Half-Earth : our planet's fight for life / Edward O. Wilson.
Material type:
TextPublisher: New York : Liveright Publishing Corporation, 2017Description: 272 pages : illustrationsISBN: - 9781631492525
- 1631492527
- 333.72 WIL 23
| Item type | Current library | Call number | Status | Date due | Barcode | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Standard Loan | Thurles Library Main Collection | 333.72 WIL (Browse shelf(Opens below)) | Available | 39002100643155 | ||
| Standard Loan | Thurles Library Main Collection | 333.72 WIL (Browse shelf(Opens below)) | Checked out | 01/11/2022 | 39002100643114 |
Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:
In his most urgent book to date, Pulitzer Prize-winning author and world-renowned biologist Edward O. Wilson states that in order to stave off the mass extinction of species, including our own, we must move swiftly to preserve the biodiversity of our planet. In this "visionary blueprint for saving the planet" (Stephen Greenblatt), Half-Earth argues that the situation facing us is too large to be solved piecemeal and proposes a solution commensurate with the magnitude of the problem: dedicate fully half the surface of the Earth to nature. Identifying actual regions of the planet that can still be reclaimed--such as the California redwood forest, the Amazon River basin, and grasslands of the Serengeti, among others--Wilson puts aside the prevailing pessimism of our times and "speaks with a humane eloquence which calls to us all" (Oliver Sacks).
Originally published: 2016.
History is not a prerogative of the human species, Edward O. Wilson declares in 'Half-Earth'. Demonstrating that we blindly ignore the histories of millions of other species, Wilson warns us that a point of no return is imminent. Refusing to believe that our extinction is predetermined, Wilson has written this work as a cri de coeur, proposing that the only solution to our impending 'Sixth Extinction' is to increase the area of natural reserves to half the surface of the Earth. This is a transformative work that reverberates with an urgency like few other books. It concludes the trilogy begun by 'The Social Conquest of Earth' and 'The Meaning of Human Existence', a National Book Award finalist.
Table of contents provided by Syndetics
- Prologue (p. 1)
- Part I The Problem
- 1 The World Ends, Twice (p. 7)
- 2 Humanity Needs a Biosphere (p. 11)
- 3 How Much Biodiversity Survives Today? (p. 19)
- 4 An Elegy for the Rhinos (p. 29)
- 5 Apocalypses Now (p. 35)
- 6 Are We As Gods? (p. 47)
- 7 Why Extinction is Accelerating (p. 53)
- 8 The Impact of Climate Change: Land, Sea, and Air (p. 65)
- 9 The Most Dangerous Worldview (p. 71)
- Part II The Real Living World
- 10 Conservation Science (p. 83)
- 11 The Lord God Species (p. 95)
- 12 The Unknown Webs of Life (p. 101)
- 13 The Wholly Different Aqueous World (p. 113)
- 14 The Invisible Empire (p. 121)
- 15 The Best Places in the Biosphere (p. 133)
- 16 History Redefined (p. 155)
- Part III The Solution
- 17 The Awakening (p. 169)
- 18 Restoration (p. 175)
- 19 Half-Earth: How to Save the Biosphere (p. 185)
- 20 Threading the Bottleneck (p. 189)
- 21 What Must Be Done (p. 209)
- Sources and Further Reading (p. 213)
- Glossary (p. 227)
- Appendix 2:9 Illustration Credits (p. 233)
- Acknowledgments (p. 237)
- Index (p. 239)
Author notes provided by Syndetics
He was born in Birmingham, Alabama, in 1929. He is currently Pellegrino University Research Professor & Honorary Curator in Entomology of the Museum of Comparative Zoology at Harvard. He is on the Board of Directors of the Nature Conservancy, Conservation International & the American Museum of Natural History. He lives in Lexington, Massachusetts.(Bowker Author Biography)