Listen to Latest Full Audiobooks in Non-Fiction, Animals & Nature

Please visit https://thebookvoice.com/podcasts/1/audiobook/291320 to listen full audiobooks.

Title: Defending Beef: The Case for Sustainable Meat Production

Author: Nicolette Hahn Niman

Narrator: Nicolette Hahn Niman

Format: Unabridged Audiobook

Length: 10 hours 40 minutes

Release date: April 18, 2017

Ratings: Ratings of Book: 5 of Total 1

Ratings of Narrator: 5 of Total 1

Genres: Animals & Nature

Publisher's Summary:

For decades it has been nearly universal dogma among environmentalists and health advocates that cattle and beef are public enemy number one. But is the matter really so clear cut? Hardly, argues environmental lawyer turned rancher Nicolette Hahn Niman in her new book, Defending Beef. The public has long been led to believe that livestock, especially cattle, erode soils, pollute air and water, damage riparian areas, and decimate wildlife populations. In Defending Beef, Hahn Niman argues that cattle are not inherently bad for either the Earth or our own nutritional health. In fact, properly managed livestock play an essential role in maintaining grassland ecosystems by functioning as surrogates for herds of wild ruminants that once covered the globe. Hahn Niman argues that dispersed, grass-fed, small-scale farms can and should become the basis for American food production, replacing the factory farms that harm animals and the environment. The author, a longtime vegetarian goes on to dispel popular myths about how eating beef is bad for our bodies. She methodically evaluates health claims made against beef, demonstrating that such claims have proven false. She shows how foods from cattle, milk and meat, particularly when raised entirely ongrass are healthful, extremely nutritious, and an irreplaceable part of the world's food system. Grounded in empirical scientific data and with living examples from around the world, Defending Beef builds a comprehensive argument that cattle can help to build carbon-sequestering soils to mitigate climate change, enhance biodiversity, help prevent desertification, and provide invaluable nutrition. Defending Beef is simultaneously a book about big ideas and the author's own personal tale'•she starts out as a skeptical vegetarian and eventually becomes an enthusiastic participant in environmentally sustainable ranching. While no single book can definitively answer the thorny question of how to feed the Earth's growing population, Defending Beef makes the case that, whatever the world's future food system looks like, cattle and beef can and must be part of the solution.

Please visit https://thebookvoice.com/podcasts/1/audiobook/290374 to listen full audiobooks.

Title: Climate of Hope: How Cities, Businesses, and Citizens Can Save the Planet

Author: Carl Pope, Michael Bloomberg

Narrator: Charles Pellett, Carl Pope, Michael Bloomberg

Format: Unabridged Audiobook

Length: 9 hours 5 minutes

Release date: April 18, 2017

Ratings: Ratings of Book: 4.25 of Total 4

Ratings of Narrator: 4.67 of Total 3

Genres: Animals & Nature

Publisher's Summary:

This program is read by Carl Pope and Charles Pellett with an introduction read by the author. From Mayor Michael Bloomberg and former head of the Sierra Club Carl Pope comes a manifesto on how the benefits of taking action on climate change are concrete, immediate, and immense. They explore climate change solutions that will make the world healthier and more prosperous, aiming to begin a new type of conversation on the issue that will spur bolder action by cities, businesses, and citizens—and even, someday, by Washington. 'Climate of Hope is an inspiring must read.' —Former Vice President Al Gore, Chairman of The Climate Reality Project “Climate change threatens to reshape the future of our world's population centers. Bloomberg and Pope have been leaders on fortifying our cities against this threat, and their book proves that victory is possible—and imperative.” —Leonardo DiCaprio 'If Trump is looking for a blueprint, he could not do better than to read a smart new book, Climate of Hope.' —Thomas Friedman in The New York Times ~ The 2016 election left many people who are concerned about the environment fearful that progress on climate change would come screeching to a halt. But not Michael Bloomberg and Carl Pope. Bloomberg, an entrepreneur and former mayor of New York City, and Pope, a lifelong environmental leader, approach climate change from different perspectives, yet they arrive at similar conclusions. Without agreeing on every point, they share a belief that cities, businesses, and citizens can lead—and win—the battle against climate change, no matter which way the political winds in Washington may shift. In Climate of Hope, Bloomberg and Pope offer an optimistic look at the challenge of climate change, the solutions they believe hold the greatest promise, and the practical steps that are necessary to achieve them. Writing from their own experiences, and sharing their own stories from government, business, and advocacy, Bloomberg and Pope provide a road map for tackling the most complicated challenge the world has ever faced. Along the way, they turn the usual way of thinking about climate change on its head: from top down to bottom up, from partisan to pragmatic, from costs to benefits, from tomorrow to today, and from fear to hope.

