Half-Earth: Our Planet's Fight for Life (Liveright)

This excellent book from such an eminent and deeply thoughtful biologist is actually one that everyone should read, but 'prevaricating' Politicians and 'what shall I invest in next to get even richer?' Billionaires, most especially. We all need to act positively to conserve Nature but those in power and those with fabulous funds of money can, should, indeed MUST do so much more to help ensure that Nature owns HALF of EARTH. The late E.O. Wilson speaks to us all and touches our hearts with his reasoning, having cleared our brain's pathways to thinking clearly, freed from greedy attitudes and out-dated religious fundamentalism. This book will resonate with us all because we are the other part of HALF EARTH - the species who thought we could just keep on taking and spoiling. Well we can't and E.O.Wilson's words, having touched our consciences and converted our attitudes, will have instilled in us a positive drive to ensure that NATURE gets HALF not only for Nature's sake but for Humanity's sake.We cannot indefinitely survive without natural ecosystems... Yet currently Nature/Earth, the ONLY LIVING PLANET in our Solar System has been offered less than one third. 30% is not enough! Politicians and Billionaires must read this book. But so should we all.

A fabulous book that should be taught in every school around the world. Saving the biosphere must be seen as a moral enterprise and the most urgent task in human existence if we do want to keep existing at all for the next millennia. Our species has quickly to decide if irrationality, superstition, wishful thinking and tribal behavior should continue to shape our world, or instead, reason, conscience and ecological morality should take over to become the dominant force in our decision making. Reality couldn't care less about human idiocy. Let's keep this in mind, if not for the sake of millions of other species, at least for our own.

I read my final book of the year in the Sapa Valley, high up in Northern Vietnam. Wilson’s radical vision that to save most of the world’s flora and fauna from extinction we need to literally make half the planet a conservation zone is compelling. What’s missing is the ‘how to do it’ part, maybe that’s the next book… 7/10

A very lucid proposal for one of the major problems humanity faces in our Planet, which is not exactly ours. The writing is extremely clear. I am amazed by the freshness of his thinking.

Really good read book arrived in good condition

Wilson never fails to put his case clearly and rationally. Whether young or old one should have read him, and this work in particular.

As in most things it is the quality of the argument that wins out and E O Wilson's reasoning is superb. Amazon could you please send a copy of this book to your President.

Edward O. Wilson is angry, and so is his book. No one is listening and things have gotten unbelievably worse. There’s no evidence to provide any real hope. He describes future paleontologists easily identifying the sedimentary layers of our era by the amount of chemicals and plastics in the soil strata, by the fragments of machines and weapons everywhere, and the lack of varied species identified. This is our legacy. As I have written elsewhere, it took the Earth four billion years to reach the Holocene, an era where climate, ice, water and life achieved a state of pleasant equilibrium, with jet streams and ocean currents arranged in a virtuous circle. In just the last 150 years, Homo sapiens has upset the entire system, killing off the Holocene in favor of the Anthropocene, in which one invasive species rules, and any other species that does not add to its immediate benefit can be eliminated. And if even if it does add to its benefit, if it hasn’t been domesticated, it can still face extinction. We are clear-cutting the biosphere. The book is a relentless, hardhitting – make that pounding – indictment of our custodianship. We are far worse than negligent; we are malevolent. We think it does no harm to remove a species from its environs – and its role. The way it really works, Wilson says, is there are no species living on the periphery; every species depends on other species or is critical to their survival. Our total disregard of this simple rule causes unpredictable disaster. Wilson has been a naturalist all his long life, and it pains him to find things in this state. His childlike appreciation comes through, often overtaking his anger with the wonder of various species and how they live and contribute so differently. That we lose them daily before we even know how they fit in is criminal to him. Wilson has introduced me to an ugly new subspecies. I will call it the Anthropocene Apologist. AA appears to be a subset of scientists and ignorant people whose attitude is yes, we’ve already wrecked this planet, so let’s just take what we want now and not worry about it. AAs say we should welcome all the invasive species because they fill gaps left by species we made extinct. That they will figure out what to do about the mess when the time comes. It infuriates Wilson. He keeps bringing it up in different contexts, probably because after a lifetime of watching the degradation, he can’t believe there are actual AA scientists promoting it. His solution is to set aside far more than the 15% now dedicated to wilderness areas and parks. He says we need 50%. This is obviously not going to happen, as populations explode at the same time as land mass disappears (in the rise of the oceans), and less of what’s left is habitable. The book ends very weakly with a plea: Do no further harm to the biosphere. David Wineberg

Livro escrito pelo biólogo especialista em formigas Edward Wilson, enfatizando a importância de manter áreas do planeta livre da intervenção negativa do homem, para preservar nossa rica diversidade biológica, da qual tanto dependemos. Entrega rápida e produto em perfeitas condições. Estou satisfeito!

I bought this book through Amazon. It's wonderful. Can't recommend it highly enough. Nothing else to say, except why does Amazon leave the apostrophe out of the title, listing it as "OUR PLANETS (sic) FIGHT FOR LIFE," rather than "our PLANET'S.."? Don't they realize that literature freaks come to their page, and people like that react badly to title and grammar being mangled?

Grande libro: leggibile e interessante. Assolutamente consigliabile.

Un gran llibre per entendre on som i cap on anem en relació amb la conservació de la biodiversitat al planeta. El recomano, sobretot als polítics que menystenen la natura i han perdut el contacte amb ella

昆虫学、生態学、進化学の大家、社会生物学のパイオニアWilson先生の渾身の一冊です。Anthropocene(人類の活動が地球の気候システムに修復不可能な影響を及ぼす時代)において、いかに人類が生態系を破壊し、生物種を絶滅に追いやり、生物多様性を不可逆的に損なって来たかについてまず初めに詳細に説明しています。さらに、生物多様性とは、単に多くの生物種が生息しているのではなく、それぞれの種が網目のように複雑に影響、関連しあって生態系を形成していることを実例を挙げて説明したうえで、幾人かの生態系保全学者における、 ①絶滅した種の生態系における場所を外来種が埋めることで新しい生物多様性が回復するとの考え。 ②絶滅した種をDNAクローン技術で細胞工学的に再生して、元の生態系を回復する考え。 をAnthropocene Optimists（アンスロポセン・オプチミスト）として批判を加えています。生物種を部品のように取り替えることはできない。それは19世紀の骨相学者が頭蓋骨の形で人の心まで論じたのと大差ないとかなり辛辣な攻撃を加えています。 緊急を要する対策として、地球の表面の半分にあたる土地と水面はまだ人の手にひどく破壊されず、生物多様性を修復向上できるという理由から、これらの地球半分（この本の題名の通り）を保護区として保全することを提言しています。 具体的対象地域として、カリフォルニア州レッドウッド森林、米国南部の長葉松サバンナ、西インド諸島、アフリカのセレンゲティ―草原、コンゴ川水域、モザンビーク・ゴロンゴ国立公園、ボルネオ、南極マクグルド・ドライバレイ等々具体名を挙げています。 読み終えて、先生に手遅れと断じられたあと半分の地域に読者の大半が住み、また普通に訪れる都市、町、村、里山、山間、海辺等の“自然”環境はどのように考えればよいか？と考えました。 先生にオプティミストと批判されるでしょうが、やはり、絶滅した種の生態系における場所を外来種が埋めることで、新しい生物多様性を回復することを見守りながら、省エネ、炭酸ガス排出を抑制しつつ持続性に配慮した生活に努めるしかないように思います。この分野の本をさらに読んで自分の考えを深めたく存じます。