Half Earth: Our Planet's Fight For Life

Description

"An audacious and concrete proposal...Half-Earth completes the 86-year-old Wilson's valedictory trilogy on the human animal and our place on the planet." --Jedediah Purdy, New Republic

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).

Reviews

"It's time to make protecting the biodiversity of our planet the next great cause of planetary health. If one text could ignite this movement for biodiversity, it might be E 0 Wilson's book, Half-Earth: Our Planet's Fight for Life." -- The Lancet "... in his new, important work Half-Earth... Wilson's gauntlet has been thrown: let the revolution begin." -- Geographical "...the conclusion to [Edward O. Wilson's] best-selling trilogy..." -- BBC Wildlife "As an outline of our terrible ecological plight, it [Half-Earth] does a first-class job. Wilson is, if nothing else, a gifted wordsmith and Half-Earth is a much-needed antidote to the views of those who assert that our worldly woes are exaggerated and that everything is tickety-boo in the Garden of Eden." -- The Observer

Author description

Edward O. Wilson is widely recognized as one of the world's preeminent biologists and naturalists. The author of more than twenty books, including The Creation, The Social Conquest of Earth, The Meaning of Human Existence, and Letters to a Young Scientist, Wilson is a professor emeritus at Harvard University. The winner of two Pulitzer Prizes, he lives in Lexington, Massachusetts.