Tinkering with Eden:
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REVIEW BY TEMPLE WEST
Kim Todd, in her first book, Tinkering with Eden: A Natural History of Exotics in America, unveils the hubris in the often unwise introductions of non-native species to American ecosystems. The results of importing foreign animals, insects, plants, birds and fish have been, in many cases, disastrous, defying natural laws and possibly divine purpose as well. Tinkering with Eden -- a fascinating narrative enhanced by Todd's far-reaching research and rich story-telling abilities -- explores nature and humankind's relationship to it. A former newspaper reporter, the author has a fresh voice, an inquisitive mind and the instinct to ask questions about ordinary things the rest of us take for granted. Her book will interest any caring observer of our environment or lover of mystery. Through a series of stories, Todd delves into exotic introductions that resulted in the unanticipated over-populations of pests we'd now prefer to be rid of. Most of them, she explains, were introduced for reasons that "spiral out from our best impulses . . . from traits that make us proud to be human." Pigeons, once fancied by Charles Darwin as a foundation for his theories of natural selection, were imported to this country by homesick Frenchmen eager for reminders of their past; starlings were released by a poetic pharmacist in New York's Central Park in an effort to populate the city with every bird mentioned by Shakespeare; gypsy moths were unleashed by an astronomer in an effort to breed a native silkworm. Most of Todd's stories explore imports that have proven disastrous, though she reveals some successes. She not only serves up interesting stories, but forces readers to question their wisdom and future relationship to nature by examining the results of past failures. We must, she says, "reach to see beyond the effects we hope to achieve," as we move into an era of unprecedented frontiers in genetic engineering and artificial manipulation of species. Perhaps the ancients, who understood wisdom as reconciliation with nature, the gods and divine purpose, had it right. Temple West is a writer who lives in Norfolk, Virginia.
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