Moir’s Environmental Dialogues

Eric Jay Dolin describes the history behind the Oscar Winner movie, The Revenant. Eric talks with Rob Moir about his acclaimed book Fur, Fortune and Empire. He separates fiction from the facts of Hugh Glass and Mountain Men working the Northwest to enable the development of the West Coast. Beaver, buffalo, seal and sea otter were all heavily exploited and only survived because market forces drove hunters westward. Finally, on the west coast sea otter were so over harvested that many of their populations never return. The book ends with the advent of conservation laws. Eric explains how he went from studying fiddler crabs to writing page-turning histories. No animals, nor men, were harmed in the making of this episode of Moir’s Environmental Dialogues.