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The Best American Science And Nature Writing 2022: Climate-Focused Articles from 2021―Selected by Renowned Marine Biologist Dr. Ayana Elizabeth Johnson
A collection of the best science and nature articles written in 2021, selected by guest editor renowned marine biologist Dr. Ayana Elizabeth Johnson and series editor Jaime Green.
Dr. Ayana Elizabeth Johnson, renowned marine biologist and co-founder of the All We Can Save climate initiative, compiles the best science and nature writing of the year.
Dr. Ayana Elizabeth Johnson, renowned marine biologist and co-founder of the All We Can Save climate initiative, compiles the best science and nature writing of the year.
336 pages, Paperback
Published November 1, 2022
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 55 reviews
September 28, 2022
** Thanks so much to NetGalley, Jaime Green, and Mariner Books for this ARC! The Best American Science and Nature Writing 2022 will be out on November 1st, 2022 **
I enjoyed this one a lot! As with all anthologies, there were articles that I liked more or less. This anthology focused more on climate change and related topics. A perfect book to read an article a day before bed.
4 stars.
I enjoyed this one a lot! As with all anthologies, there were articles that I liked more or less. This anthology focused more on climate change and related topics. A perfect book to read an article a day before bed.
4 stars.
November 11, 2022
More like 2.5. I really wanted to love this - I’ve loved these books for years, . But I wanted more diversity in topics and areas of interest with this one. That was one of the things I loved about past editions: I’d get oncology, chemistry, surgery, psychiatry, climate change, earth science - a wide variety of topics. And I missed that with this one. Johnson admits she leaned toward certain topics in the intro, so I shouldn’t have been surprised at the prevalent topics.
I just miss the wide range of topics that the collections used to have.
I just miss the wide range of topics that the collections used to have.
June 22, 2023
to sim it up in ver yfew words: enlightening, frightening, hopeful.
A collection mainly written in 2021 and combiles in this book in 2022 and I'm reading it in 2023, so it's interesting to see what still resonates today, even to someone like me, who doesn't really read a lot of science or nature writing if it's not sci-fi or fantasy.
1. The Body's most Embarrassing Organ is an Evolutionary Marvel by Katherine J. Wu: not all creatures poop, but it's interesting studying the creatures that do and that mysterious organ. I mean what other organ could do all of these functions at once, also it allows female birds to eject any subpar sperm after mating with unsatisfactory males to start anew. excuse me? wow.
2. What Slime Knows by Lacy M. Johnson: interesting article about a creature I didn't know anything about. slime mold... "has no brain, no sense of sight or smell, but can solve mazes, learn patterns, keep time and pass down the wisdom of generations. how do you classify a creature like that?" how indeed? I like her connecting the history of studying this slime mold and the hierarchy of evolution "science".
3. Too Big for the Universe by Arianna S. Long: very straigtforward and a little bit terrifying, about galaxies and their life cycle, telescopes and detecting different types of galaxies,
4. Heads Up! The Cardiovascular Secrets of Giraffes byb Bob Holmes: about giraffes and how thie bodies solved their problem with high blood pressure. It's always a wonder when you delve deeper into the bodies of any animals and see how it operates. felt like a fun little lesson.
5. How Far does Wildlife Roam? Ask the "Internet of Animals" by Sonia Shah: about a new project called ICARUS, that will help scientists study animals' mobility and movement in ways that haven't been done before, changing the way scientists used to think about wildlife mobility. I also love it when humans realize how superior other creatures are.
6. Our Summer from Hell by Jeff Goodell: a US centric story about what it would take for Americans to wake up to the effects of climate change. and really it's sad that the whole planet needs a bigger wake up call than the ones we've been hit with repeatedly. Humans (most of them) are greedy and selfish, that's it.
7: How Rising Groundwater caused by Climate Change could Devastate Coastal Communities by Kendra Pierre Louis: Thank you for the nightmares. It's not enough that people are ignoring the obvious dangers like rising seas, it's terrifying to know what the rise in groundwater is causing and that it's being ignored even more because it's not as obvious as the seas.
8. How we Drained California Dry by Mark Arax: Poetic and sad. about the different ways humans drained california.
9. The Climate Solution actually adding millions of Tons of CO2 into the Atmosphere by Lisa Song & James Temple: so humans found a way to even abuse trees and forests, and use them to make the problem of pollution worse? just wow.
10. In the Oceans, the Volume is rising as Never before by Sabrina Imbler: I love clown fish, and it's always nice to know more about them. It's unnerving to know that the ocean which I always though to be the quitest place, has become noisybecause of us and how that affects all of its creatures.
11. The Nature of Plastics by Meera Subramanian: when you think of pollution, the first thing that comes to mind is plastic, especially in water. so it's no wonder that this article hits really bad, and makes me wonder, why ddo we do this? and how can our puny efforts make any difference when most of the world, aka factories and ships and manufacturers, don't care at all.
12. Black Bears, Black Liberation by Rae Wynn Grant: about black bears between folk tales, bedtime stories, collective culture, and hunting culture, tying it to native americans and african americans. I would've loved for this one to be longer.
13. Finding Freedom in the Natural World by Cynthia R. Greenlee: about foragers/naturalists or living from the wild/nature, and it being a trend that people follow by choice, while others have to depend on it not by choice. very interesting, and the intersection with black people and their culture is very insightful. you really can'tseparate racism from any activity today, whether it's done for leisure or necessity.
14. Humanity is Flushing Away One of Life's Essential Elements by Julia Rosen: phosphurus and feces and fertilizers and everything that depends on them in our everyday life.
15. Poisoned - part 1: The Factory by Corey G. Johnson, Rebecca Woolington, and Eli Murray: The start of a horror story, and not the first of its kind. it reminds me of the story of radium women, who worked in factories making watches and died because of all the radium their bodies were exposed to. here is a morde modern investogation of a lead factory and the lead in the air that got into the bodies of all the workers. a very straight to the point piece, because you don't really need any imbellishments when writing about this. I don't know if I have it in me to read the rest of the series.
16. Future Moves by Yeesenia Funes: a short piece about climate migration and the dillemma of choosing where to settle, especially in the US but also all around the world, because every year, everywhere is getting more affected by climate change. no place is safe.
17. There's a Clear Fix to Helping Black Communities Fight Pollution by Rachel Ramirez: the link between pollution and racism or environmental injustice (which is aloaffected by social classes not just races) is often ignored, but this article did a good job of highlighting that.
18. To be a Field of Poppoies by Lisa Wells: loved this! makes you really think about what happens to you body after death and how you can help the environment.
19. To Hell with Drowning by Julian Aguon: it starts with seeing how wayfinding was affected by climate change, then moves to talking about island nations and their climate-induced-relocations. It's filled with sadness yet hope.
20. To Speak of the Sea in Irish by Claudia Geib: about the importance of preserving language, as it is important to preserve creatures and plants.
21. A Tight-Knit Island Nation hopes to Rebuild while Preserving "The Barbudan Way" by Mikki K. Harris: The greed of humans, and taking over island and homes for nations to "develop" their projects.
22. Thriving Together: Salmon, Berries, and People by Cuagilakv Jess Hausti: shows the importance of adhering to the natural order of things and the teachings of ancestors when it comes to plants and fish, when to fish and when to look for other resources. if only everyone adhered to these simple rules, we wouldn't be here.
23. Your Face is not Your Own by Kashmir Hill: most (if not all so far?) of the articles and writings in this book were about nature and extinction, that I forgot this collection should also include science writing, and here I am, reading this terrifying piece about AI, technology, and knowing more about the way we are losing any piece of privacy we had. this article is intriguing because you can't fully say that this company is in the wrong (it helps cats criminals and child abusers, after all), but if tis is allowed, where do we draw the line?
24. Quantum Enlightenment by Ruth Robertson: intriguing and interesting about mixing science with spirituality, even though some of it flew over my head.
25. Why Combining Farms and Solar Panels could transform how we Produce both food and energy by Chris Malloy: you don't need to tell me twice about the benefits of solar panels. liked the ideas here about integrating it with farms and crops
26. A recipe for Fighting Climate Change and Feeding the World by Sarah Kaplan: is it too late to change our farming practices to save the earth? I'm trying not to be pessimistic, but most of humanity are set in their own ways, and they'd rather die and let others die than change their ways.
