Andrew Clouse > Recent Status Updates

So far I’ve enjoyed the brief historical details of the Indian and Tibetan regions related to Buddhist culture mixed in with the imagery of Peter Matthiessen’s start to his journey.

Although it’s been a good read I can’t help to feel somewhat gloomy after each chapter towards the end of this book. Essentially humans have slowly been ruining the Gulf for the past 200 years whether that’s carving out the land causing erosion issues or killing birds/turtles/wildlife excessively to the point they become endangered or extinct. Hopefully we can turn things around for this beautiful area soon.

So far the chapters have been a little too detailed and go off on tangents occasionally, but overall the history has been amazing to read about and I’ve learned some things about American history I’d never heard even in school.

So far the chapters at first explain the (then) radical ideas of historical figures such as Cuvier and Darwin that related to extinction while the rest is a personal experience the author had with different scientists to see how they are using modern science to understand extinction rates better. I’m impressed with the author’s ability write about such a bleak subject and still create a story that keeps me hooked.