We see ourselves, too, in a new light through these powerful stories.”ĭavid George Haskell, author of Sounds Wild and Broken, The Songs of Trees, and Pulitzer finalist, The Forest Unseen “A brilliant exploration of some of the most beautiful and threatened species on the planet. Mehana Vaughan, author of Kaiāulu: Gathering Tides “This story unfurls like the circling shells of our exquisite Hawaiian kāhuli snails and into the world of those cultivating their survival while nudging us all to mindfulness of the precarious interconnected beauty of life for all beings in these times.” Ultimately, van Dooren seeks to cultivate a sense of wonder and appreciation for our damaged planet, revealing the world of possibilities and relationships that lies coiled within a snail's shell. These snail stories provide a potent window into ongoing global process of environmental and cultural change, including the largely unnoticed disappearance of countless snails, insects, and other less charismatic species. Along the way he asks how both snail loss and conservation efforts have been tangled up with larger processes of colonization, militarization, and globalization. Van Dooren recounts the fascinating history of snail decline in the Hawaiian Islands: from deforestation for agriculture, timber, and more, through the nineteenth century shell collecting mania of missionary settlers, and on to the contemporary impacts of introduced predators. Following snail trails through forests, laboratories, museums, and even a military training facility, and meeting with scientists and Native Hawaiians, van Dooren explores ongoing processes of ecological and cultural loss as they are woven through with possibilities for hope, care, mourning, and resilience. In A World in a Shell, Thom van Dooren offers a collection of snail stories from Hawai'i-once home to more than 750 species of land snails, almost two-thirds of which are now gone. And yet snails are disappearing faster than any other species. In this time of extinctions, the humble snail rarely gets a mention. If you can’t find the resource you need here, visit our contact page to get in touch.Įstablished in 1962, the MIT Press is one of the largest and most distinguished university presses in the world and a leading publisher of books and journals at the intersection of science, technology, art, social science, and design.įollowing the trails of Hawai'i's snails to explore the simultaneously biological and cultural significance of extinction. The MIT Press has been a leader in open access book publishing for over two decades, beginning in 1995 with the publication of William Mitchell’s City of Bits, which appeared simultaneously in print and in a dynamic, open web edition.Ĭollaborating with authors, instructors, booksellers, librarians, and the media is at the heart of what we do as a scholarly publisher. Today we publish over 30 titles in the arts and humanities, social sciences, and science and technology. MIT Press began publishing journals in 1970 with the first volumes of Linguistic Inquiry and the Journal of Interdisciplinary History. International Affairs, History, & Political Science. "A 'wait and see' approach - assuming all uncertainty will be resolved by future data - ignores the reality that anthropogenic disturbance is accelerating faster than scientific discovery," the researchers wrote.MIT Press Direct is a distinctive collection of influential MIT Press books curated for scholars and libraries worldwide. What's more, two of the three locations that the snails inhabit are already officially cleared for mining activity to begin, and it's uncertain if the snails could relocate to new habitats, according to the letter. However, just because they've evolved to survive in a volatile hydrothermal environment doesn't mean that the snails could weather severe disruption caused by seabed mining, researchers wrote in the letter.Ĭurrently, there are no conservation actions in place at any of the vent fields where the snails are found. Little is known about these snails' habits and biology. Seabed mining will disrupt the habitats of these unusual creatures, and is likely to nudge them toward extinction.
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