27. Power Shift by Justine Calma: all big companies everywhere are just the same, and we'll keep paying the price for their greed until we all collapse together. bravo for them, hope they line their coffins with all the money they're earning while burning the planet and killing off other people. this just made me so angry
28. Beavers are Firefighters who work for free by Lucy Sherriff: I'm impressed with the number of articles about/by natives in this collection. it should be more, but it's a start, because if there's anyone who really cares for the environment with no agendas, it's these native tribes. also the US is a frustrating place where it's so easy to kil anything (humans or animals) than it is to pass laws that benefit everyone. I mean, it's about time people suddenly realize thath there was a reason for why the climate and earth were better before human involvement.
29. New Wind Projects Power Local Budgets in Wyoming by Jane C. Hu: clean energy to the rescue as always.
30. Work from Home, save the Planet? Ehh by Emily Atkin: this was what I thought as well, when more people work from home, the emissions are less thus helping in saving the planet. but it seems like people don't change their habits? as it says in the article "we're not going to save the planet by accident."
31. In Amsterdam, a Community of Floating Homes shows the World how to live alongside Nature by Shira Rubin: an excellant example of sustainable living projects that don't add to the pollution of the planet
32. A River Reawakened by Jessica Plumb: will this be the era we listen to indegineous tribes and let nature take its course finally, so maybe, we could recover some of what was lost?
33. There's a Global Plan to Conserve Nature. Indigenous People could lead the way by Somini Sengupta, Catrin Einhorn, and Manuela Andreoni: before even starting, I fully agree with this title, as it truly seems to sum up on of the main ideas in this collection. It's outrageous that indigenous people are left out of discussions to save the planet.
A collection mainly written in 2021 and combiles in this book in 2022 and I'm reading it in 2023, so it's interesting to see what still resonates today, even to someone like me, who doesn't really read a lot of science or nature writing if it's not sci-fi or fantasy.
1. The Body's most Embarrassing Organ is an Evolutionary Marvel by Katherine J. Wu: not all creatures poop, but it's interesting studying the creatures that do and that mysterious organ. I mean what other organ could do all of these functions at once, also it allows female birds to eject any subpar sperm after mating with unsatisfactory males to start anew. excuse me? wow.
2. What Slime Knows by Lacy M. Johnson: interesting article about a creature I didn't know anything about. slime mold... "has no brain, no sense of sight or smell, but can solve mazes, learn patterns, keep time and pass down the wisdom of generations. how do you classify a creature like that?" how indeed? I like her connecting the history of studying this slime mold and the hierarchy of evolution "science".
3. Too Big for the Universe by Arianna S. Long: very straigtforward and a little bit terrifying, about galaxies and their life cycle, telescopes and detecting different types of galaxies,
4. Heads Up! The Cardiovascular Secrets of Giraffes byb Bob Holmes: about giraffes and how thie bodies solved their problem with high blood pressure. It's always a wonder when you delve deeper into the bodies of any animals and see how it operates. felt like a fun little lesson.
5. How Far does Wildlife Roam? Ask the "Internet of Animals" by Sonia Shah: about a new project called ICARUS, that will help scientists study animals' mobility and movement in ways that haven't been done before, changing the way scientists used to think about wildlife mobility. I also love it when humans realize how superior other creatures are.
6. Our Summer from Hell by Jeff Goodell: a US centric story about what it would take for Americans to wake up to the effects of climate change. and really it's sad that the whole planet needs a bigger wake up call than the ones we've been hit with repeatedly. Humans (most of them) are greedy and selfish, that's it.
7: How Rising Groundwater caused by Climate Change could Devastate Coastal Communities by Kendra Pierre Louis: Thank you for the nightmares. It's not enough that people are ignoring the obvious dangers like rising seas, it's terrifying to know what the rise in groundwater is causing and that it's being ignored even more because it's not as obvious as the seas.
8. How we Drained California Dry by Mark Arax: Poetic and sad. about the different ways humans drained california.
9. The Climate Solution actually adding millions of Tons of CO2 into the Atmosphere by Lisa Song & James Temple: so humans found a way to even abuse trees and forests, and use them to make the problem of pollution worse? just wow.
10. In the Oceans, the Volume is rising as Never before by Sabrina Imbler: I love clown fish, and it's always nice to know more about them. It's unnerving to know that the ocean which I always though to be the quitest place, has become noisybecause of us and how that affects all of its creatures.
11. The Nature of Plastics by Meera Subramanian: when you think of pollution, the first thing that comes to mind is plastic, especially in water. so it's no wonder that this article hits really bad, and makes me wonder, why ddo we do this? and how can our puny efforts make any difference when most of the world, aka factories and ships and manufacturers, don't care at all.
12. Black Bears, Black Liberation by Rae Wynn Grant: about black bears between folk tales, bedtime stories, collective culture, and hunting culture, tying it to native americans and african americans. I would've loved for this one to be longer.
13. Finding Freedom in the Natural World by Cynthia R. Greenlee: about foragers/naturalists or living from the wild/nature, and it being a trend that people follow by choice, while others have to depend on it not by choice. very interesting, and the intersection with black people and their culture is very insightful. you really can'tseparate racism from any activity today, whether it's done for leisure or necessity.
14. Humanity is Flushing Away One of Life's Essential Elements by Julia Rosen: phosphurus and feces and fertilizers and everything that depends on them in our everyday life.
15. Poisoned - part 1: The Factory by Corey G. Johnson, Rebecca Woolington, and Eli Murray: The start of a horror story, and not the first of its kind. it reminds me of the story of radium women, who worked in factories making watches and died because of all the radium their bodies were exposed to. here is a morde modern investogation of a lead factory and the lead in the air that got into the bodies of all the workers. a very straight to the point piece, because you don't really need any imbellishments when writing about this. I don't know if I have it in me to read the rest of the series.
16. Future Moves by Yeesenia Funes: a short piece about climate migration and the dillemma of choosing where to settle, especially in the US but also all around the world, because every year, everywhere is getting more affected by climate change. no place is safe.
17. There's a Clear Fix to Helping Black Communities Fight Pollution by Rachel Ramirez: the link between pollution and racism or environmental injustice (which is aloaffected by social classes not just races) is often ignored, but this article did a good job of highlighting that.
18. To be a Field of Poppoies by Lisa Wells: loved this! makes you really think about what happens to you body after death and how you can help the environment.
19. To Hell with Drowning by Julian Aguon: it starts with seeing how wayfinding was affected by climate change, then moves to talking about island nations and their climate-induced-relocations. It's filled with sadness yet hope.
20. To Speak of the Sea in Irish by Claudia Geib: about the importance of preserving language, as it is important to preserve creatures and plants.
21. A Tight-Knit Island Nation hopes to Rebuild while Preserving "The Barbudan Way" by Mikki K. Harris: The greed of humans, and taking over island and homes for nations to "develop" their projects.
22. Thriving Together: Salmon, Berries, and People by Cuagilakv Jess Hausti: shows the importance of adhering to the natural order of things and the teachings of ancestors when it comes to plants and fish, when to fish and when to look for other resources. if only everyone adhered to these simple rules, we wouldn't be here.
23. Your Face is not Your Own by Kashmir Hill: most (if not all so far?) of the articles and writings in this book were about nature and extinction, that I forgot this collection should also include science writing, and here I am, reading this terrifying piece about AI, technology, and knowing more about the way we are losing any piece of privacy we had. this article is intriguing because you can't fully say that this company is in the wrong (it helps cats criminals and child abusers, after all), but if tis is allowed, where do we draw the line?
24. Quantum Enlightenment by Ruth Robertson: intriguing and interesting about mixing science with spirituality, even though some of it flew over my head.
25. Why Combining Farms and Solar Panels could transform how we Produce both food and energy by Chris Malloy: you don't need to tell me twice about the benefits of solar panels. liked the ideas here about integrating it with farms and crops
26. A recipe for Fighting Climate Change and Feeding the World by Sarah Kaplan: is it too late to change our farming practices to save the earth? I'm trying not to be pessimistic, but most of humanity are set in their own ways, and they'd rather die and let others die than change their ways.
