Rating: 
Summary: Incites one to action
Review: ... I had read at least one other by Wilson, and knew him for a brilliant scientist, an articulate writer and a person of strongly held beliefs. In this book I also learned of his passionate support of the environment. I am not that often stirred to action by a book, but this one was truly an eye opener. Several conservationist organizations are listed, and I book-marked their web sites in order to start making donations to them. ... Many of the organizations were those to whom I'd donated to in the past, mostly because it seemed like the right thing to do. Their importance had fallen by the wayside over the years as I dealt, like many people, with the financial exigencies of my own life. Wilson's book pointed out that the environment is as intimately a part of my own well being as my finances. The Future of Life, as I had expected, is a well written narrative of life as it has evolved on our planet and of the dangerous phase through which it is now passing. The lovely bouquet of endangered and extinct species depicted on the jacket of the book and individually named on pages ix-x of the introductory text is a touching testimonial in itself of what has been lost and of what may yet be passing away in our own life time. Creatures who have not even been yet catalogued by man, may already be poised on the brink of extinction. The book describes the evolutionary basics of life on Earth, and its amazing spread to every corner of the globe, even to great depths of earth and ocean. In describing our living extremophiles, those beings tolerant of the most difficult environments, the author points out their significance with respect to the beginnings of life here and to it's possible existence elsewhere in the universe, even perhaps in interstellar space. ...A disturbance of one part of the ecology of the planet will not leave the other parts of it untouched. This is the case whether it is a major change in oxygen saturation in the oceans, the green house gases created by the construction of the Deccan Traps in India, or an asteroid impact that sets the world ablaze. ...Despite the dismal prognostication of Malthusians even as early as Darwin's time, it has been a generally held belief that any problem, even environmental ones, could be overcome by the combined offensive of science and technology. Our own ingenuity will save us in the eleventh hour. For many this is still the basis of their decisions. Wilson illustrates for the reader just why this cannot be the case, and why the task of the 21st Century will be to put the environment first. He catalogues the many ways in which the heavy demands placed upon it to achieve mankind's goals have already led to significant depletion of resources. Technology, in giving a minority of the world?s population a comfortable lifestyle has created a gulf between the haves and have nots of the world, marginalizing a significant portion of the world?s people. As he points out, to achieve the goal of giving the entire human world a similar lifestyle would require several earths to accomplish it. Although it is overall a pessimistic book, it offers solutions that would solve many problems world wide and at a minimal cost to each person. This is one very important book. It needs to be read widely, and it's suggestions put into practice. Read it and hit those websites with your donations!
Rating:
Summary: Practical Manifesto for Preservation of *Value* in Nature
Review:
Whereas the author's last really big book, "Consilience", addressed the integral relationship between the knowledge offered by the humanities and that of the sciences (too often isolated and out of context), this book brings together political economy and nature. It is more easily readable than his more heavily foot-noted and astonishingly deep earlier work, but all the more valuable for its smooth overview of why life on the rest of the planet matters to the American heartland; why we must deal with the limits of food production and control population (both in terms of numbers and in terms of consumption per capita). The heart of the book, for me, can be found in three profound numbers--numbers that we must all appreciate: Value of the Ecosystem/Cost to Replace: $33 trillion per year in increased Gross National Product (GNP)--and presumably everything would be artificially recreated. One-Time Cost of Fund for Preserving Nature: $24-72 billion one-time funding. His numbers vary from $24 billion (one -time) to preserve 800,000 square kilometers already under protection, to $28 billion to preserve a (different?) representative sample. The bottom line: for a one-time $100 billion investment, 25% of what the US spends on its military *every* year, we could, at our own expense, save the world. Subsidies for Unsound Acts Against Nature: $2 trillion per year and rising ($2000 per American alone--this refers to energy, water, deforestation, and agricultural subsidies that encourage and perpetuate unsound acts against nature as well as unneeded exploitation--one example: $20 billion a year in subsidies for fishing--this is the difference between the actual value of $100 billion and the lower subsidized revenues of $80 billion a year). Wilson's book, in combination with those by Brian Czech and L. O. Stromberg, is in my view a capstone endeavor that moves the environment to the forefront of any intelligent person's agenda. As he concludes, we have entered the century of the environment--we must save it or lose it.
Rating: 
Summary: Well read, not so well produced
Review: Although its quite clearly a thoughtful analysis, I could not see Wilson's recommendations as realistic. Wilson catalogs some of the more successful environmental programs, but it seems like the effort to preserve biodiversity is a desperate struggle. It seems somewhat ironic that the world's most distinguished scholar of insect societies would not have more insight on the nature of human societies. Not for those with a pessimistic bent, because Wilson gives plenty of reasons to despair for the natural environment.
Rating:
Summary: The Don Quixote of biodiversity
Review: Although its quite clearly a thoughtful analysis, I could not see Wilson's recommendations as realistic. Wilson catalogs some of the more successful environmental programs, but it seems like the effort to preserve biodiversity is a desperate struggle. It seems somewhat ironic that the world's most distinguished scholar of insect societies would not have more insight on the nature of human societies. Not for those with a pessimistic bent, because Wilson gives plenty of reasons to despair for the natural environment.
Rating: 
Summary: TFOL 4 life
Review: Dr Wilson makes an excellent point about the future of life: namely that non-governmental organizations such as the World Wildlife Fund are outbidding loggers and developers for the rights to biodiversity hot spots. For instance, Dr Wilson reports that the WWF purchased the rights to 100 million acres in Brazil. It's only estimated to cost $270 million to protect this amount of land into perpetuity. Who knew it was going to be this easy?
