Changing Tides

Alejandro Frid

Description

• Co-op available
• Features offered to Yes! Magazine, Orion, Anthropocene Magazine
• Excerpts offered to UTNE, Sierra Magazine, Alternatives Journal, Nature
• Email promotion to members of The Society for Conservation Biology
• Academic mailing to Conservation ecology, social sciences, environmental writing, fisheries, Indigenous studies professors
• Publicity and promotion in conjunction with the author's speaking engagements
• Simultaneous ebook release and promotion
• Promotion on New Society Publishers social media platforms including Facebook, Twitter, our blog, Pinterest, Instagram, and Youtube
• Promotion on the author's website: https://alejandrofridecology.weebly.com/

• Author is ecologist working collaboratively with First Nations on integration of traditional knowledge with western science
• Born and raised in Mexico City and has worked as a marine scientist in Coastal BC, Canada for over 20 years
• Seeks to find ways of relating to the natural world and natural resources that help create a better future
• Through his work in marine conservation, he has discovered a path where science and indigenous knowledge meet and work together to create better outcomes for everyone
• Written to be culturally inclusive and relevant to both native and settler culture
• Argues that the stories we tell about these changes will affect our future outcomes
• At this pivotal moment in history, the most important story we can be telling ourselves is that humans are not inherently destructive.
• We can recognize that indigenous cultures have lived and thrived for millennia with large populations within a finite resource base and large populations of indigenous cultures have lived sustainably for millennia
• By integrating this traditional knowledge into modern scientific knowledge, a synergistic approach to resource management can be achieved
• Similar to Sacred Ecology by Fikret Berkes, this book makes an important contribution to the work of reconciliation. It differs in that it has a personal approach and experimental perspective.
• Takes off where Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer stopped by giving real life examples where Indigenous people are reclaiming control over their resources.
• Uses real life examples to argue that when Indigenous people are legitimate partners in resource management, it is more likely to ensure the sustainability of those resources
• Drawing from the author's personal experience as an ecologist, these stories encourage the reader to tell a new story about our future that is optimistic and hopeful

Audience:
Readers of Braiding Sweetgrass, people interested in natural conservation, climate change and ecology, Native American and Indigenous studies, students of climatology, archeology, anthropology, social science, resource management and ecology

Canada:

• The author has worked to ensure his writing is culturally inclusive. The manuscript has received feedback from first nation writers.
• Author is interested in doing book events and is willing to travel
• Regional Interest: BC, University of Victoria, Simon Fraser University

Change the story and change the future – merging science and Indigenous knowledge to steer us towards a more benign Anthropocene

In Changing Tides, Alejandro Frid tackles the big questions: who, or what, represents our essential selves, and what stories might allow us to shift the collective psyche of industrial civilization in time to avert the worst of the climate and biodiversity crises? Merging scientific perspectives with Indigenous knowledge might just help us change the story we tell ourselves about who we are and where we could go.

As humanity marches on, causing mass extinctions and destabilizing the climate, the future of Earth will very much reflect the stories that Homo sapiens decide to jettison or accept today into our collective identity. At this pivotal moment in history, the most important story we can be telling ourselves is that humans are not inherently destructive.

In seeking the answers, Frid draws from a deep well of personal experience and that of Indigenous colleagues, finding a glimmer of hope in Indigenous cultures that, despite the ravishes of colonialism, have for thousands of years developed intentional and socially complex practices for resource management that epitomize sustainability.

Changing Tides is for everyone concerned with the irrevocable changes we have unleashed upon our planet and how we might steer towards a more benign Anthropocene.

AWARDS

• GOLD | 2020 Hubert Evans Non-Fiction Prize (BC & Yukon Book Prize)


• GOLD | 2019 Ocean Wise Research Institute Ocean Awards


• SILVER | 2019 Nautilus Book Awards: Ecology & Environment

Preface

1: Gravity Suspended
2: Resisting Least Resistance
3: Coalescing Knowledge
4: Reawakening
5: The Exuberance of Herring
6: Sculpted by River and Story
7: Beautiful Protest
Interlude I
8. Echoes Across the Lake
9. Ditching Our Climate-Wrecking Stories
Interlude II
10. At the Edge of Geologic Epochs
11. Transformation

Acknowledgments
Captions
Notes
References
Index
About the Author
A Note About the Publisher