27. Power Shift by Justine Calma: all big companies everywhere are just the same, and we'll keep paying the price for their greed until we all collapse together. bravo for them, hope they line their coffins with all the money they're earning while burning the planet and killing off other people. this just made me so angry
28. Beavers are Firefighters who work for free by Lucy Sherriff: I'm impressed with the number of articles about/by natives in this collection. it should be more, but it's a start, because if there's anyone who really cares for the environment with no agendas, it's these native tribes. also the US is a frustrating place where it's so easy to kil anything (humans or animals) than it is to pass laws that benefit everyone. I mean, it's about time people suddenly realize thath there was a reason for why the climate and earth were better before human involvement.
29. New Wind Projects Power Local Budgets in Wyoming by Jane C. Hu: clean energy to the rescue as always.
30. Work from Home, save the Planet? Ehh by Emily Atkin: this was what I thought as well, when more people work from home, the emissions are less thus helping in saving the planet. but it seems like people don't change their habits? as it says in the article "we're not going to save the planet by accident."
31. In Amsterdam, a Community of Floating Homes shows the World how to live alongside Nature by Shira Rubin: an excellant example of sustainable living projects that don't add to the pollution of the planet
32. A River Reawakened by Jessica Plumb: will this be the era we listen to indegineous tribes and let nature take its course finally, so maybe, we could recover some of what was lost?
33. There's a Global Plan to Conserve Nature. Indigenous People could lead the way by Somini Sengupta, Catrin Einhorn, and Manuela Andreoni: before even starting, I fully agree with this title, as it truly seems to sum up on of the main ideas in this collection. It's outrageous that indigenous people are left out of discussions to save the planet.
January 7, 2023
This collection should be more fittingly titled "Dr. Ayana Elizabeth Johnson's Best American Natural Science Writing 2022." Out of the 33 pieces selected, only one-third came from the 800+ official submissions, the rest is from Ayana's own "additional digging." The main and only theme is biodiversity, as such to call it "natural science" is an overstatement.
I was astonished by such an arrogant stance.
Many of the guest editors in the past are world leading scholars in a given field, and yet we got to enjoy highly diversified topics beyond that of their own. For many years, this book series was my primary source to broaden my view of the world as my colleagues in the science community broaden theirs.
This has ceased to be. What a pity. In the name of biodiversity, we have lost diversity. I feel sorry for the many scientists and science writers -- no matter how interesting and important their works are, they simply don't meet Ayana's eyes.
Judging from the articles in the collection, and even that perspective is strangely constrained. I mean, except for a very few pieces, I have the mental image that the scientists portrayed here have but one thing to say: "back off!" No wonder they often come across shallow and lack of depth. They are just messengers.
Traditions bear wisdom with the test of time. But that should not at all preclude from being re-examined with a scientific lens. Had all of them stay unchallenged, we might as well be in caves. Unless challenged and debated, wisdoms of the old time cannot really be unlocked, can they? What does indigenous knowledge (and the management of their lands) really mean, for instance? There was a piece about navigation and I was looking forward to be surprised but came back empty handed.
Many pieces have quality issue from my perspective. Some of them casually mix correlation with causality and settle with sloppy and shallow analysis, and some are off the topic of science activities entirely. Worse, they sometimes borderlines with voodoo science. The primary example is the piece connecting quantum mechanics with spirituality, a very important, interesting and deserving topic that was carelessly treated with a straight face. For untrained eyes this might even makes sense. Well…
That is not to say the collection is all bad. That land developers and tribes gang up to exploit the loop hole of environment preservation incentive policy is an alarm for policy makers; the idea that plastic pollutions are so pervasive (e.g. "plastic soup") and invade our bodies without our knowing definitely worth studying. The investigation of face recognition software (from. Clearview.ai, a company I didn't know about at all) and its pros and cons is thorough. Being an oddity in the overall biodiversity theme, characters involved have more flesh and blood and depth. That is to say, even though they may still wear masks, the reporter managed to take them off.
One final thing, this collection continues the trend of last year's edition in another perspective, when I observe a noticeable quality slip: women writers are a disproportional majority. Last year was even more extreme, all authors but one are women writers (the exception is a transgender).
Do I have a gender bias? I really don't. But I think the series editor and the guest editor do.
One star. Only because I've liked, indeed loved, this series for so long. A more fair rating is perhaps two stars.
I was astonished by such an arrogant stance.
Many of the guest editors in the past are world leading scholars in a given field, and yet we got to enjoy highly diversified topics beyond that of their own. For many years, this book series was my primary source to broaden my view of the world as my colleagues in the science community broaden theirs.
This has ceased to be. What a pity. In the name of biodiversity, we have lost diversity. I feel sorry for the many scientists and science writers -- no matter how interesting and important their works are, they simply don't meet Ayana's eyes.
Judging from the articles in the collection, and even that perspective is strangely constrained. I mean, except for a very few pieces, I have the mental image that the scientists portrayed here have but one thing to say: "back off!" No wonder they often come across shallow and lack of depth. They are just messengers.
Traditions bear wisdom with the test of time. But that should not at all preclude from being re-examined with a scientific lens. Had all of them stay unchallenged, we might as well be in caves. Unless challenged and debated, wisdoms of the old time cannot really be unlocked, can they? What does indigenous knowledge (and the management of their lands) really mean, for instance? There was a piece about navigation and I was looking forward to be surprised but came back empty handed.
Many pieces have quality issue from my perspective. Some of them casually mix correlation with causality and settle with sloppy and shallow analysis, and some are off the topic of science activities entirely. Worse, they sometimes borderlines with voodoo science. The primary example is the piece connecting quantum mechanics with spirituality, a very important, interesting and deserving topic that was carelessly treated with a straight face. For untrained eyes this might even makes sense. Well…
That is not to say the collection is all bad. That land developers and tribes gang up to exploit the loop hole of environment preservation incentive policy is an alarm for policy makers; the idea that plastic pollutions are so pervasive (e.g. "plastic soup") and invade our bodies without our knowing definitely worth studying. The investigation of face recognition software (from. Clearview.ai, a company I didn't know about at all) and its pros and cons is thorough. Being an oddity in the overall biodiversity theme, characters involved have more flesh and blood and depth. That is to say, even though they may still wear masks, the reporter managed to take them off.
One final thing, this collection continues the trend of last year's edition in another perspective, when I observe a noticeable quality slip: women writers are a disproportional majority. Last year was even more extreme, all authors but one are women writers (the exception is a transgender).
Do I have a gender bias? I really don't. But I think the series editor and the guest editor do.
One star. Only because I've liked, indeed loved, this series for so long. A more fair rating is perhaps two stars.
November 19, 2022
The most memorable entry in this is a piece of investigative journalism from the Tampa Bay Times. It recounts how workers at a factory in Tampa were "exposed to extreme amounts of lead" for decades. The factory's doctor seemingly chose to ignore evidence of lead poisoning in the employees under his care. The workers' families were affected too; I can hardly imagine the heartache of the father who learned his two children had been poisoned by the lead dust he tracked home from work.
A fascinating article by Lisa Song and James Temple digs into a California program that "allows forest owners across the country to earn credits for taking care of their land in ways that store or absorb more carbon, such as reducing logging or thinning out smaller trees and brush to allow for increased overall growth." They allege that companies have gamed the system to receive credits for simply maintaining the status quo in an area (rather than actually increasing the carbon it stores). Such credits enable polluters to make it look, on paper, like their emissions have been offset, when in reality they haven't been.
Unsurprisingly, many of the articles are about how humans are damaging our environment. Kendra Pierre-Louis highlights an underappreciated reason to fear sea level rise: it also causes groundwater to rise, which can cause all sorts of problems for a city's infrastructure. Sea walls don't protect against this. Julian Aguon surveys how various island nations are dealing with sea level rise; some are facing the need to relocate people before the end of the decade.
Sabrina Imbler calls attention to how the noise we generate interferes with aquatic life. It's easy for land-dwellers to underestimate the impact:
Other highlights:
- Mikki K. Harris provides perspective on her home island of Barbados, where she and six generations of her ancestors lived. I'm intrigued by the communal land ownership she mentions; from the article, it sounds like this was operating happily until hurricane damage gave outsiders an opportunity to impose a dismantling of the system.
- Sonia Shah explains that we know less about the travel habits of animals than you might think.
- Meera Subramanian discusses the notion of a plastic "Garbage Patch" in the ocean and notes, distressingly, that experts have suggested "plastic soup" or "plastic smog" as more accurate conceptions. Also, there's plastic in your tap water (cheers!). Also, "nurdle" is a real word.
