“In other words, in the encroaching malaise of 1910, it was easy to be gripped by the brilliance of the hippopotamus scheme, to feel hippopotamuses resonating not just as a way of sidestepping catastrophic famine, but as a symbol of… — Jon Mooallem Copy Share Image
“The kids ignored the cranes, and the cranes ignored the kids, George remembered, and that struck him as the best humanity could realistically hope… — Jon Mooallem Copy Share
“I was relieved not to find yet another crabby and wounded ex-environmentalist, and I asked her how she was managing to live in a… — Jon Mooallem Copy Share
“I'm not arguing that America would be a better or more beautiful place if it had imported hippopotamuses in 1910. But there is something… — Jon Mooallem Copy Share
“You're not what you were before," Jana told me, "but neither are you what you're going to be. The soup stage really sucks, but… — Jon Mooallem Copy Share
“In other words, in the encroaching malaise of 1910, it was easy to be gripped by the brilliance of the hippopotamus scheme, to feel… — Jon Mooallem Copy Share
“Zoom out and what you see is one species--us--struggling to keep all others in their appropriate places, or at least in the places we've… — Jon Mooallem Copy Share
“Representative Broussard had dispatched a field agent on a fact-finding mission. The man, a native of southern Africa, found the Louisiana swamps “wildly dismal… — Jon Mooallem Copy Share
“This animal, homely as a steam-roller, [is] the embodiment of salvation,” it wrote. “Peace, plenty, and contentment lie before us; and a new life,… — Jon Mooallem Copy Share
“Importing antelopes and giraffes suddenly became politically impossible. The experience had left Burnham angry—mostly at himself. He’d been naive enough to believe that America… — Jon Mooallem Copy Share
“The phenomenon that Powell stumbled onto has a name: shifting baselines syndrome... Every generation of scientist accepts the oceans as it inherits them... when… — Jon Mooallem Copy Share
