Half-Earth: Our Planet's Fight for Life

by Edward O. Wilson Narrated by Jonathan Hogan

Overview

Refusing to accept the mass extinction of species as an inevitability, "the world's greatest naturalist" (Jeffrey Sachs) proposes a plan to save Earth's imperiled biosphere. Half-Earth resoundingly concludes the best-selling trilogy begun by The Social Conquest of Earth and The Meaning of Human Existence, a National Book Award finalist. History is not a prerogative of the human species, Edward O. Wilson declares in Half-Earth, a brave work that becomes a radical redefinition of human history. Demonstrating that we blindly ignore the histories of millions of other species, Wilson warns of a point of no return that is imminent. Angrily challenging the fashionable theories of Anthropocenes, who contend that humans can survive alone in an Edenic bubble engineered for their own survival, Wilson documents that the biosphere does not belong to us. Yet, refusing to believe that our extinction is, as so many fear, predetermined, Wilson has written Half-Earth 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. Suffused with a profound Darwinian understanding of our planet's fragility, Half-Earth is a transformative work that reverberates with an urgency like few other books.

Editorial Reviews

Philadelphia Inquirer - Mike Weilbacher

"An audacious idea that might jump-start a lagging conversation about a burning issue…[I]f Half-Earth takes us any closer to sparking greater effort, it will cement Wilson’s already remarkable legacy."

The National - Matthew Price

"Wilson’s passion for the planet shines through on these pages. He looks at life in its broadest, grandest sweep…Wilson is a thinker in the tradition of Alexander von Humboldt."

Sierra - Jessi Phillips

"Few experts have offered such an exuberant and optimistic plan for dealing with [climate change] as biologist Edward O. Wilson…The strength of his argument lies in his ability to elegantly unveil the bigger picture, and to define and examine what in our essential human nature has led us to this point…[W]e need Wilson’s reminder that we are not demigods, but are instead, as he puts it, ‘a biological species tied to this particular biological world.’"

Jeffrey Sachs

"If humankind finds a way to live in peace together, and in harmony with nature, Wilson will have played a unique role in that deliverance."

Stephen Greenblatt

"Edward O. Wilson possesses a rare, almost unique, combination of immense scientific knowledge and deep humane intelligence. Looking around him at the beloved natural world he has done so much to understand and taking the measure of the massive damage to it caused by human stupidity and greed, he has every reason to succumb to despair. But Half-Earth is not a bitter jeremiad. It is a brave expression of hope, a visionary blueprint for saving the planet."

Guardian - Robin McKie

"As an outline of our terrible ecological plight, it does a first-class job."

Oliver Sacks

"Wilson speaks with a humane eloquence which calls to us all."

Library Journal

10/01/2015
Are we inevitably heading toward extinction? No, says Harvard emeritus biologist/naturalist Wilson, so huge in his field that PBS will air a miniseries about him this fall. But we can't just engineer our own safe place on Earth. Wilson passionately argues that we can counter mass extinction by letting biodiversity thrive as we expand the natural reserves where humans cannot intervene until they take up half the globe.

Kirkus Reviews

2015-12-17
The noted naturalist and Pulitzer Prize-winning author again waxes eloquent on behalf of the biosphere. In this final volume of his trilogy, Wilson (The Meaning of Human Existence, 2014, etc.) opens with a compelling proposal on how to slow current species extinction rates: set aside half of the planet (noncontiguously) as wilderness preserves free from human encroachment, a measure that the author claims would stabilize more than 80 percent of species. After all, it's the spread of humanity that has accelerated rates of extinction by 1,000 times, and it is human activity that is the driving force of the mass extinction currently underway, a threat to biodiversity equal to the destructive power of the Chicxulub asteroid strike that wiped out 70 percent of species 65 million years ago. Wilson, the world's leading myrmecologist, who has described roughly 450 new ant species during his career, predicts that, under current conditions, one-quarter to one-half of currently surviving species will survive to the end of the century. If the rhetoric sounds familiar, it's because this is ground that Wilson has covered extensively in previous publications. In this latest version, the author speaks against a growing movement of Anthropocene extremists who hold that biodiversity should be judged according to its usefulness to humanity. Countering that it is humanity that now needs to act in the interests of the biosphere, Wilson delves into the plights of specific species, including rhinos, frogs, monarch butterflies, woodpeckers, and beetles. Though unquestionably well-versed in the nature of the problem, the author is fuzzy on the solution. In the final pages, he skirts the issue of how we're to set aside 50 percent of the planet, instead making speculations about technological innovation and intensive economic growth intrinsically altering the behavior of individuals and changing the world. Not so much a potent plan as another informed plea for humanity to act as stewards of the biosphere rather than owners.

Product Details

BN ID:	2940171112189
Publisher:	Recorded Books, LLC
Publication date:	03/07/2016
Edition description:	Unabridged

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