Eat, Poop, Die: Animals as the Arteries of the Biosphere with Joe Roman

Eat, Poop, Die: Animals as the Arteries of the Biosphere with Joe Roman

(Conversation recorded on June 14th, 2024)

Show Summary:

If plants are considered the lungs of the Earth, cycling CO2 into oxygen for animals to breathe, then animals act as the heart and arteries, spreading nutrients across the Earth to where it's needed most.

This is the metaphor that today's guest, conservation biologist Joe Roman, uses when describing his work studying how animals such as whales, otters, salmon, and midges provide vital ecosystem services, and how destruction of their populations – caused by modern industrial systems – affects the livability of the entire planet.

How has human activity drastically altered the balance and mass of species, and subsequently their ability to spread nutrients across the biosphere? What consequences must we face when biodiversity is diminished and nutrients are no longer dispersed as equally, leaving ecosystems with either extreme concentrations or scarcity of essential minerals, such as nitrogen and phosphorus? If we could "re-wild" diminishing species into their native habitats and aim for zero human-caused extinctions, how would this support a more resilient Earth for future generations of humans and animals alike?

About Joe Roman:

Joe Roman is a conservation biologist, marine ecologist, and "editor 'n' chef" of eattheinvaders.org. Winner of the Rachel Carson Environment Book Award for Listed: Dispatches from America's Endangered Species Act, Roman has written for The New York Times, Science, Slate, and other publications. Coverage of his research has appeared in the New Yorker, Washington Post, NPR, BBC, and many other outlets. He is a fellow and writer in residence at the Gund Institute for Environment at the University of Vermont. His latest book is Eat, Poop, Die: How Animals Make Our World.

Show Notes and More

Watch this video episode on Youtube

Jaksot(372)

Reimagining Ourselves at the End of Our World: Kinship, Interconnection, and Spirituality in the Metacrisis with Samantha Sweetwater

Reimagining Ourselves at the End of Our World: Kinship, Interconnection, and Spirituality in the Metacrisis with Samantha Sweetwater

Over the past decade, the world has become increasingly chaotic and uncertain – and so, too, has our cultural vision for the future. While the events we face now may feel unprecedented, they are roote...

24 Marras 20251h 33min

Directional Advice for the (More Than) Human Predicament | Frankly 114

Directional Advice for the (More Than) Human Predicament | Frankly 114

Over the past decade, the world has become increasingly chaotic and uncertain – and so, too, has our cultural vision for the future. While the events we face now may feel unprecedented, they are roote...

22 Marras 202540min

Two Ways of Knowing: How Merging Science & Indigenous Wisdom Fuels New Discoveries with Rosa Vásquez Espinoza

Two Ways of Knowing: How Merging Science & Indigenous Wisdom Fuels New Discoveries with Rosa Vásquez Espinoza

For centuries, modern science has relied on the scientific method to better understand the world around us. While helpful in many contexts, the scientific method is also objective, controlled, and red...

19 Marras 20251h 22min

11 Discoveries That Changed My Worldview | Frankly 113

11 Discoveries That Changed My Worldview | Frankly 113

In this episode, Nate weaves personal reflections into an exploration of the human predicament, unpacking a series of chronological insights that have reshaped his worldview. What began years ago as a...

14 Marras 202537min

Will We Artificially Cool the Planet? The Science and Politics of Geoengineering with Ted Parson

Will We Artificially Cool the Planet? The Science and Politics of Geoengineering with Ted Parson

Global heating continues, despite the increased use of renewable energy sources and international policies attempting otherwise. Even as emissions reduction efforts continue, our world faces more extr...

12 Marras 20251h 21min

Hacking Human Attachment: The Loneliness Crisis, Cognitive Atrophy and other Personal Dangers of AI | RR 20

Hacking Human Attachment: The Loneliness Crisis, Cognitive Atrophy and other Personal Dangers of AI | RR 20

Mainstream conversations about artificial intelligence tend to center around the technology's economic and large-scale impacts. Yet it's at the individual level where we're seeing AI's most potent eff...

5 Marras 20251h 53min

The Quadruple Bifurcation | Frankly 112

The Quadruple Bifurcation | Frankly 112

In this week's Frankly, Nate outlines four bifurcations that are likely to underpin the human experience in the near future. While the broad biophysical realities of energy and ecology underpin our ci...

31 Loka 202522min

Terror Management Theory: How Existential Dread Has Shaped the World with Sheldon Solomon

Terror Management Theory: How Existential Dread Has Shaped the World with Sheldon Solomon

Many of us wrestle with the unsettling truth that everyone – including ourselves and those we love – will one day die. Though this awareness is uncomfortable, research suggests that the human capacity...

29 Loka 20251h 46min

Suosittua kategoriassa Tiede

tiedekulma-podcast
rss-mita-tulisi-tietaa
rss-duodecim-lehti
rss-poliisin-mieli
mielipaivakirja
docemilia
radio-antro
filocast-filosofian-perusteet
rss-ylistys-elaimille
university-of-eastern-finland
utelias-mieli
rss-ranskaa-raakana
rss-astetta-parempi-elama-podcast
rss-metsantuntijat-podcast
rss-tiedetta-vai-tarinaa
rss-lihavuudesta-podcast