- Julia Rosen tells of a time when the British Empire dug up graveyards to use bones in fertilizer, and a time when human waste had a market value in Shanghai.
- Lisa Wells recounts how human composting became an option in the state of Washington. I'd be happy to have this done with my body when I die.
One section of the book is titled "Ways of Knowing". I associate this phrase with attempts to short-circuit disagreements - to demand that a belief should be treated as true based on who holds it or how much they cherish it, without needing to consider any counterpoints. Mostly, that's not what these articles are doing. A couple do veer into that territory at times, but I have to remind myself that the context is important: when Indigenous authors ask for Indigenous knowledge and ways of thinking to be taken more seriously, they're pushing back against an entrenched and baseless tendency to dismiss their viewpoints by default. That said, I think the article "Quantum Enlightenment" spreads significant misunderstandings of quantum mechanics.
Finally, I'm awarding the Weirdest And Most Disgusting Fact prize to an Atlantic article on anuses:
(crossposted from https://brokensandals.net/reviews/202...)
A fascinating article by Lisa Song and James Temple digs into a California program that "allows forest owners across the country to earn credits for taking care of their land in ways that store or absorb more carbon, such as reducing logging or thinning out smaller trees and brush to allow for increased overall growth." They allege that companies have gamed the system to receive credits for simply maintaining the status quo in an area (rather than actually increasing the carbon it stores). Such credits enable polluters to make it look, on paper, like their emissions have been offset, when in reality they haven't been.
Unsurprisingly, many of the articles are about how humans are damaging our environment. Kendra Pierre-Louis highlights an underappreciated reason to fear sea level rise: it also causes groundwater to rise, which can cause all sorts of problems for a city's infrastructure. Sea walls don't protect against this. Julian Aguon surveys how various island nations are dealing with sea level rise; some are facing the need to relocate people before the end of the decade.
Sabrina Imbler calls attention to how the noise we generate interferes with aquatic life. It's easy for land-dwellers to underestimate the impact:
In the ocean, visual cues disappear after tens of yards, and chemical cues dissipate after hundreds of yards. But sound can travel thousands of miles and link animals across oceanic basins and in darkness.
Other highlights:
- Mikki K. Harris provides perspective on her home island of Barbados, where she and six generations of her ancestors lived. I'm intrigued by the communal land ownership she mentions; from the article, it sounds like this was operating happily until hurricane damage gave outsiders an opportunity to impose a dismantling of the system.
- Sonia Shah explains that we know less about the travel habits of animals than you might think.
- Meera Subramanian discusses the notion of a plastic "Garbage Patch" in the ocean and notes, distressingly, that experts have suggested "plastic soup" or "plastic smog" as more accurate conceptions. Also, there's plastic in your tap water (cheers!). Also, "nurdle" is a real word.
- Julia Rosen tells of a time when the British Empire dug up graveyards to use bones in fertilizer, and a time when human waste had a market value in Shanghai.
- Lisa Wells recounts how human composting became an option in the state of Washington. I'd be happy to have this done with my body when I die.
One section of the book is titled "Ways of Knowing". I associate this phrase with attempts to short-circuit disagreements - to demand that a belief should be treated as true based on who holds it or how much they cherish it, without needing to consider any counterpoints. Mostly, that's not what these articles are doing. A couple do veer into that territory at times, but I have to remind myself that the context is important: when Indigenous authors ask for Indigenous knowledge and ways of thinking to be taken more seriously, they're pushing back against an entrenched and baseless tendency to dismiss their viewpoints by default. That said, I think the article "Quantum Enlightenment" spreads significant misunderstandings of quantum mechanics.
Finally, I'm awarding the Weirdest And Most Disgusting Fact prize to an Atlantic article on anuses:
Scorpions jettison their posterior when attacked from behind, evading capture but tragically losing their ability to poop (and eventually dying with their abdomen full of excrement).
(crossposted from https://brokensandals.net/reviews/202...)
June 16, 2023
A really solid (as per usual) collection of science essays/articles gleaned from publications in 2021 - a major focus this issue was the impact of climate change on Indigenous cultures (there was an interesting article on carbon exchange use by tribal councils to preserve land rights - as I understood - that it felt very finance-y which meant I had trouble working out the actual logistics but definitely an important piece) and POC communities. There was also a phenomenal piece of reporting about lead poisoning at a reclamation plant that was part 1 of an expose and I really need to track down part 2.
April 25, 2023
I enjoyed this varied collection of science and nature writing. Of course, topics of global warming are present but what great writing. I learned about several new topics, such as, the “beaver bill,” or lost languages or culture. Fascinating! I will continue to read this series.
December 17, 2022
Where else can a reader find in one place such a wide range of subject matter having to do with science and nature? This particular collection wanders from lead poisoning to human composting, from salmonberries to beavers, from the Irish language to microplastics in the ocean. Whatever your niche might be, it's probably in one of the presented essays.
The editor is a co-founder of a climate initiative and so this year's set of articles was bound to lean toward climate change. I found some of those essays discouraging, but this was more than offset by the inclusion of several articles on Indigenous wisdom and realistic futuristic solutions.
If you are a reader who loves science and essays, you are bound to enjoy this year's collection of writing.
An electronic advanced reader copy was kindly provided by NetGalley for my honest review.
#NetGalley #TheBestAmericanScienceandNatureWriting2022
The editor is a co-founder of a climate initiative and so this year's set of articles was bound to lean toward climate change. I found some of those essays discouraging, but this was more than offset by the inclusion of several articles on Indigenous wisdom and realistic futuristic solutions.
If you are a reader who loves science and essays, you are bound to enjoy this year's collection of writing.
An electronic advanced reader copy was kindly provided by NetGalley for my honest review.
#NetGalley #TheBestAmericanScienceandNatureWriting2022
December 10, 2022
Dr Johnson put together a stunning mix of articles for this book. Here are some faves (a very biased list based on my interests, there is a wide variety in the 33 articles in the book):
What Slime Knows by Lacy M. Johnson in Orion-- excellent contemplation of simplicity and complexity in nature, how white supremacy perpetuates myths about dominion over others and the natural world.
How Far Does Wildlife Roam? Ask the "Internet of Animals" by Sonia Shah in NYT Magazine--ICARUS is the International Cooperation for Animal Research Using Space, using receivers on the International Space Station to track collective movements of animals on Earth. It turns out that animals move WAY more than we had previously thought, and that our experimental designs using wind tunnels to estimate the energy for birds to migrate were very far off.
How Rising Groundwater Caused by Climate Change Could Devastate Coastal Communities by Kendra Pierre-Louis for MIT Technology Review-- Eye-opening article about the rise of groundwater in cities, the issues that creates with contaminants and septic tanks (EW), and structures like the Ike Dike's effect on groundwater.
How We Drained California Dry by Mark Arax in MIT Technology Review- a review of the history of choices made in California and the disaster that was inevitable. Told through the lens of peach and raisin farmers.
Black Bears, Black Liberation by Rae Wynn-Grant in The Cleanest Line (Patagonia)--So it turns out that enslaved people were often assigned wild-game hunting, including large carnivores. Davy Crockett built his reputation as a heroic bear hunter, but it's likely that enslaved men did a lot of the hunting for him.
To Be a Field of Poppies by Lisa Wells from Harper's--Recompose is a company started by Katrina Spade, composting humans into soil that can be spread on the Earth.
Thriving Together: Salmon, Berries, and People by ‘Cúagilákv (Jess Housty) for Hakai Magazine-A very simple example of how Indigenous management of the landscape should not be ignored by biologists, that of salmonberries and salmon.
Beavers are Firefighters Who Work for Free by Lucy Sheriff for Sierra--an example of how state permitting affects beaver restoration, in some Western states it was illegal to relocate beavers without a permit. Also how beaver-created wetlands affect wildfires.
A River Reawakened by Jessica Plumb--the removal of dams on the Elwha River has been hugely successful, with salmon coming back in large numbers. Apparently American dippers have now been found to have marine-derived nutrients in their diets, which contributes to their being more likely to stay in salmon-rich rivers and double-brood in one season.
Anyway, there's not a bad one in the bunch! Great read.
What Slime Knows by Lacy M. Johnson in Orion-- excellent contemplation of simplicity and complexity in nature, how white supremacy perpetuates myths about dominion over others and the natural world.
