The End of the Wild (Boston Review Books) - Softcover

Meyer, Stephen M.

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0262537435 ISBN 13: 9780262537438

Publisher: Mit Pr, 2006

Synopsis

A wake-up call that argues that although it may be too late to save biodiversity, we can take steps to save our ecosystems.

With the extinction rate at 3000 species a year and accelerating, we can now predict that as many as half of the Earth's species will disappear within the next 100 years. The species that survive will be the ones that are most compatible with us: the weedy species―from mosquitoes to coyotes―that thrive in continually disturbed human-dominated environments. The End of the Wild is a wake-up call. Marshaling evidence from the last ten years of research on the environment, Stephen Meyer argues that nothing―not national or international laws, global bioreserves, local sustainability schemes, or "wildlands"―will change the course that has been set. Like it or not, we can no longer talk about conserving nature, only managing what is left. The race to save biodiversity is over.

But that doesn't mean our work is over. The End of the Wild is also a call to action. Without intervention, the surviving ecosystems we depend on for a range of services―including water purification and flood and storm damage contro―could fail and the global spread of invasive species (pests, parasites, and disease-causing weedy species) could explode. If humanity is to survive, Meyer argues, we have no choice but to try to manage the fine details. We must move away from the current haphazard strategy of protecting species in isolation and create trans-regional "meta-reserves," designed to protect ecosystem functions rather than species-specific habitats.

About this title

About the Author

The late Stephen M. Meyer was a professor of Political Science at MIT. In 2005 he was awarded the Francis W. Sargent Conservation Award by the Massachusetts Division of Fisheries and Wildlife.

Review

Meyer blends factual evidence with expressive prowess in such a way that his ideas cannot fail to make an impression. He offers enlightening illustrations and presents his argument with extraordinary clarity.

―Rebecca S. Bundhun, New Statesman

This book is an exemplar of clear, structured polemical writing, a 10,000-word essay in which each word serves a purpose. In just 97 quarto-sized pages, Meyer offers a more powerful and convincing dissection of the human predicament in relations to biodiversity than most full-length academic books.

―Mike Hulme , Times Higher Education Supplement

About this edition

• Publisher: Mit Pr
• Publication date: 2006
• ISBN 10: 0262537435
• ISBN 13: 9780262537438
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 108
• Editor: Chasman Deborah