The whole cleanliness-is-next-to-godliness thing seems to be one of unspoken underpinnings of modern, Western civilization, and sometimes I wonder whether it is really such a good thing. Then this showed up in my inbox last night:
Publisher Comments:
A biologist shows the influence of wild species on our well-being and
the world and how nature still clings to us—and always will. We
evolved in a wilderness of parasites, mutualists, and pathogens, but we
no longer see ourselves as being part of nature and the broader
community of life. In the name of progress and clean living, we scrub
much of nature off our bodies and try to remove whole kinds of
life—parasites, bacteria, mutualists, and predators—to allow ourselves
to live free of wild danger. Nature, in this new world, is the landscape
outside, a kind of living painting that is pleasant to contemplate but
nice to have escaped.
The truth, though, according to biologist
Rob Dunn, is that while "clean living" has benefited us in some ways,
it has also made us sicker in others. We are trapped in bodies that
evolved to deal with the dependable presence of hundreds of other
species. As Dunn reveals, our modern disconnect from the web of life has
resulted in unprecedented effects that immunologists, evolutionary
biologists, psychologists, and other scientists are only beginning to
understand. Diabetes, autism, allergies, many anxiety disorders,
autoimmune diseases, and even tooth, jaw, and vision problems are
increasingly plaguing bodies that have been removed from the ecological
context in which they existed for millennia.
In this
eye-opening, thoroughly researched, and well-reasoned book, Dunn
considers the crossroads at which we find ourselves. Through the stories
of visionaries, Dunn argues that we can create a richer nature, one in
which we choose to surround ourselves with species that benefit us, not
just those that, despite us, survive.
Taken from the daily email promoting this book.
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