Please visit https://thebookvoice.com/podcasts/1/audiobook/291193 to listen full audiobooks.

Title: Where the Water Goes: Life and Death Along the Colorado River

Author: David Owen

Narrator: Fred Sanders

Format: Unabridged Audiobook

Length: 9 hours 26 minutes

Release date: April 11, 2017

Ratings: Ratings of Book: 3.79 of Total 14

Ratings of Narrator: 4 of Total 1

Genres: Animals & Nature

Publisher's Summary:

“Wonderfully written…Mr. Owen writes about water, but in these polarized times the lessons he shares spill into other arenas. The world of water rights and wrongs along the Colorado River offers hope for other problems.” —Wall Street Journal An eye-opening account of where our water comes from and where it all goes. The Colorado River is an essential resource for a surprisingly large part of the United States, and every gallon that flows down it is owned or claimed by someone. David Owen traces all that water from the Colorado’s headwaters to its parched terminus, once a verdant wetland but now a million-acre desert. He takes readers on an adventure downriver, along a labyrinth of waterways, reservoirs, power plants, farms, fracking sites, ghost towns, and RV parks, to the spot near the U.S.–Mexico border where the river runs dry. Water problems in the western United States can seem tantalizingly easy to solve: just turn off the fountains at the Bellagio, stop selling hay to China, ban golf, cut down the almond trees, and kill all the lawyers. But a closer look reveals a vast man-made ecosystem that is far more complex and more interesting than the headlines let on. The story Owen tells in Where the Water Goes is crucial to our future: how a patchwork of engineering marvels, byzantine legal agreements, aging infrastructure, and neighborly cooperation enables life to flourish in the desert—and the disastrous consequences we face when any part of this tenuous system fails.

Please visit https://thebookvoice.com/podcasts/1/audiobook/290123 to listen full audiobooks.

Title: Penguin the Magpie: The Odd Little Bird Who Saved a Family

Author: Cameron Bloom, Bradley Trevor Greive

Narrator: Richard Roxburgh, Edwina Wren

Format: Unabridged Audiobook

Length: 1 hour 51 minutes

Release date: April 4, 2017

Ratings: Ratings of Book: 5 of Total 1

Ratings of Narrator: 5 of Total 1

Genres: Animals & Nature

Publisher's Summary:

THE INSPIRATION FOR THE NETFLIX FILM PENGUIN BLOOM “A triumph that will make your heart soar” (Sy Montgomery, author of The Soul of an Octopus), this true story follows a family’s journey of recovery, hope, and courage as they nurse an injured magpie back to health—from the New York Times bestselling author of The Blue Day Book. When Sam Bloom suffers a near fatal fall during a vacation, she is left paralyzed and deeply depressed. One of their three sons, reeling from the tragic accident, discovers an injured magpie chick abandoned after she had fallen from her nest. The boys name the bird Penguin, for her black-and-white plumage. As they nurse Penguin back to health, the incredible joy, playfulness, and strength she exudes fortify the family and especially lift Sam’s spirits. “A unique and remarkable insight into a family dealing with tragedy and finding their way through it with love, courage, and hope” (Naomi Watts), Penguin the Magpie reminds us all that, no matter how lost, fragile, or damaged we feel, accepting the love of others and loving them in return will help to make us whole.

Please visit https://thebookvoice.com/podcasts/1/audiobook/289584 to listen full audiobooks.

Title: Mozart's Starling

Author: Lyanda Lynn Haupt

Narrator: Linda Henning

Format: Unabridged Audiobook

Length: 7 hours 15 minutes

Release date: April 4, 2017

Ratings: Ratings of Book: 4 of Total 1

Genres: Animals & Nature

Publisher's Summary:

