Charles C Mann

"From the author of 1491--the best-selling study of the pre-Columbian Americas--a deeply engaging new history that explores the most momentous biological event since the death of the dinosaurs. More than 200 million years ago, geological forces split apart the continents. Isolated from each other, the two halves of the world developed totally different suites of plants and animals. Columbus's voyages brought them back together--and marked the beginning...

Presents two influential scientists, William Vogt (1902-1968), and Norman Borlaug (1914-2009), whose diametrically opposed views shaped modern understandings about the environment and related public policies.

Quando Cristovão Colombo descobriu a América, abrindo aos impérios espanhol e português à conquista do novo mundo, seguidos por outros colonizadores europeus, começava uma nova era não só na história da humanidade, mas na própria vida do planeta. A globalização não foi só económica e política, mas também biológica. O desencadear de uma troca mundial de plantas, animais, insectos, produtos e doenças criou novos hábitos alimentares

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Charles Mann takes us on a journey of scientific exploration. We learn that the Indian development of modern corn was one of the most complex feats of genetic engineering ever performed. That the Great Plains are a third smaller today than they were in 1700 because the Indians who maintained them by burning died. And that the Amazon rain forest may be largely a human artifact.