Sujets

• Indigenous Studies
• Native American Studies
• Ethnic Studies
• Environmental Protection
• Environmental Conservation
• Indigenous peoples
• Natural science
• Philosophy of science
• Nature

Informations

• Publié par: New Society Publishers
• Date de parution: 15 octobre 2019
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781771422987
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 2 Mo

Extrait

Praise for Changing Tides
A needful and accessible book of soberly optimistic ecology as it is a condemnation of colonialist appropriation of territory and thought. By challenging Eurocentric science to pay deeper attention to traditional knowledge, Frid bridges the artificial gap between ways of human behavior on the planet with lyricism and respect.
- Anna Badkhen, author, Fisherman s Blues and Walking with Abel , and co-editor, Changing Tides
Seamlessly blends impeccable science with indigenous knowledge and offers a hopeful call to action to save our planet and ourselves. Beautifully written, poignant, and mind expanding, this outstanding book deserves a broad global audience so that we can begin right now to find our way back to our place in nature.
- Marc Bekoff, Ph.D. author, Rewilding Our Hearts and The Animals Agenda: Freedom, Compassion, and Coexistence in the Human Age
This is a beautifully written book about the people, plants, animals and spirits that inhabit the British Columbia coast, a habitat under great strain from climate change and other human impacts. But this is not a doom and gloom tale; Frid marries lyrical writing, compelling stories and sharp ecological and cultural insights to provide an uplifting vision of how scientific and Indigenous ways of knowing working together could provide a way forward to prevent impending environmental collapse.
- Mark L. Winston, Professor and Senior Fellow, Simon Fraser University s Morris J. Wosk Centre for Dialogue, and author, Bee Time: Lessons From the Hive , winner of the 2015 Governor General s Literary Award for Nonfiction.
A positively uplifting read! Changing Tides offers not only a vision for a buoyant planetary future but also a carefully defended argument to believe in it. Frid s stories reveal how Indigenous knowledge and science provide a potent combination to guide us through this time of great uncertainty.
- Chris Darimont, Raincoast Chair of Applied Conservation Science, University of Victoria
The narrative here reaches far beyond the natural world. It s a story about kindness and respect, inspiration and reward. If one is interested in doing better for our collective futures, Changing Tides needs to be digested if for no other reason than valuable lessons from our past and present.
- Joel Berger, scientist and author, Extreme Conservation
How is it possible to encapsulate the natural and cultural history of a coast, concerns for the future, the joy of being with people you admire in a place you love, and the qualities of an ecosystem burgeoning with intricate relationships, all in a single volume? That s what Alejandro Frid has done, in this engaging, informative and life affirming book about his work on the central coast of British Columbia.
- Nancy Turner, CM, OBC, FRSC, Distinguished Professor Emeritus, University of Victoria
A beautifully crafted journey into how we can change our destructive global culture - and who we can learn from. Quite simply, this is what real hope looks like.
- J. B. MacKinnon, author, The Once and Future World
Describing the wisdom from traditional and modern knowledge, Alejandro Frid brilliantly outlines a pathway for a viable and enduring future. Frid encourages us to change our cultural story so that we can manage the inevitable ecological changes due to the climate crisis.
- Andres R. Edwards, author, Renewal and The Heart of Sustainability
In this beautifully rendered book, Changing Tides , Alejandro Frid addresses how we as humans can live and act in the face and fear of climate change. This book offers hope and paths forward, possibilities both place specific and universal, deeply personal yet holding promise for humanity.
- Dr. Mehana Blaich Vaughan, author, Kai ulu: Gathering Tides

Copyright 2020 by Alejandro Frid. All rights reserved.
Cover design by Diane McIntosh.
Front cover Drummer Image: Alejandro Frid
(See note about cover image opposite.)
Fish illustration iStock
All photos Alejandro Frid unless otherwise noted.
All other artwork Michael Nicoll Yahgulanaas ( mny.ca )
unless otherwise noted.
Printed in Canada. First printing October 2019.
Inquiries regarding requests to reprint all or part of Changing Tides should be addressed to New Society Publishers at the address below. To order directly from the publishers, please call toll-free (North America) 1-800-567-6772, or order online at www.newsociety.com
Any other inquiries can be directed by mail to
New Society Publishers
P.O. Box 189, Gabriola Island, BC V0R 1X0, Canada
[phone]
L IBRARY AND A RCHIVES C ANADA C ATALOGUING IN P UBLICATION
Title: Changing tides : an ecologist s journey to make peace with the anthropocene / Alejandro Frid.
Names: Frid, Alejandro, 1964- author.
Description: Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: Canadiana (print) 2019014808X |
Canadiana (ebook) 20190148101 | ISBN 9780865719095 (softcover) | ISBN 9781550927023 ( PDF ) | ISBN 9781771422987 ( EPUB )
Subjects: LCSH : Ethnoscience.
Classification: LCC GN 476 . F 75 2019 | DDC 306.4/2-dc23

