life on a larger scale. Journalist Michelle Nijhuis, the author of the book Beloved Beasts: Fighting for Life in an Age of Extinction, will share some of her research on the accomplishments, oversights, and outsized personalities of the conservation movement, and discuss how this colorful history can guide and inspire today’s activists.