How Far Does Wildlife Roam? Ask the "Internet of Animals" by Sonia Shah in NYT Magazine--ICARUS is the International Cooperation for Animal Research Using Space, using receivers on the International Space Station to track collective movements of animals on Earth. It turns out that animals move WAY more than we had previously thought, and that our experimental designs using wind tunnels to estimate the energy for birds to migrate were very far off.
How Rising Groundwater Caused by Climate Change Could Devastate Coastal Communities by Kendra Pierre-Louis for MIT Technology Review-- Eye-opening article about the rise of groundwater in cities, the issues that creates with contaminants and septic tanks (EW), and structures like the Ike Dike's effect on groundwater.
How We Drained California Dry by Mark Arax in MIT Technology Review- a review of the history of choices made in California and the disaster that was inevitable. Told through the lens of peach and raisin farmers.
Black Bears, Black Liberation by Rae Wynn-Grant in The Cleanest Line (Patagonia)--So it turns out that enslaved people were often assigned wild-game hunting, including large carnivores. Davy Crockett built his reputation as a heroic bear hunter, but it's likely that enslaved men did a lot of the hunting for him.
To Be a Field of Poppies by Lisa Wells from Harper's--Recompose is a company started by Katrina Spade, composting humans into soil that can be spread on the Earth.
Thriving Together: Salmon, Berries, and People by ‘Cúagilákv (Jess Housty) for Hakai Magazine-A very simple example of how Indigenous management of the landscape should not be ignored by biologists, that of salmonberries and salmon.
Beavers are Firefighters Who Work for Free by Lucy Sheriff for Sierra--an example of how state permitting affects beaver restoration, in some Western states it was illegal to relocate beavers without a permit. Also how beaver-created wetlands affect wildfires.
A River Reawakened by Jessica Plumb--the removal of dams on the Elwha River has been hugely successful, with salmon coming back in large numbers. Apparently American dippers have now been found to have marine-derived nutrients in their diets, which contributes to their being more likely to stay in salmon-rich rivers and double-brood in one season.
Anyway, there's not a bad one in the bunch! Great read.
July 26, 2023
Teetering between 3.5/4 stars -- harrowing, fascinating, rage-inducing, confirming. There was a handful of essay’s that didn't do it for me; however, instead of focusing on the ones that didn't stick, I've chosen to focus on the ones that really have:
- "Black Bears, Black Liberation" was one of my favorite topics talked about in the collection. I am so incredibly intrigued to dive deeper & learn more.
- "Poisoned--Part 1: The Factory" was the one essay that I had to put down multiple times in order to continue through it. The rawest example of the embodiment of "profits over people" that sinister corporations run by egotistical capitalist bozos live by.
- "To Be A Field of Poppies" was a powerful essay that made me think about continuation of life & symbiosis after death in a way that I never have before. I never knew just how carbon-centric & dirty death is in the U.S. (not surprising considering this is true of damn near every industry), and how current modern practices surrounding death/handling of remains/etc. work so hard to keep us separate from the land.
- "Thriving Together: Salmon, Berries, and People" --> To have this back-to-back with "Your Face Is Not Your Own" felt very dystopic...a sort of parallel duality that exists within Octavia Butler's story-telling realm. But, divorcing from reality by labelling it all as "dystopic" is uniquely harmful. We aren't headed towards climate collapse & dystopia, we are living it -- in the air I breathed today in Chicago, in the clearcut sections I saw while hiking in Washington last week, in the speed in which I was able to bike past car after car during congested traffic yesterday, and I'm saying that as a privileged white woman, who doesn't experience climate catastrophe & trauma in the way that Indigenous/Black/Latinx/lower-income folks & those in the Global South do every damn day.
The majority of pieces in the collection were climate-focused, which is extremely apt considering who Dr. Johnson is/what she does, and is also extremely crucial considering just how deeply fucked we are.
- "Black Bears, Black Liberation" was one of my favorite topics talked about in the collection. I am so incredibly intrigued to dive deeper & learn more.
- "Poisoned--Part 1: The Factory" was the one essay that I had to put down multiple times in order to continue through it. The rawest example of the embodiment of "profits over people" that sinister corporations run by egotistical capitalist bozos live by.
- "To Be A Field of Poppies" was a powerful essay that made me think about continuation of life & symbiosis after death in a way that I never have before. I never knew just how carbon-centric & dirty death is in the U.S. (not surprising considering this is true of damn near every industry), and how current modern practices surrounding death/handling of remains/etc. work so hard to keep us separate from the land.
- "Thriving Together: Salmon, Berries, and People" --> To have this back-to-back with "Your Face Is Not Your Own" felt very dystopic...a sort of parallel duality that exists within Octavia Butler's story-telling realm. But, divorcing from reality by labelling it all as "dystopic" is uniquely harmful. We aren't headed towards climate collapse & dystopia, we are living it -- in the air I breathed today in Chicago, in the clearcut sections I saw while hiking in Washington last week, in the speed in which I was able to bike past car after car during congested traffic yesterday, and I'm saying that as a privileged white woman, who doesn't experience climate catastrophe & trauma in the way that Indigenous/Black/Latinx/lower-income folks & those in the Global South do every damn day.
The majority of pieces in the collection were climate-focused, which is extremely apt considering who Dr. Johnson is/what she does, and is also extremely crucial considering just how deeply fucked we are.
July 1, 2023
It was disappointing to start this book expecting really good (or as the title says, the best American) science and nature writing and instead find a lot of progressive activism. Part of this is my fault, as the editor states in the introduction that she found that submissions initially were “an exceedingly white and coastal collection of pieces from highbrow publications.” The editor then takes the initiative to solicit further writings, presumably from non-white, less highbrow locales. The result appears to me to be less intriguing science and nature essays and more venting regarding colonialism, capitalism, and the standard tropes of the liberal activist. If that is your jam, have at it. If you’re looking for solid science and nature writing, look elsewhere.
January 24, 2023
Perhaps I'm in a spot these days from which I'm reading these Best American anthologies with too much of a frown. Hard not to when a volume like this is one article after another about the poor, the minority, the indigenous getting screwed, when all signs point to the necessity to have done something about climate change 10 years ago, meanwhile Elon's jet stamps a bigger carbon footprint on the planet in one day than your ordinary person, for whom it would take a year to do comparable damage. It's bad, folks, and it isn't getting better.
This collection is depressing. Not a good time.
This collection is depressing. Not a good time.
February 3, 2023
I continue my annual tradition of reading this book every year, this one from Ayana Elizabeth Johnson, who divided the book into five categories — nature is magnificent, nature is roiled, humans are a part of nature, ways of knowing, and futures we could have — each of which focuses on stories that finds “a place in an arc that offers a directionality from observations to action.”
Each of these collections are biased (the one two years ago was edited by a professor of physics, who favored a number of non-environmental stories: from brain functions to the science of smelling to extraterrestrial exploration), and Dr. Johnson is no different: Leaning toward the “nature” in science and nature, she focuses on surprises and solutions, diversity, and “ecology, evolution, and anthropology.”
While I appreciate the focus on climate and pollution, the book did indeed leaving me wanting more tech-driven and engineering solutions; many of the “ways of knowing” stories instead focused on indigenous perspectives — necessary stories to tell, given their often overlooked place in environmental narratives, but published at the expense of other types of articles (in Johnson’s words, those that explore “technology, medicine, and engineering”).
However, the collection, as it always does, left me with a number of fascinating stories with beautiful prose — from Katherine Wu’s “The body’s most embarrassing organ is an evolutionary marvel,” which traced the evolutionary origins of a taboo organ, to Meera Subramanian, who in “The nature of plastics” traces the prevalence of plastics in our generation, going so far as to call it the “plastiscene,” a fitting name for the “disturbing splendor in the destruction the industrial age has wrought.”
I’m also drawn to stories about water, that essential ingredient of life which is at times overpowering, and at others, disappearing from the lands that need it most. In “How rising groundwater caused by climate change could devastate coastal communities,” Kendra Pierre-Louis explores the oft-overlooked issue of flooding and contamination caused by increased groundwater linked to sea level rise.
And in “In the oceans, the volume is rising as never before,” Sabrina Imbler reports of the noise pollution that’s disrupting marine ecosystems: “the noise can even doom “baby clown fish] to wander the seas without direction, unable to find their way home.”
