Extinction: Evolution and the End of Man - Hardcover

Boulter, Michael

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1841156957 ISBN 13: 9781841156958

Publisher: Fourth Estate, 2002

Synopsis

How long have humans left on Earth? Using cutting edge science that revolutionises our understanding of evolution, Michael Boulter explains how we may be closer to our own extinction than we imagined.

Sixty-five million years ago the dinosaurs were destroyed in a mass extinction event that could not have been predicted. Out of the devastation, new life developed and the world regained its natural equilibrium. Until now. Scientists, employing radically new perspectives on the science of life, are beginning to uncover signs of similar event on the horizon. The end of man.
Through the story of the last sixty-five million years, Michael Boulter reveals extraordinary new insights that scientists are only now beginning to understand about the past, the rise and fall of species and the nature of life.
EXTINCTION is an immaculately researched introduction into the new developments in the science of life as well as a chilling account of the effects that humans have had on the planet. The world will adapt and survive -humanity will not.

EXTINCTION raises some radical insights into the our view of the world:
• Nature is in a balance, in which all parts interact and create harmony – this harmony is organised from the inside – it is a self-organising system
• In a self-organising system the whole is more important than its parts.
• One method of this system is extinction – if the system is disrupted it will do what it has to correct itself.

EXTINCTION investigates Man's impact on the world
• For thousands of years – not just in the last few centuries – man has moulded the environment for its own use. This has created a tipping in the balance of nature.
• Over the last million years and in particular, the last 13,000 years since the last Ice Age, Man has accelerated the extinction of its environment and therefore our own.
• The Earth will survive whatever we do to it – we won't. We will be followed by the age of the insects.

About this title

About the Author

Michael Boutler is the Professor of Palaeobiology at the University of East London. He is the head of a team analysing Fossil Record 2 the largest database of information on extinct animals and plants. He has written numerous articles on how we understand evolutionary change. For twenty years he has been Secretary and Editor for the International Organisation of Palaeobiology. He lives with his family in North London.

From the Back Cover

Sixty-five million years ago the dinosaurs were destroyed in a mass extinction event that could not have been predicted. Out of the devastation, new life developed and the world regained its natural equilibrium. Until now. Scientists, employing radically new perspectives on the science of life, are beginning to uncover signs of similar event on the horizon. The end of man.

Through the story of the last sixty-five million years, Michael Boulter reveals extraordinary new insights that scientists are only now beginning to understand about the past, the rise and fall of species and the nature of life.

EXTINCTION is an immaculately researched introduction into the new developments in the science of life as well as a chilling account of the effects that humans have had on the planet. The world will adapt and survive -humanity will not.

EXTINCTION raises some radical insights into the our view of the world:
• Nature is in a balance, in which all parts interact and create harmony – this harmony is organised from the inside – it is a self-organising system.
• In a self-organising system the whole is more important than its parts.
• One method of this system is extinction – if the system is disrupted it will do what it has to correct itself.

EXTINCTION investigates Man's impact on the world
• For thousands of years – not just in the last few centuries – man has moulded the environment for its own use. This has created a tipping in the balance of nature.
• Over the last million years and in particular, the last 13,000 years since the last Ice Age, Man has accelerated the extinction of its environment and therefore our own.
• The Earth will survive whatever we do to it – we won't. We will be followed by the age of the insects.

Edition details

• Publisher: Fourth Estate
• Publication date: 2002
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1841156957
• ISBN 13: 9781841156958
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 224