Metropolitics

Birdwatching in the City: A Case for Multispecies Tourism

Elizabeth Cherry & August Davidson-Onsgard & Lisa Jean Moore — 2018-01-16T06:00:00Z

This essay analyzes the growth of urban avitourism—wildlife tourism focused on birds—as an activity that drives humans and revenue to urban centers. Two sociologists and a birder/wildlife photographer consider the implications of heightened human awareness of nature in cities.
Birds as urban celebrities
In early December of 2015, a painted bunting was sighted in Brooklyn's Prospect Park. Birders from all over the New York metropolitan area learned of the bird's arrival through their “rare

- Essays / parks, nature, New York, tourism, wildlife, urban tourism, avitourism, urban wildlife, migratory birds, bird habitats, birds, birding, birdwatching, wildlife tourism, ecotourism, urban parks

Where Did the Bees Go? New York City Beekeeping Amid Ecological Crises

Mary Kosut & Lisa Jean Moore — 2016-04-05T05:00:00Z

The decline and extinction of bees and other pollinators threatens the global food supply. Residents in cities like New York have engaged in the practice of beekeeping to harvest honey and care for this essential species. Ethnographers Lisa Jean Moore and Mary Kosut explore the connections to urban sustainability that this new practice entails.
Bees have always lived in metropolitan spaces without the aid of humans. Yet, until very recently, most people never thought of them as a species that

- From the Field / environment, urban ecology, urban agriculture, New York, wildlife, Brooklyn, bees, urban beekeeping, colony collapse disorder, DIY, honeybees, pollination

Looking Backward into the Future of New York

Ted Steinberg — 2015-01-12T05:50:00Z

Can the lesson of Hurricane Sandy dampen the enthusiasm of New York City's growth machine? Ted Steinberg, author of Gotham Unbound, an environmental history of New York City, gives an overview of the historical developments that make the city one of the most vulnerable to floods in the United States.
How should those who rule over New York City plan for its future? Sketching out elaborate plans has long been a cottage industry in the nation's largest city. To date, however, historical

- Essays / catastrophe, disaster, environment, United States, urban ecology, land, water, New York, history, sustainable urban planning, Sandy, sea-level rise, flooding, vulnerability, wildlife

The Horseshoe Crab, our Environment and our Health

Lisa Jean Moore — 2014-12-15T05:50:00Z

Will we erase all animal diversity in the name of modernity, or will we follow the hints given by the study of the horseshoe crab? The entanglements of this ancestral animal with human activity point to the urgent need to accept the collective responsibility that comes with the Anthropocene era.
In North America, the ocean-dwelling horseshoe crab (Limulus polyphemus), a maroon prehistoric creature, crawls along the ocean floor with its helmet-like hard-shelled top and multiple appendages

- From the Field / health, environment, New York, global warming, sea-level rise, human animal, wildlife, Featured