Perhaps most worthwhile were the stories that explored overlooked solutions — or problems — that often go unexplored in the mass media narrative surrounding climate change: Stories from fertilizer, whose history is tied up with modern agriculture, to lead exposure, which was brilliantly covered in the effortlessly readable article by the Tampa Bay Times.
Such accessible articles as Justine Calma’s “Power shift” and Jane Hu’s “New wind projects power local budgets in Wyoming,” both of which explained how renewables can help communities take ownership of their power supplies, generating power locally, boosting the economy, and minimizing vulnerabilities typically associated with fossil fuels.
I also appreciated the inclusion of a Substack article, Emily Atkin’s “Work from home, save the planet? Ehhh,” published in HEATED.
Overall the writing was beautiful, as always, and these collections continue to produce the wow factor that I love from books like these, bringing to light such fascinating stories as the role of beavers in forest fires, solar panels on farms, indigenous perspectives in climate solutions, and carbon credits in forests.
Each of these collections are biased (the one two years ago was edited by a professor of physics, who favored a number of non-environmental stories: from brain functions to the science of smelling to extraterrestrial exploration), and Dr. Johnson is no different: Leaning toward the “nature” in science and nature, she focuses on surprises and solutions, diversity, and “ecology, evolution, and anthropology.”
While I appreciate the focus on climate and pollution, the book did indeed leaving me wanting more tech-driven and engineering solutions; many of the “ways of knowing” stories instead focused on indigenous perspectives — necessary stories to tell, given their often overlooked place in environmental narratives, but published at the expense of other types of articles (in Johnson’s words, those that explore “technology, medicine, and engineering”).
However, the collection, as it always does, left me with a number of fascinating stories with beautiful prose — from Katherine Wu’s “The body’s most embarrassing organ is an evolutionary marvel,” which traced the evolutionary origins of a taboo organ, to Meera Subramanian, who in “The nature of plastics” traces the prevalence of plastics in our generation, going so far as to call it the “plastiscene,” a fitting name for the “disturbing splendor in the destruction the industrial age has wrought.”
I’m also drawn to stories about water, that essential ingredient of life which is at times overpowering, and at others, disappearing from the lands that need it most. In “How rising groundwater caused by climate change could devastate coastal communities,” Kendra Pierre-Louis explores the oft-overlooked issue of flooding and contamination caused by increased groundwater linked to sea level rise.
And in “In the oceans, the volume is rising as never before,” Sabrina Imbler reports of the noise pollution that’s disrupting marine ecosystems: “the noise can even doom “baby clown fish] to wander the seas without direction, unable to find their way home.”
Perhaps most worthwhile were the stories that explored overlooked solutions — or problems — that often go unexplored in the mass media narrative surrounding climate change: Stories from fertilizer, whose history is tied up with modern agriculture, to lead exposure, which was brilliantly covered in the effortlessly readable article by the Tampa Bay Times.
Such accessible articles as Justine Calma’s “Power shift” and Jane Hu’s “New wind projects power local budgets in Wyoming,” both of which explained how renewables can help communities take ownership of their power supplies, generating power locally, boosting the economy, and minimizing vulnerabilities typically associated with fossil fuels.
I also appreciated the inclusion of a Substack article, Emily Atkin’s “Work from home, save the planet? Ehhh,” published in HEATED.
Overall the writing was beautiful, as always, and these collections continue to produce the wow factor that I love from books like these, bringing to light such fascinating stories as the role of beavers in forest fires, solar panels on farms, indigenous perspectives in climate solutions, and carbon credits in forests.
November 6, 2022
Originally posted on my blog Nonstop Reader.
The Best American Science and Nature Writing 2022 is a well curated collection of essays and articles from the world of science from 2021/22 edited by Dr. Ayana Elizabeth Johnson. Released 1st Nov 2022 by HarperCollins on their Mariner Books imprint, it's 336 pages and is available in paperback, audio, and ebook formats. It's worth noting that the ebook format has a handy interactive table of contents as well as interactive links. I've really become enamored of ebooks with interactive formats lately.
This is an interesting and very well rounded anthology full of layman accessible popular science articles. The selection is impressively broad, generally eschewing the most popular periodicals with the largest reach in favor of the lesser known and potentially overlooked authors and subjects. Although the NYT and National Geographic have entries here, so also do Hakai, Knowable, and Atmos.
There is a lot of content devoted (rightfully) to the dystopian loss of habitat and climate change, but I was gratified to see that not -all- the articles were strictly bad news; there are a broad selection of essays on the anus as a functional organ and what roles it plays in various organisms which I found endlessly entertaining and informative, one about slime molds, beavers as natural engineers, and many more (33 total by my rough count). All of them were well written and engaging.
There is also an erudite and well written introduction by the guest editor (Dr. Johnson) as well as a foreword by series editor Jaime Green.
Five stars. Accessible and interesting. Recommended for fans of science writing as well as a good choice for public or school library acquisition. Impressively egalitarian vetting and choice of material included.
Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes.
The Best American Science and Nature Writing 2022 is a well curated collection of essays and articles from the world of science from 2021/22 edited by Dr. Ayana Elizabeth Johnson. Released 1st Nov 2022 by HarperCollins on their Mariner Books imprint, it's 336 pages and is available in paperback, audio, and ebook formats. It's worth noting that the ebook format has a handy interactive table of contents as well as interactive links. I've really become enamored of ebooks with interactive formats lately.
This is an interesting and very well rounded anthology full of layman accessible popular science articles. The selection is impressively broad, generally eschewing the most popular periodicals with the largest reach in favor of the lesser known and potentially overlooked authors and subjects. Although the NYT and National Geographic have entries here, so also do Hakai, Knowable, and Atmos.
There is a lot of content devoted (rightfully) to the dystopian loss of habitat and climate change, but I was gratified to see that not -all- the articles were strictly bad news; there are a broad selection of essays on the anus as a functional organ and what roles it plays in various organisms which I found endlessly entertaining and informative, one about slime molds, beavers as natural engineers, and many more (33 total by my rough count). All of them were well written and engaging.
There is also an erudite and well written introduction by the guest editor (Dr. Johnson) as well as a foreword by series editor Jaime Green.
Five stars. Accessible and interesting. Recommended for fans of science writing as well as a good choice for public or school library acquisition. Impressively egalitarian vetting and choice of material included.
Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes.
December 20, 2025
I loved this! Very excited to incorporate future editions into my reading practice.
I think the criticism that these essays are overwhelmingly centered on environmental and climate issues is fair and correct, though I’ll admit the edition’s bias towards earth sciences (and away from other specialties, like animal biology and tech) is the primary reason I attempted the 2022 collection over more recent alternatives. All that is to say, I feel I was the intended audience for this book: a reader without a background in the hard sciences, an admirer of accessible science writing (in fact, an ardent proponent for accessible non-fiction writing in general), and a woman terrified of a future doomed by climate catastrophe.
I can’t say these essays left me with much hope. Thanks to this collection, I’ve developed a deeper appreciation for the work scientists, indigenous communities, and activists are doing today to guarantee we’ll see a tomorrow, but I’m not convinced it’s enough. Nothing short of a complete overhaul of the way we in the West live our lives and conceived of our relationship to the Earth is enough. In the meantime, however, I found the following chapters particularly memorable:
Lacy M. Johnson’s “What Slime Knows”: a fascinating look at an organism that challenges all preconceptions of live on Earth. Slime defies classification, compartmentalization, and interpretation. (I also especially appreciated Johnson’s essay as a fellow-Texan.)
Sabrina Imbler’s “In the Oceans, the Volume Is Rising as Never Before”: I learned so much from this piece, both factually (I had no idea underwater noise pollution was a thing) and conceptually (ecosystems bounce back when we let them!).
Meera Subramanian’s “The Nature of Plastics”: one of the longer chapters presented here, but absolutely worth the read. As part of my experience navigating this book, I limited my annotations to one tab per essay, forcing me to reflect on what I found truly impactful — what moved me above all else. I struggled most to follow this self-imposed rule while reading this essay about plastics. The author cites a plethora of interesting experiments and publications, examining our understanding of plastics since the 1970s until today, when our collective knowledge of the prevalence of microplastics has done little to eradicate them from our daily lives (read: from our literal bodies). The article ends on a compelling, if disturbing note: what if plastics have so embedded themselves in our natural ecology that, years from now, we’ll consider the present an epoch of plastics? Will archeologists of the future find, buried within the layers of the Earth, evidence of the reign of terror plastics ruled in our lives today?
