"A landmark book that lays out the case for the conservation of biodiversity and the multiple benefits it provides - pharmacopeia, regulation of infectious diseases, and food production/security.
Sustaining Life is a much needed resource and a call to appreciate and take action to conserve our biological diversity at this critical time."--Integrative and Comparative Biology
"The book is perfect for undergraduate students in any biologic field, or as supplemental reading for a large number of graduate students in areas ranging from public health and medicine to ecology or biologic sciences. I also highly recommend it for physicians, scientists, policymakers, and the general public."--
The New England Journal of Medicine"Well-written chapters on the threats to biodiversity and biodiversity's contributions to medical and biomedical research, with a sharp focus on seven threatened groups of organisms. Excellent color photographs, maps, and diagrams accompany a highly readable, low-jargon-laden text. Highly recommended."--
Choice"
Sustaining Life is the best work ever about what biodiversity means to human health." -- Donald Kennedy, President Emeritus of Stanford University and Former Editor-in-Chief of
Science"This remarkable volume
Sustaining Life will be an important text for our introductory majors' course, Foundations of Biological Diversity, this fall at Harvard. There is nothing comparable that so well establishes our dependence on--and membership in--the consortia of species with which we share the planet, important to humans in every way." -- Brian Farrell, Professor of Biology and N. Michele Holbrook, Charles Bullard Professor of Forestry, Harvard University
"Although written by physicians and scientists, the book is without jargon or esoteric terminology, and is highly accessible to the layperson. It is flush with beautiful photography, easily understood graphs, charts and illustrations, and three supplemental appendices. This exquisite text - surely destined to find its way into college curricula - is authoritative, with extensive references." -- Bookloons.com
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Conservation Magazine, Vol. 9 No. 4
"An invaluable resource for policy makers and a fascinating exploration for general readers of their hyper-connected biosphere. This book represents a landmark addition to our understanding of our ecological heritage, and the importance of preserving it." --
Publishers Weekly"The book, the
Silent Spring for frogs and fishes, is clear, readily understandable, and its message is compelling." -- Holcomb B. Noble, Pulitzer Prize winning science editor
"It is a remarkable labor of love by its editors, Eric Chivian and Aaron Bernstein, and manages to merge three books in one: a textbook for scholars, a plea to policy makers, and a beautiful read for nonscientists. The production values and glossy photographs are superb. Heavily subsidised, it is ridiculously cheap, and should be on every undergraduate reading list and everyone else's gift list." --
The Lancet, Vol 372
"
Sustaining Life is the most complete and powerful argument I have seen for the importance of preserving biodiversity."--Al Gore, former Vice President, 2007 Nobel Peace Prize Laureate
"It was an exhilarating moment when scientists broke the genome code and showed us the basic building blocks of the human being. Now scientists are showing us how biodiversity works and why it is crucial to saving our planet for our children's children and beyond. This important and compelling book is a blueprint for acting wisely and urgently."--Bill Moyers, former White House Press Secretary, Host of PBS's
Bill Moyers Journal"There is probably no better way to convince anyone still uncertain about the urgent need to preserve biodiversity, which is rapidly diminishing as a result of human activities, than to document its importance to human health and medicine. The authors have done this with great thoroughness and from every possible angle, producing a volume that pairs authority with anecdote and scholarship with passion."--Harold Varmus, President, Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, 1989 Nobel Prize Laureate, former Director of the National Institutes of Health
"As a public health physician, I have been deeply involved for decades in helping political leaders, policy-makers, and the general public understand the relationship between human beings and the environment.
Sustaining Life is the best and most comprehensive resource available demonstrating how human health depends on the health of the natural world."--Gro Brundtland, former Director-General of the World Health Organization, former Prime Minister of Norway
"One of the main reasons the world faces a global environmental crisis is the belief that we human beings are somehow separate from the natural world in which we live, and that we can therefore alter its physical, chemical, and biological systems without these alterations having any effect on humanity.
Sustaining Life challenges this widely held misconception by demonstrating definitively, with the best and most current scientific information available, that human health depends, to a larger extent than we might imagine, on the health of other species and on the healthy functioning of natural ecosystems."--Kofi Annan, former Secretary-General of the United Nations, 2001 Nobel Peace Prize Laureate, from the Prologue
"A powerhouse of information on a topic that concerns of us all. Highly recommended."--Irwin Weintraub,
Library Journal Reviews"Comprehensive and compelling...Well researched and with stunning graphicsthe volume could serve admirably as a college text or recommended reading for politicians, health and resource managers, and citizens at large."
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Science