On May 27th, 1784, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart met a flirtatious little starling in a Viennese shop who sang an improvised version of the theme from his Piano Concerto no. 17 in G major. Sensing a kindred spirit in the plucky young bird, Mozart bought him and took him home to be a family pet. For three years, the starling lived with Mozart, influencing his work and serving as his companion, distraction, consolation, and muse. Two centuries later, starlings are reviled by even the most compassionate conservationists. A nonnative, invasive species, they invade sensitive habitats, outcompete local birds for nest sites and food, and decimate crops. A seasoned birder and naturalist, Lyanda Lynn Haupt is well versed in the difficult and often strained relationships these birds have with other species and the environment. But after rescuing a baby starling of her own, Haupt found herself enchanted by the same intelligence and playful spirit that had so charmed her favorite composer. In Mozart's Starling, Haupt explores the unlikely and remarkable bond between one of history's most cherished composers and one of earth's most common birds. The intertwined stories of Mozart's beloved pet and Haupt's own starling provide an unexpected window into human-animal friendships, music, the secret world of starlings, and the nature of creative inspiration. A blend of natural history, biography, and memoir, Mozart's Starling is a tour de force that awakens a surprising new awareness of our place in the world.

Please visit https://thebookvoice.com/podcasts/1/audiobook/284839 to listen full audiobooks.

Title: The Songs of Trees: Stories from Nature's Great Connectors

Author: David George Haskell

Narrator: David George Haskell, Cassandra Campbell

Format: Unabridged Audiobook

Length: 10 hours 26 minutes

Release date: April 4, 2017

Ratings: Ratings of Book: 3.25 of Total 4

Ratings of Narrator: 3.5 of Total 2

Genres: Animals & Nature

Publisher's Summary:

The author of the Pulitzer Prize finalist The Forest Unseen visits with nature’s most magnificent networkers — trees  'At once lyrical and informative, filled with beauty.' – Elizabeth Kolbert, author of The Sixth Extinction David Haskell’s award-winning The Forest Unseen won acclaim for eloquent writing and deep engagement with the natural world. Now, Haskell brings his powers of observation to the biological networks that surround all species, including humans. Haskell repeatedly visits a dozen trees around the world, exploring the trees’ connections with webs of fungi, bacterial communities, cooperative and destructive animals, and other plants. An Amazonian ceibo tree reveals the rich ecological turmoil of the tropical forest, along with threats from expanding oil fields. Thousands of miles away, the roots of a balsam fir in Canada survive in poor soil only with the help of fungal partners. These links are nearly two billion years old: the fir’s roots cling to rocks containing fossils of the first networked cells. By unearthing charcoal left by Ice Age humans and petrified redwoods in the Rocky Mountains, Haskell shows how the Earth’s climate has emerged from exchanges among trees, soil communities, and the atmosphere. Now humans have transformed these networks, powering our societies with wood, tending some forests, but destroying others. Haskell also attends to trees in places where humans seem to have subdued “nature” – a pear tree on a Manhattan sidewalk, an olive tree in Jerusalem, a Japanese bonsai– demonstrating that wildness permeates every location. Every living being is not only sustained by biological connections, but is made from these relationships. Haskell shows that this networked view of life enriches our understanding of biology, human nature, and ethics. When we listen to trees, nature’s great connectors, we learn how to inhabit the relationships that give life its source, substance, and beauty. Read by Cassandra Campbell, with the preface and two interludes read by the Author

Please visit https://thebookvoice.com/podcasts/1/audiobook/289272 to listen full audiobooks.

Title: The Inner Life of Cats: The Science and Secrets of Our Mysterious Feline Companions

Author: Thomas McNamee

Narrator: Bob Reed

Format: Unabridged Audiobook

Length: 8 hours 25 minutes

Release date: March 28, 2017

Ratings: Ratings of Book: 3.67 of Total 6

Ratings of Narrator: 4 of Total 1

Genres: Animals & Nature

Publisher's Summary:

Our feline companions are much-loved but often mysterious. In The Inner Life of Cats, Thomas McNamee blends scientific reportage with engaging, illustrative anecdotes about his own beloved cat, Augusta, to explore and illuminate the secrets and enigmas of her kind. As it begins, The Inner Life of Cats follows the development of the young Augusta while simultaneously explaining the basics of a kitten's physiological and psychological development. As the narrative progresses, McNamee also charts cats' evolution, explores a feral cat colony in Rome, tells the story of Augusta's life and adventures, and consults with behavioral experts, animal activists, and researchers, who will help readers more fully understand cats. McNamee shows that with deeper knowledge of cats' developmental phases and individual idiosyncrasies, we can do a better job of guiding cats' maturation and improving the quality of their lives. Readers' relationships with their feline friends will be happier and more harmonious because of this book.

