Still Waters: The Secret World of Lakes

by Curt Stager Narrated by Matthew Josdal

Overview

Lakes are changing rapidly today, not because we are separate from nature but because we are so connected to it. But while many of our effects on the natural world are new, from climate change to nuclear fallout, our connections to it are ancient, as core samples from lake beds reveal. In Still Waters, Curt Stager introduces us to the secret worlds hidden within lakes as he travels from the Adirondack wilderness to the wilds of Siberia, from Massachusetts to the Middle East. For him, lakes are both mirrors and windows into history, culture, and our primal connections to all life. Stager fills his narrative with strange and enchanting details about these submerged worlds-diving insects chirping underwater like crickets, African crater lakes that explode, the growing threats to Thoreau's cherished pond- while emphasizing how beautiful and precious our lakes are, and how, more than ever, it is essential to protect them.

Editorial Reviews

Publishers Weekly

05/28/2018
Science professor Stager (Your Atomic Self) declares, “There’s nothing like a lake to reflect and reveal the world,” and he sets out to do the same in this philosophical meditation on lakes, their inhabitants, and the threats they face from human effects on the environment, reaching back thousands of years. He begins this literary tour of lakes he’s studied with Walden Pond, made famous by Henry David Thoreau, which provides a jumping-off point for discussions of diatoms, algae, Thoreau’s importance to readers, debates about the starting date of the Anthropocene, the difference in approaches between environmentalists and scientists, and mortality. Later sections examine and pay tribute to the flora, fauna, and natural laws governing lakes Stager has studied all over the world, from his hometown pond, where he “caught frogs on its banks in summer and skated on it in winter,” to Lake Victoria on the Tanzania-Uganda border, whose drying out (in the climate shifts during the end of the Ice Age) he recounts, drawing on data from sediment cores collected by researchers. All of this leads back to the connectedness between humans and other parts of nature. This contemplative volume, both informative and poetic, makes good on Stager’s intent to “upgrade” Walden “for our own century.” Illus. (May.)

David George Haskell

"Curt Stager is an eloquent storyteller. He not only guides us into the fascinating ecological worlds that dwell within lakes but also demonstrates that our own nature, both biological and cultural, cannot be understood apart from our many interconnections with these living waters."

Dan Egan

"Curt Stager takes his readers into the depths of ponds, lakes and seas around the globe—both polluted and pristine, ancient and nearly new—and brings alive the universe of life contained within each. Picking up the torch lit by Thoreau more than 150 years ago, Still Waters plumbs a question that vexes ecologists and philosophers alike—Can waters so shaped by human hands ever again be considered 'natural'? His conclusions will surprise as much as they entertain and educate."

Nature

"Lyrical...offers geological and biological revelations."

Carl Safina

"Lakes reflect us both literally and metaphorically, in ways shallow and deep. We can see our faces as we peer into their surface. But more deeply, lakes also reflect how the world is changing. Curt Stager has written a deep book about lakes. He peers into deep time, letting lakes tell us what has been, as well as foretelling a bit about who we are becoming."

Bill McKibben

"Curt Stager is as fine a teacher as I have ever encountered, both in the classroom and on the page. You will learn something new in every paragraph of this book, and the vivid writing will make it stick in your brain. For those of us who love the planet's lakes, this is like a long, cool drink of the freshest water."

Nature Lib

"Lyrical...offers geological and biological revelations."

Kirkus Reviews

2018-03-19
An authoritative, quietly impassioned argument for the ecological stakes in the vitality of our lakes.Stager (Natural Sciences/Paul Smith's Coll.; Your Atomic Self: The Invisible Elements that Connect You to Everything Else in the Universe, 2014, etc.) is a specialist in lake ecology and paleoecology. In his latest book, he offers a composite biography of lakes (and ponds) deep, shallow, grand, and humble, though each with its own individual life story and projected futures. With rueful precision, the author chronicles numerous depredations visited on lakes, often in the name of creating and sustaining fisheries, while also studying the effects of nutrient pollution, soil erosion, species invasions, and extinctions. He reminds us that the interaction of humans with lakes is ancient and that many of the changes exhibited in lakes are naturally occurring evolutionary processes only marginally affected by us. Stager conducts his investigations of lake communities from the "still" waters of the Adirondacks to Walden Pond, from Siberia to the Middle East and Africa, bringing the science to life through historical anecdotes and environmental observations that are measured and fair. However, the author is less successful in some of the descriptive passages that attempt to lend atmosphere, though he achieves a hint of eloquence here and there. For a primer on the "secret world" of lakes and for surprising facts and speculations on the microscopic and macroscopic realms—all carefully assembled and presented—the book is an important contribution to understanding how lakes, beyond their singular beauty, are windows to our primal connections to all life. "There is nothing like a lake to reflect and reveal the world," he writes. Evoking Thoreau and Emerson, Stager also demonstrates that the romantic ideology of wilderness can be counterproductive.Stager corrects many myths and misconceptions regarding what constitutes "healthy" lakes while analyzing troubling issues and threats. Yet he also swims in a pool of abiding human fascination.

Product Details

BN ID:	2940170009367
Publisher:	HighBridge Company
Publication date:	05/29/2018
Edition description:	Unabridged

Videos