What Are the Tropics If Not Naturally Diverse?
By Dato' Dr. Ooi Kee Beng
January 2022 WINDOW INTO HISTORY
DESCRIPTIONS OF NATURE in the tropics once employed expressions such as luxuriant, verdant or lush. As technical terminology became the vogue, our ability to imagine narrowed as well. I think it is therefore beneficial for us today to read texts about the fauna and flora from the mid-19th century. Whose words to best use than Alfred Russel Wallace's, one of the first to conceive the radical idea of Natural Selection in biological evolution, and whose inspiration came from his travels...
Dato' Dr. Ooi Kee Beng
is the Executive Director of Penang Institute. His latest book is Signals in the Noise: Notes on Penang, Malaysia and the World (Singapore: Faction Press) Homepage: wikibeng.com.
