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Sustaining Biodiversity
Edward O. Wilson’s new book, The
Future of Life, describes how this generation of humans can make a
significant difference, especially in helping species survive. This 200-page
essay lays out the problems of ecosystems and proposes clear solutions. Here’s
an excerpt:
“Have you ever wondered how we will be
remembered a thousand years from now, when we are as remote as Charlemagne?
Many would be satisfied with a list that includes the following: the
technoscientific revolution continued, globalized, and unstoppable; computer
capacity approaching that of the human brain; robotic auxiliaries
proliferating; cells rebuilt from molecules; space colonized; population
growth slackening; the world democratized; international trade accelerated;
people better fed and healthier than ever before; life span stretched;
religion holding firm.
In this buoyant vision of the twenty-first century, what might we have
overlooked about our place in history? What are we neglecting and at risk of
forever losing? The answer most likely in the year 3000 is: much of the
rest of life, and part of what it means to be a human being.
A few technophiles, I expect, will beg to differ. What, after all, in the
long term does it mean to be human? We have traveled this far; we will go on.
As to the rest of life, they continue, we should be able to immerse
fertilized eggs and clonable tissues of endangered species in liquid nitrogen
and use them later to rebuild destroyed ecosystems. Even that may not be
necessary: in time entirely new species and ecosystems, better suited to
human needs than the old ones, can be created by genetic engineering. Homo
sapiens might choose to redesign itself along the way, the better to live
in a new biological order of our own making.
Such is the extrapolated endpoint of technomania applied to the natural
world. The compelling response, in my opinion, is that to travel even partway
there would be a dangerous gamble, a single throw of the dice with the future
of life on the table. To revive or synthesize the thousands of species needed
– probably millions when the still largely unknown microorganisms have been
cataloged – and put them together in functioning ecosystems is beyond even
the theoretical imagination of existing science. Each species is adapted to
particular physical and chemical environments within the habitat. Each species
has evolved to fit together with certain other species in ways biologists are
only beginning to understand. To synthesize ecosystems on bare ground or in
empty water is no more practicable than the reanimation of deep-frozen human
corpses. And to redesign the human genotype better to fit a ruined biosphere
is the stuff of science horror fiction. Let us leave it there, in the realm
of imagination.”
The
Future of Life introduces novices to the key issues in biodiversity and
ecology. All readers will come away from this book with a greater
appreciation for the issues facing this planet and with ideas for action that
are practical and realistic.
Steve Hopkins, April 24, 2002
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ã 2002 Hopkins and Company, LLC
The
recommendation rating for this book appeared in the May 2002
issue of Executive
Times
Hopkins
& Company, LLC • 723 North Kenilworth Avenue • Oak Park, IL 60302
Phone: 708-466-4650 • Fax: 708-386-8687
E-mail: books@hopkinsandcompany.com
www.hopkinsandcompany.com
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