May 20, 2021
Balaji Ravichandran
THE WASHINGTON POST – One year ago, when the first wave of the coronavirus pandemic swept across the world, it brought several countries to a standstill. Travel and tourism came to a halt, industrial activities waned, air and noise pollution declined. Everywhere, nature seemed more resurgent. Here was a rare opportunity, many of us hoped, for humanity to pause and redress the calamitous harm it had long inflicted upon nature. Today, however, as we rush to return to “normal,” that opportunity seems increasingly lost.
How fortunate and how fortuitous that Library of America should now resurrect the writings of EO Wilson. Fortunate, because there is no writer more authoritative, nor any more eloquent, to speak about the natural world. Fortuitous, because the timing could not be more opportune as we emerge from an acute crisis to face other, more chronic ones.