GSC102- Review - Book Report/Review Example

Sur Lecturer Evolution of the Biosphere: Book Review After reading Edward Wilson’s, The Future of Life, he ideas that I found most interesting in this book were the way he examines the unstable state of our environment. Edward assessed mass extinctions happening in our natural treasures during our time, which we are almost loosing forever. It is interesting to read how Edward spells out particular plan to keep our world safe while we still have time. He has a hopeful vision, environmentally necessary and economically sound.

Edward’s book is practical, eloquent, and wise and should be studied by everyone interested in the fate of our environment: the natural world. Something I found thought provoking in this book is the author’s assertion. Edward states in his book that, the biospheric membrane covering the earth, and everyone, is just but a given miracle. This membrane is also our tragedy because we are losing a large part of it forever even before we master the best means to use and savor it. This is a thought provoking assertion.

Edward addresses the pivotal issue of how to lift poor humanity to a respectable living standard in the 21st Century without harming other life existing around us. It also interesting to read the way Edward brings home the issue of mass extinction in a powerful way. He combines both encyclopedic communication of his love and knowledge of life. This reaches the heart of readers. It is also interesting to note how Edward lays a plan to achieve a cogent case for species preservation. In fact, he asserts at the end that that failure or success will be down to ethical decision to which those living now will be judged for all the coming generations.

These are the things I find interesting and though provoking in this book. What I really don't agree with in this book is what Edward asserts in chapter four of his book. He asserts that Homo sapiens as serial killer of the biosphere. This is because his evidence for this serious allegation is not captivating or reasonable to me. He says that in history, wherever people get to new environment, they set about wiping species out immediately beginning with the slow, the big, and the tasty. I don’t agree with this assertion.

This is because not everyone is anti species. Many organizations preach preservation of biodiversity. Different people conserve environment. There are also several environmental agencies and organization all over the world that upholds regulations that prohibit any form of endangering species. Edward also states that vanishing species teaches us lessons such as: Eden occupied was a slaughterhouse, paradise found is paradise lost, and that the noble savage never existed. I also don’t agree with these lessons.

Edward has focuses on the pessimistic perspective of human nature: the destroyer of species. There are still very many paradises in the world. Few instances of lost paradises should not be used to quantify the nature of the entire world. The other thing I don’t agree with in this book is the way Edward elaborates the themes of his earlier books in this book. Edward asserts that Biophilia sets forth a weighty hypothesis that human beings can be instinctively in love with non human life if only enlightened about it.

He goes ahead to argue that several common modern society ailments could be dragged and/or avoided by the natural world’s reconnection. These are the ideas and arguments I don’t agree with in this book. The most valuable contribution that I think this book makes to our understanding of the evolution of Earth’s biosphere is his description of the exuberance and abundance of life on earth. Edward claims that wherever there is water, some form of life exists no matter how harsh or hostile other conditions might be.

He also says that one does not have to make trips to distant places in order to experience or witness the luxuriance of biodiversity. He adds that everyone is a rainforest of their own kind. Other contributions include the elaborations on the current consumption and overpopulation bottlenecks. Edward gives readers dramatic examples of how human factors interact to extinct the evolving Earth’s biosphere. These examples include habitat destruction, pollution, invasive species, overharvesting, and population.

In addition, Edward gives the essence of species preservation to agriculture. He asserts that the food supply in the world hangs in the thread of biodiversity. Edward’ book is critical to evolution of the Earth’s biosphere. Its chapters define all the aspects in biodiversity and evolution which contributes to readers’ understanding of the Earth’s biosphere evolution. Works Cited Edward, Wilson (2002). The Future of Life, Vintage Books