Lisa Well’s “To Be a Field of Poppies”: halfway through this gorgeous essay about the ethics, philosophy, and practice of human composting, I sent it to a friend I knew would love it (and I was right!).
Kashmir Hill’s “Your Face Is Not Your Own”: the discourse surrounding AI has become so saturated and redundant, I felt pretty hopeless reading an article, originally published in 2021, in which the author expresses concern over issues we’re now dealing with head-on. An informative read, but a bleak one nonetheless.
I think the criticism that these essays are overwhelmingly centered on environmental and climate issues is fair and correct, though I’ll admit the edition’s bias towards earth sciences (and away from other specialties, like animal biology and tech) is the primary reason I attempted the 2022 collection over more recent alternatives. All that is to say, I feel I was the intended audience for this book: a reader without a background in the hard sciences, an admirer of accessible science writing (in fact, an ardent proponent for accessible non-fiction writing in general), and a woman terrified of a future doomed by climate catastrophe.
I can’t say these essays left me with much hope. Thanks to this collection, I’ve developed a deeper appreciation for the work scientists, indigenous communities, and activists are doing today to guarantee we’ll see a tomorrow, but I’m not convinced it’s enough. Nothing short of a complete overhaul of the way we in the West live our lives and conceived of our relationship to the Earth is enough. In the meantime, however, I found the following chapters particularly memorable:
Lacy M. Johnson’s “What Slime Knows”: a fascinating look at an organism that challenges all preconceptions of live on Earth. Slime defies classification, compartmentalization, and interpretation. (I also especially appreciated Johnson’s essay as a fellow-Texan.)
Sabrina Imbler’s “In the Oceans, the Volume Is Rising as Never Before”: I learned so much from this piece, both factually (I had no idea underwater noise pollution was a thing) and conceptually (ecosystems bounce back when we let them!).
Meera Subramanian’s “The Nature of Plastics”: one of the longer chapters presented here, but absolutely worth the read. As part of my experience navigating this book, I limited my annotations to one tab per essay, forcing me to reflect on what I found truly impactful — what moved me above all else. I struggled most to follow this self-imposed rule while reading this essay about plastics. The author cites a plethora of interesting experiments and publications, examining our understanding of plastics since the 1970s until today, when our collective knowledge of the prevalence of microplastics has done little to eradicate them from our daily lives (read: from our literal bodies). The article ends on a compelling, if disturbing note: what if plastics have so embedded themselves in our natural ecology that, years from now, we’ll consider the present an epoch of plastics? Will archeologists of the future find, buried within the layers of the Earth, evidence of the reign of terror plastics ruled in our lives today?
Lisa Well’s “To Be a Field of Poppies”: halfway through this gorgeous essay about the ethics, philosophy, and practice of human composting, I sent it to a friend I knew would love it (and I was right!).
Kashmir Hill’s “Your Face Is Not Your Own”: the discourse surrounding AI has become so saturated and redundant, I felt pretty hopeless reading an article, originally published in 2021, in which the author expresses concern over issues we’re now dealing with head-on. An informative read, but a bleak one nonetheless.
July 7, 2023
TL; DR: A bit bloated and repetitive, but worth the read.
This is kickstarted by a fantastic introduction from Johnson, where she explains her decision-making process for curating the essays; her motivations, preferences, biases, etc. are all disclosed before the anthology even starts, providing a ton of insight into why it is the way it is. Quote:
“I share all of this about the process of creating this collection because “best of” lists reflect the minds and hearts and worldviews of the list makers, a fact that is too often glossed over.”
These choices led to a set of essays that were mostly good individually, but underwhelming cumulatively. Johnson highlighted writers who weren't offered the opportunity to write longer, more “epic” pieces, leading to the inclusion of more essays than usual, many of which are very short. A good cause, but consequently the book reads choppily, like essays were crammed in just for inclusion’s sake. I get her point, though. What I didn’t love is the very narrow scope of topics. Nearly every essay is on climate change, which was disappointing because part of the fun of these collections is learning about random things you otherwise never would. To be fair, Johnson pretty much says this will be the case in her introduction, but just because you personally “lean toward the “nature” in “science and nature”” doesn’t mean you should so drastically skew the selection that way. Oh well.
Some highlights:
● “To Be a Field of Poppies” by Lisa Wells
● “Power Shift” by Justine Calma
● “To Hell with Drowning” by Julian Aguon
Some essays with really interesting topics:
● “Heads Up! The Cardiovascular Secrets of Giraffes” by Bob Holmes
● “Beavers Are Firefighters Who Work for Free” by Lucy Sherriff
● “In Amsterdam, a Community of Floating Homes…” by Shira Rubin
Some lowlights:
“Too Big for the Universe” by Arianna S. Long
“Our Summer from Hell” by Jeff Goodell
“Quantum Enlightenment” by Ruth Robertson
Grade: B
This is kickstarted by a fantastic introduction from Johnson, where she explains her decision-making process for curating the essays; her motivations, preferences, biases, etc. are all disclosed before the anthology even starts, providing a ton of insight into why it is the way it is. Quote:
“I share all of this about the process of creating this collection because “best of” lists reflect the minds and hearts and worldviews of the list makers, a fact that is too often glossed over.”
These choices led to a set of essays that were mostly good individually, but underwhelming cumulatively. Johnson highlighted writers who weren't offered the opportunity to write longer, more “epic” pieces, leading to the inclusion of more essays than usual, many of which are very short. A good cause, but consequently the book reads choppily, like essays were crammed in just for inclusion’s sake. I get her point, though. What I didn’t love is the very narrow scope of topics. Nearly every essay is on climate change, which was disappointing because part of the fun of these collections is learning about random things you otherwise never would. To be fair, Johnson pretty much says this will be the case in her introduction, but just because you personally “lean toward the “nature” in “science and nature”” doesn’t mean you should so drastically skew the selection that way. Oh well.
Some highlights:
● “To Be a Field of Poppies” by Lisa Wells
● “Power Shift” by Justine Calma
● “To Hell with Drowning” by Julian Aguon
Some essays with really interesting topics:
● “Heads Up! The Cardiovascular Secrets of Giraffes” by Bob Holmes
● “Beavers Are Firefighters Who Work for Free” by Lucy Sherriff
● “In Amsterdam, a Community of Floating Homes…” by Shira Rubin
Some lowlights:
“Too Big for the Universe” by Arianna S. Long
“Our Summer from Hell” by Jeff Goodell
“Quantum Enlightenment” by Ruth Robertson
Grade: B
June 30, 2024
Remember when these books used to have a diverse collection of articles covering the entire scope of science and nature writing? Apparently this ends with this collection. The editor blatantly states in her intro that she focused primarily on one topic (climate change) and even did additional research to find other articles (not initially included for selection in this anthology) to include. Call me old fashioned, but I feel that the rules for selecting articles for this anthology are in place for a reason (probably to keep the diversity of articles and topics in place). I understand the climate change is a huge issue, but reading some of these articles, I thought to myself (multiple times) that surely there were better articles written that should have been included (especially when reading a couple articles that leaned way too far into wokeism). If one reads through all the other selections for Notable Scientific Writing, one will see that (just based on the title) there were many articles that had the potential to be better than the ones included here (they were also diverse in the range of topics (what a surprise!!)). It just feels like this collection was put together to specifically target climate change (and that overall feeling of doom that the world is slowly ending) at the expense of the diversity of this series. If I had one message to the editor of this collection it is: Yes, we are all aware that the climate is fucked, but sometimes we don't want to read about doom and gloom all the time, it is nice to hear about other stories covering the massive scope of science and nature writing.
February 17, 2023
As with any "Best American X" collections, the chosen essays/articles will be a mix of standouts and pieces that make you wonder what the editor was thinking. I didn't mind the abundance of stories that were either about climate change or connected to climate change. It is, after all, one of our most pressing issues and it touches almost every aspect of science and life. Moreover, given Ayana Elizabeth Johnson's work (she was a co-editor on "All We Can Save" which was an anthology on climate pieces) this abundance wasn't surprising. That being said, the book felt uneven; the standouts were truly standouts (Julia Rosen's piece on phosphorous, many of the pieces in the "Nature is Roiled" section, Lisa Well's piece on composting burials), mixing reporting, creative nonfiction and standout writing... but there were a lot of "huh?" pieces. Maybe because the standouts were so good, it made these pieces seem extra lacking? Anyways, a mostly solid, though uneven addition to the Best American. Science and Nature Writing 2022.
