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Home   /   Books   /   A Plague of Rats and Rubbervines
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0057UEKKY
https://itunes.apple.com/us/book/a-plague-of-rats-and-rubbervines/id532192571
https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/1127190484
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A Plague of Rats and Rubbervines

The Growing Threat Of Species Invasions

330 pages
6 x 9

Yvonne Baskin

E-book Format
$32.99
ISBN: 
9781610911009
Pub Date: 
April 2013
Add to Cart
Paperback
$33.00
ISBN: 
9781559630511
Pub Date: 
November 2003
Add to Cart
Exam Copy
Book Description Review Quotes Contents
Book Description

The human love of novelty and desire to make one place look like another, coupled with massive increases in global trade and transport, are creating a growing economic and ecological threat. The same forces that are rapidly "McDonaldizing" the world's diverse cultures are also driving us toward an era of monotonous, weedy, and uniformly impoverished landscapes. Unique plant and animal communities are slowly succumbing to the world's "rats and rubbervines" -- animals like zebra mussels and feral pigs, and plants like kudzu and water hyacinth -- that, once moved into new territory, can disrupt human enterprise and well-being as well as native habitats and biodiversity.

From songbird-eating snakes in Guam to cheatgrass in the Great Plains, "invasives" are wreaking havoc around the world. In A Plague of Rats and Rubbervines, widely published science writer Yvonne Baskin draws on extensive research to provide an engaging and authoritative overview of the problem of harmful invasive alien species. She takes the reader on a worldwide tour of grasslands, gardens, waterways, and forests, describing the troubles caused by exotic organisms that run amok in new settings and examining how commerce and travel on an increasingly connected planet are exacerbating this oldest of human-created problems. She offers examples of potential solutions and profiles dedicated individuals worldwide who are working tirelessly to protect the places and creatures they love.

While our attention is quick to focus on purposeful attempts to disrupt our lives and economies by releasing harmful biological agents, we often ignore equally serious but much more insidious threats, those that we inadvertently cause by our own seemingly harmless actions. A Plague of Rats and Rubbervines takes a compelling look at this underappreciated problem and sets forth positive suggestions for what we as consumers, gardeners, travelers, nurserymen, fishermen, pet owners, business people -- indeed all of us who by our very local choices drive global commerce -- can do to help. "


Review Quotes

"A must read for any concerned citizen—you will not be able to put this book down!"
Peter H. Raven, Director, Missouri Botanical Garden

Contents

Chapter 1. Introduction: Confronting a Shrinking World
Chapter 2. Reuniting Pangaea 
Chapter 3. Wheat and Trout, Weeds and Pestilence
Chapter 4. Elbowing Out the Natives
Chapter 5. The Good, the Bad, the Fuzzy
Chapter 6. The Making of a Pest
Chapter 7. Taking Risks with Strangers
Chapter 8. Stemming the Tide
Chapter 9. Beachheads and Sleepers
Chapter 10. Taking Control
Chapter 11. Islands No Longer
Chapter 12. Can We Preserve Integrity of Place?
 
Appendix A: 100 of the World's Worst Invasive Alien Species
Appendix B: Index to Scientific Names of Cited Invasive Species
Notes
Acknowledgments
Index

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