New Society Publishers mission is to publish books that contribute in fundamental ways to building an ecologically sustainable and just society, and to do so with the least possible impact on the environment, in a manner that models this vision.
FRONT COVER IMAGE : Edward Johnson, originally from the Esk etemc Nation and married into the T ilhqot in Nation, drums during a ceremony at Teztan Biny, a lake sacred to the T ilhqot in peoples of interior British Columbia. The drum was created by the great artist Eugene Hunt (1946-2002) of the Kwakwaka wakw Nation of Vancouver Island and the adjoining mainland; my father, Samuel Frid (1935-2010), acquired it in the 1980s and passed it on to me in the early 1990s. It remained with my family until September of 2018, when I gave it to Cecil Grinder and Doreen William, both T ilhqot in, to celebrate their wedding. Outside the photograph, Cecil and Doreen stand by the shores of Teztan Biny. The web of social, geographic, and cultural relationships held within this image reflects the trade economy, cross-pollination, and adaptability that are integral to First Nations. These are all major themes of this book.


For Gail and our forest time For Twyla Bella and her stories to be
Contents
Preface
1. Gravity Suspended
2. Resisting Least Resistance
3. Coalescing Knowledge
4. Reawakening
5. The Exuberance of Herring
6. Sculpted by River and Story
7. Beautiful Protest Interlude I
8. Echoes Across the Lake
9. Ditching Our Climate-Wrecking Stories Interlude II
10. At the Edge of Geologic Epochs
11. Transformation
Acknowledgments
Captions
Notes
References
Index
About the Author
A Note About the Publisher
Preface
Like many of my scientific colleagues, I am often overwhelmed. Climate change, ocean acidification, species extinctions: we contemplate these difficult issues constantly. I know well what it is like to just want to give up.
It seems so easy: losing faith in humans. It promises relief from struggle and responsibility. Yet, whenever I have gone there, I have also felt empty. Claustrophobic. Horribly hollow.
And, apparently, I am too chicken to stomach those feelings. Whenever I have allowed myself to sink into cynicism, I have - invariably - jolted myself out of my catatonic state before hitting bottom and resumed swimming towards shore.
As an ecologist working on marine conservation with modern Indigenous peoples of the Northeast Pacific Ocean, I live at the crossroads of different world views and ways of knowing that, I believe, capture some of the best that humans have to offer to ourselves and to our non-human kin. We already have set in motion such rapid and ineluctable changes to our planet that both the traditional knowledge of Indigenous peoples and science will have to remain fluid and adaptive in order to not become obsolete. Both knowledge systems are designed to do exactly that. When combined synergistically, they can provide us with the tools we need to keep learning as change continues and accelerates - helping us connect with fundamental pieces of reality in ways that might allow us to remain our essential selves.
This book is my personal journey through the interface of science and traditional Indigenous knowledge. It is the story of why, despite the apparent evidence trying to talk me into doing otherwise, I believe in us.
Different cultures - collective ways of perceiving, knowing, creating, and behaving in the world - are combining today in ways that our ancestors would have welcomed. That is the challenging gift that accompanies the ongoing transformation of our planet into something that, in many ways, would be unrecognizable to those who lived before us, even in the near past.
I do not deny the losses that accompany that transformation. A planet in which wild salmon and ancient rainforests are being diminished is something to mourn. Yet I also like to think that, if they could catch a glimpse of our modern world, departed ancestors from Indigenous cultures of the northeast Pacific Ocean would recognize the continuity of many of their fundamental legacies, such as adaptability to change and the responsibilities of knowing how to give and how to receive a gift. And, above all, kinship.
These legacies, and more, are held within the works that artist Michael Nicoll Yahgulanaas gifted to this book. Michael described this gift as a symbol of the unprecedented solidarity that exists today among many Indigenous peoples and of the alliances th