How We Can Change Our Roads to Help Our Wildlife

KQED's Forum

KQED

News, News Commentary, Politics

4.2 • 727 Ratings

🗓️ 14 September 2023

⏱️ 56 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

“Name your environmental ill—dams, poaching, megafires—and consider that roads kill more creatures with less fanfare, than any of them.” That’s according to conservation journalist Ben Goldfarb, who says that the problem’s only getting worse as traffic increases. Roads have also forced animals to evolve, adapt and change their migration habits. Goldfarb’s new book “Crossings” examines the impact of our planet’s 40 million miles of roads on the natural world and how, through the study of road ecology, we can find ways to minimize noise and habitat destruction and engineer a system with bridges for bears, tunnels for turtles and other accommodations for our fellow creatures. Guests: Ben Goldfarb, conservation journalist; author, "Crossings: How Road Ecology is Shaping the Future of Our Planet." He also wrote the book "Eager: The Surprising, Secret Life of Beavers and Why They Matter." Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Support for KikiWED podcasts comes from Landmark College, holding their annual summer institute for educators from June 24 through 26th.
0:09.1	More information at landmark.edu slash LCSI.
0:13.7	Support for Forum comes from Broadway SF, presenting Parade, the musical revival based on a true story.
0:21.3	From three-time Tony-winning composer Jason Robert Brown comes the story of Leo and Lucille Frank,
0:27.6	a newlywed Jewish couple struggling to make a life in Georgia.
0:31.6	When Leo is accused of an unspeakable crime, it propels them into an unimaginable test of faith, humanity, justice, and
0:40.1	devotion. The riveting and gloriously hopeful parade plays the Orphium Theater for three weeks only,
0:47.1	May 20th through June 8th. Tickets on sale now at Broadway, sF.com.
0:54.7	From KQED. From KQBD in San Francisco, this is Forum.
1:14.6	I'm Mina Kim.
1:15.6	Our planet is wrapped in 40 million miles of roads, and cars kill a million animals and more
1:22.1	than 300 million birds each year, just in America alone.
1:27.1	In his new book, Crossings, how road ecology is
1:29.3	shaping the future of our planet, journalist and author Ben Goldfarb examines the impact of our
1:34.1	roads on the natural world and how we can minimize noise and habitat destruction and engineer
1:39.7	a system with bridges for bears, tunnels for turtles, and other accommodations for our fellow creatures.
1:45.0	We'll talk with Goldfarb about the urgent need for a greater understanding of road ecology.
1:51.0	Join us.
1:56.0	Welcome to Forum. I'm Mina Kim. In the face of an oncoming vehicle, quote, tortoises withdraw. Armadillos
2:07.0	are oddly jump. Timber rattlesnakes freeze, confident in their venom. For thousands of years,
2:13.9	these stand-your-ground strategies fended off coyotes and hawks, writes Ben Goldfarb.
2:19.2	But against automobiles, they were worse than useless. Our nation's massive system of roads
	...

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