FUTURE OF LIFE

Having learned a lot from other books by the author, I expected much from this one with its promising title. All the greater was my disappointment. This is a good mainstream discussion of the importance of biodiversity. But it suffers from three major faults. The first is a misleading title. The book does not deal with the future of "life" because the future of humanity is not discussed. This is a great pity. Humanity is moving through a phase-jump, acquiring the unprecedented ability to terminate its existence, to change its core attributes, and perhaps to clone itself and also to create life. These "gifts" of science and technology are fateful, also for human action on endangered species. Therefore the problem with the book is not only a misleading title, but missing a variable critical for its actual concern. This leads the second error, namely quite some tunnel vision. Not only is the future of humanity ignored, but the future of the climate is not discussed despite its profound significance for the biosphere, directly and indirectly. If temperatures and sea levels rise they impact on many species and their habitats, including "hot spots" of species diversity. And climate changes will constitute heavy stressor on humanity which will unavoidable receive priority over other biosphere concerns. The third fundamental mistake is the mood of optimism, especially pronounced in the last chapter. All the describe species preserving activities, however important, are inadequate, determined government action being essential as clearly recognized by the author. But such action depends on politics. Here the author becomes utopian, assuming that democratic public pressures and activities of NGOs based on a widely accepted pro-nature ethos will cause political leaders to give species preservation high priority.Public pressures do demand action to reduce visible pollutions and other glaring environmental damages. But, given a global culture of consumerism and the propensity of human being to be mainly concerned with the short range, mentioned by the author as probably hardwired by evolution, no determined large-scale species-preserving action can be realistically expected to result in the foreseeable future from public pressures.The example given by the author of the demilitarized zone between North and South Korea as a candidate for being made into a "wildlife sanctuary of a future unified Korea" (p. 185) demonstrates that he misapprehends geostrategic realities. And the trust he puts in neurosciences to help humanity to "anticipate and step away from political and economic disasters" (p. 156) casts further serious doubts on his outlooks.All this serves to reinforce my view that being an outstanding biologist and naturalist and the ideas of sociobiology and consilience are not enough of a basis for dealing with the realities of humanity. More is needed for designing effective humanity-craft policies - however urgently needed, including for species diversity preservation as ably discussed in this book.Professor Yehezkel DrorThe Hebrew University of Jerusalem

An essential book for anyone who cares about life on earth.Having previously read Wilson's 'Diversity of Life', I wanted to read this more up to date book. What really strikes me about this writer is his continued optimism that somehow mankind will adopt a different approach to bio diversity and pull back from the brink before wiping out most of the life forms that we share the planet with. I sincerely hope that his optimism is well placed.

Interesting

Arrived extremely quickly and great quality

After reading this, I had a MUCH better understanding of why all the global warming and environmental scientist talk is so significant to pay attention to. This would be a great educational piece for so many. Parts were pretty dense, but I had to read this for a book club and was very glad I did!