Blight

Fungi and the Coming Pandemic

By: Emily Monosson

Narrated by: Rosemary Benson

A prescient warning about the mysterious and deadly world of fungi—and how to avert further loss across species, including our own.

Fungi are everywhere. Most are harmless, some are helpful. A few are killers. Collectively, infectious fungi are the most devastating agents of disease on Earth, and a fungus that can persist in the environment without its host is here for the long haul. In gripping, accessible prose, Emily Monosson documents how changing climate, trade, and travel are making us all more vulnerable to invasion. Populations of bats, frogs, and salamanders face extinction, and scientists don't have a cure. In the Northwest, America's beloved National Parks are covered with the spindly corpses of whitebark pines. Food crops are under siege, threatening our coffee, bananas, and wheat—and, more broadly, our global food security. In humans, Candida auris infects hospital patients and those with weakened immune systems. Monosson's critical reporting demonstrates that prevention is difficult, but not impossible. Exposing the connection between pathogens and human action, Blight serves as a wake-up call, a reminder of the delicate interconnectedness of the natural world.

©2023 Emily Monosson (P)2023 Tantor

Illuminating

If you’re not worried about fungi in a ever warming and interconnected world you will be after this book