The Diversity of Life (Questions of Science) - Softcover

Wilson, Edward O.

4.21

6,065 ratings by Goodreads

9780393319408: The Diversity of Life (Questions of Science)

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0393319407 ISBN 13: 9780393319408

Publisher: WW Norton & Co, 1999

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In this book a master scientist tells the story of how life on earth evolved. Edward O. Wilson eloquently describes how the species of the world became diverse and why that diversity is threatened today as never before. A great spasm of extinction the disappearance of whole species is occurring now, caused this time entirely by humans. Unlike the deterioration of the physical environment, which can be halted, the loss of biodiversity is a far more complex problem and it is irreversible. Defining a new environmental ethic, Wilson explains why we must rescue whole ecosystems, not only individual species. He calls for an end to conservation versus development arguments, and he outlines the massive shift in priorities needed to address this challenge. No writer, no scientist, is more qualified than Edward O. Wilson to describe, as he does here, the grandeur of evolution and what is at stake. "Engaging and nontechnical prose. . . . Prodigious erudition. . . . Original and fascinating insights." John Terborgh, New York Review of Books, front page review "Eloquent. . . . A profound and enduring contribution." Alan Burdick, Audubon"

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Review:

The central message of Edward O. Wilson's stirring new book...is that Homo sapiens is in imminent danger of precipitating a biological disaster to rival anything in evolutionary history. Mr. Wilson...is the doyen of American biology. Two decades ago he popularized the term 'sociobiology, ' and generated a small industry of speculation about the biological basis of human nature. In this book he stops asking what biology does to humans, and asks instead what we humans are doing to biology.--David Papineau "New York Times Book Review "

Edward O. Wilson...has laid and elegant and ingratiating literary style over a fundament of science to produce a book that will enlighten the uninformed, correct the misinformed and serve as a beacon of lucidity in the wilderness...Wilson takes us by the hand and leads us through the wilderness of diversity--explaining along the way how species evolve, adapt, specialize, colonize, hybridize, recreate new versions of themselves, radiate out to new locations, become new things in often symbiotic combination with other new things, then transmogrify themselves into something else and move on again to fill other niches, other combinations--a mad, wonderful saraband of complexity and cohabitation that Wilson conducts with eloquence, clarity, and wit.--T. H. Watkins "Washington Post Book World "

Wilson's is still the best work we are ever likely to have on the tangled, ever-changing relationships that all species on the planet have with one another--and why the preservation of the same biological diversity that sparks our curiosity and enriches our spirit may also be the key to our survival.--T.H. Watkins "Washington Post "

Edward Wilson reminds the jaded viewer that there really is a crisis, and that--just as in 1917--it is already almost too late to do anything about it. He gives a penetrating historical analysis of what went wrong and even has a New Economic Plan which might, just, pull us back from the brink...[This] book is a passionate defense of life's variety.--Steve Jones "London Review of Books "

[Wilson's] passion for the beauty and mystery of nature, coupled with his adherence to scientific method and his unsurpassed professional standing, give the work the possibility of being the most important environmental book since Rachel Carson's Silent Spring.--Charles A. Radin "Boston Globe "

We need prophets to shake the souls and grab the attention of those who have eyes but see not. The Diversity of Life is a deft and thoroughly successful mixture of information and prophecy.--Stephen Jay Gould "Nature "

Synopsis:

This classic by the distinguished Harvard entomologist tells how life on earth evolved and became diverse, and now, how diversity and life are endangered by us, truly. While Wilson contributed a great deal to environmental ethics by calling for the preservation of whole ecosystems rather than individual species, his environmentalism appears too ant

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