Diane Ackerman's 'The Human Age': It's our fault nature is collapsing, but there's still hope
No matter where you look, you will see a world shaped by people. In fact, science writer Diane Ackerman says humans are now the dominant force shaping the natural world. She says all the problems in our world, we've created and now its time to use that same might to fix them.
The Apps4Apes program is an Orangutan Outreach initiative, designed to further enrich the quality of lives for primates in zoos. The animals are allowed to engage with basic apps for added mental stimulation and entertainment. Find out more.
Orangutans join primates at zoos around the world playing with the fruits of human innovation ... iPads. Perhaps they even enjoy it. But writer and naturalist Diane Ackerman finds this one more sign that something's changed in our relationship with the natural world: Something fundamental.
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Diane Ackerman's latest book The Human Age: The World Shaped by Us, is a survey of the many, many ways humanity transforms the natural world. From changing weather patterns, to rearranged DNA, to apps for apes.... we're increasingly living in a world of our own design.
Nature is not other from us, it's not separate from us.- Diane Ackerman, author of The Human Age
For more segments from our By Design series, check out the website and meet a man who's re-designed part of his body and now calls himself a cyborg; or find out more about what is going inside the world of video game designers and the challenges women endure.
Human technology slips ever deeper into the natural world, whether the natural world wants it or not. What are your thoughts about how the natural world is transforming?
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This segment was produced by The Current's Peter Mitton.
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