June 11, 2024
I’ve read a couple of books from this collection and I felt the essays in this publication were shorter than others I’ve read. As a lay person, the shorter format was helpful in keeping me engaged and understanding. I appreciated the introduction that made it clear having a range of voices and topics was a goal of this text.
Some favorite moments:
- The “Black Bears, Black Liberation” essay
- Learning about human waste being a “prized fertilizer” (123) in the essay “Humanity Is Flushing Away One of Life's Essential Elements”
- The “Poisoned - Part 1: The Factory” essay
- The “Future Moves” essay which left me craving more insight into a question I’ve often thought about.
- The “To Be a Field of Poppies” essay, specifically the lines “In collapsing the distance between our conscious lives and certain deaths, we might live more presently. We might resume contact with the plants, animals, waters and atmosphere we rely on to survive.” (173)
- The “There's a Global Plan to Conserve Nature” essay
Some favorite moments:
- The “Black Bears, Black Liberation” essay
- Learning about human waste being a “prized fertilizer” (123) in the essay “Humanity Is Flushing Away One of Life's Essential Elements”
- The “Poisoned - Part 1: The Factory” essay
- The “Future Moves” essay which left me craving more insight into a question I’ve often thought about.
- The “To Be a Field of Poppies” essay, specifically the lines “In collapsing the distance between our conscious lives and certain deaths, we might live more presently. We might resume contact with the plants, animals, waters and atmosphere we rely on to survive.” (173)
- The “There's a Global Plan to Conserve Nature” essay
February 29, 2024
Watching this series in particular evolve over the nearly 10 years I've been following it has been fascinating. Obviously it became very focused on climate change (with a brief stopover for COVID) over the past several years. A few years ago they seemed to realize this and specifically divide the articles up into a few different categories now. This specific collection is nice in that it seems equally concerned not just with the doom and gloom aspect of how bad things are going to get for all living things (and at this point, yeah, it's going to get bad) but also some hopeful stories of things very smart and inventive and courageous people are doing to fight back against policies, find clever solutions to save as many people and animals as they can, and just make the future a little better than it could be. Honestly it's hard picking out anything that stands out because it all seems so interconnected.
February 22, 2023
my first time reading this annual book series and it was very interesting!! i've been eyeing the science & nature writing series for quite some time now, and chose this particular edition after seeing that it's mostly about nature and climate change (as opposed to the next in line of my options, the one edited by ed yong). i realize i like this series for the wide array of topics and narratives it offers. i understand the comments saying they wanted the topics to be more diverse; this one was comprised of mostly nature writing, but it's important and very very VERY relevant, given that we're in the middle of climate collapse.
about the content, i loved some titles, some are too important not to share to the world, others are barely interesting and too long for my adhd brain, but overall, i liked this.
excited to check out other books from this series!!!
about the content, i loved some titles, some are too important not to share to the world, others are barely interesting and too long for my adhd brain, but overall, i liked this.
excited to check out other books from this series!!!
January 22, 2023
This compilation is usually one of my favorite reads of the year. This one was solid but not my favorite. Several of the articles seemed too short, and it leaned too much toward the nature side than the science side. (That being said, I do remember one year's anthology being so hard-sciencey that I was frequently lost.)
The articles I particularly enjoyed were:
-What Slime Knows, an examination of the fascinating myxommycete class. One type really likes oats and can solve and memorize a maze if it means getting to an oat flake.
-Poisoned Part One: The Factory, an expose on lead exposure in a factory near Tampa, Florida.
-To Be a Field of Poppies, detailing efforts to allow people to choose composting their bodies after they die as an alternative to traditional burial or cremation.
The articles I particularly enjoyed were:
-What Slime Knows, an examination of the fascinating myxommycete class. One type really likes oats and can solve and memorize a maze if it means getting to an oat flake.
-Poisoned Part One: The Factory, an expose on lead exposure in a factory near Tampa, Florida.
-To Be a Field of Poppies, detailing efforts to allow people to choose composting their bodies after they die as an alternative to traditional burial or cremation.
October 23, 2022
Every once in a while I need to remind myself that science can be enjoyable and fun, and when I need that reminder I love to turn to great essays and articles about different topics that I don’t read about every day. This edition of The Best American Science and Nature Writing gave me that break I needed. Jaime Green and guest editor Ayana Elizabeth Johnson pulled together an excellent collection of writing on a broad range of topics. I loved “The Body’s Most Embarrassing Organ Is an Evolutionary Marvel” and “Too Big for the Universe”.
Thanks to NetGalley and Mariner Books for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.
Thanks to NetGalley and Mariner Books for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.
January 20, 2023
A mixed bag of mostly good stuff. I enjoyed some of the straight-science pieces (the wonders of slime molds, giraffe plumbing, anuses), as well as some decent writing on climate disruption (water tables rising, plastics proliferating, cap-and-trade nonsense, lead recyclers worked to death). Some in our book club struggled, wanting to find more "hopeful" essays. Hmm. There are of course technological innovations, and small-scale pushbacks, that we should take inspiration from. But no one can be "hopeful" about how the gamblers' system is wrecking our home. They won't fix it, they can't fix it. Up to us.
May 17, 2023
The Best American Science And Nature Writing 202 is a novel by Ayana Elizabeth Johnson written in 2022. I think that everyone would have fun reading this, but especially people that are interested in science. There is not exactly a plot, but all of the chapter-long stories are about the lives of renowned scientist's experiences, university students, or even aspiring teens. I don't think there is any place in particular that you should read this book. It will be interesting laying down in bed or waiting in line. Hard to go wrong with this book because if you are into Science you will learn a lot of fun facts while also enjoying several personal stories of other scientists.
January 17, 2024
There's been a trend the last few years of the "Best Science and Nature Writing" becoming the "Best Activist Writing with Natural themes". One of the articles even seemed unscientific. It feels like recent editors have strayed from traditional pop-sci articles and decided to use the selection privilege as a platform to draw attention to preferred causes. The pivot from into humanism, culture and social science topics is perfectly fine if that's where the series wants to go but not the reason I got into the series. Sometimes you just want to read a collection of articles about the latest research on slug sex and bird poop.
November 22, 2022
This was the first time I've gotten this anthology on audiobook. It's a little harder to follow, but very convenient. I still enjoy how much science and nature writers love their work, no matter how obscure . I found several articles with topics I hadn't heard about before (cap and trade that worsens pollution, rising groundwater, our need for phosphates) and some that were innovative and hopeful (agriculture and solar panels, beavers, removing a dam, and composting bodies). Mostly great choices, including what appeared to be a significant number of female and/or indigenous authors.
December 11, 2022
This was a wonderful overview of standout nature and science essays of the year that I would have missed, if not for this collection. I appreciated the editors dedication to representing a wide variety of voices within the field.
My favorite essays in the collection were What Slime Knows by Lacy M. Johnson, Beavers are the Firefighters Who Work for Free by Lucy Sherriff, and A River Reawakened by Jessica Plumb.
Thanks to netgalley and the publisher for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.
My favorite essays in the collection were What Slime Knows by Lacy M. Johnson, Beavers are the Firefighters Who Work for Free by Lucy Sherriff, and A River Reawakened by Jessica Plumb.
Thanks to netgalley and the publisher for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.
June 3, 2023
I'm going to say something that I am not allowed to say in the classroom (even though I am a science teacher): science is real. There are a lot of angles on that in this book, and the bottom line is that we need to do something, individually and collectively. Some of these writings are not news to me; others are new, at least in specific content. I am most intrigued by the articles that look at new ways to do things or using nature's adaptations to give us ideas about how to approach challenges we face.
P.S. I ignore the "not allowed to." I say it anyway.
P.S. I ignore the "not allowed to." I say it anyway.
November 9, 2022
I enjoyed many of the chapters in this anthology. Especially the one about the Elhwa River and the removal of the dam. I was fortunate enough to follow that story closely from my time living in the Pacific Northwest, and appreciate the efforts, and the subsequent surprising rebound of the salmon populations. As with all anthologies, some of the stories I found interesting, others less so. But all in all, a worthwhile read.
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