eye, are the species which live on or in human beings and which heavily influence (for better or worse) the health of humans, the human microbiome. And then there are the parasitic species which exist adjacent to human populations such as malaria-carrying mosquitoes. All of these examples of non-human species are what humans commonly think of as nature, separate from their own human species, and yet with the ability to have profound impacts on human populations. 

The established initial connection between humans and nature, as well as human’s reliance on nature, allows the reader to open their mind to the discussion of humans as nature. Society teaches humans from an early age that the human species has risen above nature through their intelligence and technologies. Dunn deconstructs this idea through discussion of the human niche. Just as all other living species exist in their own niches, the specific circumstances which allow them to persist, humans too require a specific subset of circumstances. Furthermore, studies of ancient civilizations of humans compared to today’s human populations provides evidence that the human niche has not expanded through the development of technology. This should not come as a surprise given that humans have only existed on this earth under relatively stable climatic conditions; therefore, humans have yet to be faced with conditions which would require them to expand their niche. The technologies that have been developed by humans were also all developed under these stable conditions and operate under a specific subset of conditions. 

Temperature and precipitation largely dictate the human ability to thrive with most large human societies existing in relatively similar climatic conditions. Consider humans who are pushed to conditions which are outside of, or on the fringe of, the human niche. These populations suffer which is evidenced by a low gross domestic product and increased rates of violence. Likely, this is not a cause and effect relationship but is influenced by a variety of factors including overall low availability of resources outside of the human niche given that most of our agricultural production also must occur in conditions which align with the human niche. It must be admitted that humans are specialized creatures, that is specialized to their limited climatic conditions which human populations have existed within since the beginning of their species. 

Given the stability which the human species grew up in, the systems which humans rely upon were also developed under these stable conditions; stability has allowed for simplification in human thinking about the world and simplification in human understanding of the natural processes which govern the world. Humans wake up and rely upon a model of the weather to know how to dress and what to plan for throughout the day; in this way, humans have created simplified models of Mother Nature. Humans use models to anticipate disease spread which informs public health decisions. Just to travel from point A to point B, humans use transportation and traffic modeling to identify the fastest route. All this to say that humans are heavily reliant on technological models for their day-to-day survival. 

An introductory engineering class at any university will teach its students that models inherently are flawed. Models are simplified versions of the real world, operate within defined limits, and have gaps in knowledge which should be understood by the user. Undoubtedly, models are useful and informative when their limitations are understood. However, there is no model which can ever emulate real life. Through his book, Dunn describes many, but not all, of the biological laws which govern real life. There are countless biological laws which are all woven together to create the beautiful world that humans and all other species occupy. Quite simply, the models that humans are capable of creating can never have the bandwidth to handle each and every one of these laws and therefore cannot create a perfect depiction of real life. 

Simplification is comfortable for humans and yet extremely troublesome when considering the future that lies ahead. Humans, through their actions, have destabilized the world that surrounds them. When it comes to climate change, there are few predictions which can be accurately made. Overall average warming of the planet, and specific regions/countries/cities which occupy the planet, can be modeled and predicted. However, climate change will cause drastic variability in year-to-year temperature and precipitation patterns; for example, extreme dry conditions one year may be followed by extreme precipitation events in the following year for the same region/country/city. Models which cannot account for all of the laws of biology, cannot understand this variability which is coming (or some may say, has already arrived). Through their own doing, humans have pushed themselves outside of the limits of the models they’ve developed and historically used to inform their decision making. 

Dunn’s curation of historical human and non-human ecological occurrences, and the biological laws which shaped those occurrences, creates a space for the reader to consider how their own ecology is interconnected with the natural world and how their simplified perspective will need to be challenged in planning for a future marked by climate change. This review hardly scratches the surface of an intriguing discussion about the detriments humans have created for their own species and the species that humans rely upon. But doom is not the feeling that is projected in this narrative, hope is provided through the book’s emphasis on the opportunities available for humans to plan for the future within the laws of biology. The book emphasizes forward thinking in the face of climate change which will cause drastic shifts in temperature and precipitation. These shifts will require tactful modifications to the systems which humans rely upon for everyday survival, systems which are also governed by the laws of biology. The seemingly unpredictable and ever-changing future is one that needs to be planned for within the constraints of the predictable and unchanging laws of biology that govern the natural world.