Please visit https://thebookvoice.com/podcasts/1/audiobook/289105 to listen full audiobooks.

Title: Asteroid Hunters

Series: Part of Ted Books

Author: Carrie Nugent

Narrator: Carrie Nugent

Format: Unabridged Audiobook

Length: 2 hours 12 minutes

Release date: March 14, 2017

Genres: Animals & Nature

Publisher's Summary:

For the first time, scientists could have the knowledge to prevent a natural disaster epic in scale—an asteroid hitting the earth and in this exciting, adventuresome book, Carrie Nugent explains how. What are asteroids, and where do they come from? And, most urgently: Are they going to hit the Earth? What would happen if one was on its way? Carrie Nugent is an asteroid hunter—part of a group of scientists working to map our cosmic neighborhood. For the first time ever, we are reaching the point where we may be able to prevent the horrible natural disaster that would result from an asteroid collision. In Asteroid Hunters, Nugent reveals what known impact asteroids have had: the extinction of the dinosaurs, the earth-sized hole Shoemaker Levy 9 left in Jupiter just a few decades ago, how the meteorite that bursted over Chelyabinsk in Russia could have started a war, and unlucky Ms. Anne Hodges—the only person (that we know of) in US history to be the victim of a direct hit. Nugent also introduces the telescope she uses to detect near-Earth asteroids. Ultimately, detection is the key to preventing asteroid impact, and these specialized scientists are working to prevent the unthinkable from happening. If successful, asteroid hunting will lead to the first natural disaster humans have the know-how and the technology to prevent. The successful hunt and mapping of asteroids could mean nothing less than saving life on earth.

Please visit https://thebookvoice.com/podcasts/1/audiobook/284827 to listen full audiobooks.

Title: Never Out of Season: How Having the Food We Want When We Want It Threatens Our Food Supply and Our Future

Author: Rob Dunn

Narrator: Dan Woren

Format: Unabridged Audiobook

Length: 11 hours 30 minutes

Release date: March 14, 2017

Ratings: Ratings of Book: 3.33 of Total 3

Ratings of Narrator: 5 of Total 1

Genres: Animals & Nature

Publisher's Summary:

The bananas we eat today aren't your parents' bananas: We eat a recognizable, consistent breakfast fruit that was standardized in the 1960s from dozens into one basic banana. But because of that, the banana we love is dangerously susceptible to a pathogen that might wipe them out. That's the story of our food today: Modern science has brought us produce in perpetual abundance once-rare fruits are seemingly never out of season, and we breed and clone the hardiest, best-tasting varieties of the crops we rely on most. As a result, a smaller proportion of people on earth go hungry today than at any other moment in the last thousand years, and the streamlining of our food supply guarantees that the food we buy, from bananas to coffee to wheat, tastes the same every single time. Our corporate food system has nearly perfected the process of turning sunlight, water and nutrients into food. But our crops themselves remain susceptible to the nature's fury. And nature always wins. Authoritative, urgent, and filled with fascinating heroes and villains from around the world, Never Out of Season is the story of the crops we depend on most and the scientists racing to preserve the diversity of life, in order to save our food supply, and us.

Please visit https://thebookvoice.com/podcasts/1/audiobook/284570 to listen full audiobooks.

Title: Waking Up Slowly: Spiritual Lessons from My Dog, My Kids, Critters, and Other Unexpected Places

Author: Dave Burchett

Narrator: Dave Burchett

Format: Unabridged Audiobook

Length: 6 hours 31 minutes

Release date: March 7, 2017

Genres: Animals & Nature

Publisher's Summary:

What if every day we are stubbing our toes on the sacred and not realizing it? We are the most connected culture in history, but we are arguably the most disconnected from the awareness of God’s presence. Waking Up Slowly is author Dave Burchett’s personal challenge to live in the moment and find the everyday joys we miss when we live in disconnected busyness. Dave Burchett sets out to discover how life might be different if he awoke each morning consciously looking for the easy-to-miss postcards from God. Waking Up Slowly is an intimate, warm, and touching story of learning how to more fully appreciate each moment. During his journey, the author finds regular reminders of daily joys with his Labrador pal, Maggie, often at his side. Waking Up Slowly challenges the listener to recognize, appreciate, and celebrate the ways God reveals Himself daily. Through regular people, everyday situations, cuddly creatures, and stunning nature, God’s presence is real and discoverable. We just need to wake up to it.