Ben Goldfarb (Journalist), “Crossings: How Road Ecology is Shaping the Future of Our Planet” (Law, Ethics & Animals Program at Yale Law School)

Approximately 40 million miles of roadways encircle the earth, but humans tend to regard them only as infrastructure for our convenience. Yet roads have far-reaching—and deadly—consequences for the nonhuman world: one million animals are killed by cars each day in the U.S. alone. Roadways also fragment wildlife populations into inbred clusters, disrupt migration for creatures from antelope to salmon, allow invasive plants to spread, and even bend the arc of evolution itself. In this talk, moderated by LEAP Student Fellow Nathalie Sommer, environmental journalist Ben Goldfarb (M.E.M. ‘13) will discuss his new book, Crossings: How Road Ecology Is Shaping The Future of Our Planet. He will explore how roads have transformed our planet and the innovative solutions offered by road ecologists to address the existential threat roadways pose to many animal species. 

 

Ben Goldfarb is an independent conservation journalist and the author of Eager: The Surprising, Secret Life of Beavers and Why They Matter, winner of the 2019 PEN/E.O. Wilson Literary Science Writing Award. His latest book, Crossings, has been supported by grants from the Alicia Patterson Foundation and the Whiting Foundation. His writing has appeared in numerous publications, including The Atlantic, Science, The New York Times, The Washington Post, National Geographic, Yale Environment 360, and many more. He holds a Masters of Environmental Management from the Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies and a Bachelor of Arts from Amherst College.