**SHORTLISTED FOR THE WAINWRIGHT PRIZE FOR WRITING ON GLOBAL
CONSERVATION
**
'Pilcher is both very funny and very, very clever.' Gillian Burke
**'Richly entertaining throughout.' Sunday Times
**
For the last three billion years or so, life on Earth was shaped by
natural forces. Evolution tended to happen slowly, with species crafted
across millennia. Then, a few hundred thousand years ago, along came a
bolshie, big-brained, bipedal primate we now call Homo sapiens, and with
that, the Earth's natural history came to an abrupt end. We are now
living through the post-natural phase, where humans have become the
leading force shaping evolution.
This thought-provoking book considers the many ways that we've altered
the DNA of living things and changed the fate of life on earth. We have
carved chihuahuas from wolves and fancy chickens from jungle fowl. We've
added spider genes to goats and coral genes to tropical fish. It's
possible to buy genetically-modified pets, eat genetically-modified fish
and watch cloned ponies thunder up and down the polo field.
Now, as our global dominance grows, our influence extends far beyond
these species. As we warm our world and radically reshape the biosphere,
we affect the evolution of all living things, near and far, from the
emergence of novel hybrids such as the pizzly bear, to the entirely new
strains of animals and plants that are evolving at breakneck speed to
cope with their altered environment.
In Life Changing, Helen introduces us to these post-natural creations
and talks to the scientists who create, study and tend to them. At a
time when the future of so many species is uncertain, we meet some of
the conservationists seeking to steer evolution onto firmer footings
with novel methods like the 'spermcopter', coral IVF and plans to
release wild elephants into Denmark. Helen explores the changing
relationship between humans and the natural world, and reveals how, with
evidence-based thinking, humans can help life change for the better.