Dr. Wilson makes a corollary excellent point: that conservation should be made "profitable." How? By means of eco-tourism and plant prospecting. The few pages he devotes to plant prospecting for medicinal derivatives-which can be subsequently synthesized and mass-produced-are very optimistic. Dr Wilson stops short of advocating that WWF and other NGOs go public, but what a great idea that would be, too. Today's and tomorrow's eco-minded investors would probably love to have some truly long-term assets that earn dividends from the discovery of medicinal plants.
But that's further than Dr. Wilson would rather go. It's enough that he wants to make conservation profitable. Having been condemned over the years as being a right-wing racist by Stephen Jay Gould and other socialist flameouts, Dr. Wilson spends most of this book trying to make himself look politically correct.
Take genetic engineering. On page 114, after praising the genetic engineering of corn, potatoes, and rice, he makes a U-turn onto page 116, saying that there are "several sound reasons for anxiety over genetic engineering." (First of all, how can anxiety be the product of sound reasoning?) Anyway, Dr. Wilson presents five reasons for such anxiety, but his heart's not in it. He knows the dangers of genetic engineering are pretty small. Look at the concluding statements for each reason why genetic engineering might be dangerous:
1. "...How far the process should be allowed to continue is an open ethical question."
2. "...Destructive secondary effects . . . are also at least a remote possibility."
3. "...It is simply too early to tell."
4. "...How severe [the effects] will become . . . remains to be seen."
So far, it doesn't sound overly dangerous, does it? Then we get to reason 5, public opinion:
"In the realm of public opinion, genetic engineering is to agriculture as nuclear engineering is to energy." Is one of the great scientists of our day going to stand by while anxiety produces the opinion?
Apparently so. Why, when it would be so easy for him to dispel fears about nuclear power right here? In the interview with Dr. Wilson in the Guardian in 1998, we see why he holds back: Academic intimidation. The man has been traumatized by attacks on him from left-wing faculty and undergrads alike. How else can one explain his praise, at the end of this book, of eco-protesters. That's sad, isn't it?
Rating:
Summary: vision of a radical "conservative"
Review: E.O. Wilson is one of my heroes. He is radically sensible, and has advocated positions that have drawn the wrath of both the left (sociobiology) and right (environmentalism). "The Future of Life" is a continuation of Wilson's earlier "The Diversity of Life." It is an eloquent diagnosis of our planetary situation, along with an optimistic vision of the future, and should be required reading. Here are some quotes to give you the flavor: "We are inside a bottleneck of overpopulation and wasteful consumption. If the race is won, humanity can emerge in far better condition than when it entered, and with most of the diversity of life still intact." (xxiii) "The choice is clear: the juggernaut [of technology-based capitalism] will very soon either chew up what remains of the living world, or it will be redirected to save it." (156) "The central problem of the new century ... is to raise the poor to a decent standard of living worldwide while preserving as much of the rest of life as possible." (189) Wilson's diagnosis is grim, his analysis radical, and yet he is optimistic that these lofty goals can be attained without structural transformations of the social system. He believes that the combination of democratic governments, capitalist economics, and advanced technology can save the planet. Of course that is no endorsement of the status quo! Radical change is necessary, but Wilson is confident that it can take place "within the system." The ace up Wilson's sleeve is the increasingly influential network of non-profit NGOs (non-governmental organizations), groups such as the World Wildlife Fund. The message of "The Future of Life" is that there is a huge job to be done, but it is doable. Let's get to work!
Rating:
Summary: vision of a radical "conservative"
Review: E.O. Wilson is one of my heroes. He is radically sensible, and has advocated positions that have drawn the wrath of both the left (sociobiology) and right (environmentalism). "The Future of Life" is a continuation of Wilson's earlier "The Diversity of Life." It is an eloquent diagnosis of our planetary situation, along with an optimistic vision of the future, and should be required reading. Here are some quotes to give you the flavor: "We are inside a bottleneck of overpopulation and wasteful consumption. If the race is won, humanity can emerge in far better condition than when it entered, and with most of the diversity of life still intact." (xxiii) "The choice is clear: the juggernaut [of technology-based capitalism] will very soon either chew up what remains of the living world, or it will be redirected to save it." (156) "The central problem of the new century ... is to raise the poor to a decent standard of living worldwide while preserving as much of the rest of life as possible." (189) Wilson's diagnosis is grim, his analysis radical, and yet he is optimistic that these lofty goals can be attained without structural transformations of the social system. He believes that the combination of democratic governments, capitalist economics, and advanced technology can save the planet. Of course that is no endorsement of the status quo! Radical change is necessary, but Wilson is confident that it can take place "within the system." The ace up Wilson's sleeve is the increasingly influential network of non-profit NGOs (non-governmental organizations), groups such as the World Wildlife Fund. The message of "The Future of Life" is that there is a huge job to be done, but it is doable. Let's get to work!
Rating:
Summary: Wilson, as ever, is right on target.
Review: E.O. Wilson's new book, "The Future of Life," is a wonderful introduction to the plight faced by life on earth. It is well written, and well argued (It is Wilson after all). Well the subject matter is often depressing, the book itself manages to be hopeful. That isn't an easy thing to be with a subject as important, and as worrisome as this one. If you are at all interested in the state of the world today, at least from the perspective of a scientist, a biologist, then this is the book to get.
Rating:
Summary: How Much is the Biosphere Worth?
Review: Edward O. Wilson is perhaps the most renound naturalist in the world. In this latest book, he details the mass habitat destruction and species extinction, as well as some of the broader environmental issues we face. The picture is rather grim, to be sure, but perhaps a bit optimistic in comparison with Lester Brown's THE ECO-ECONOMY (a book I highly recommend). His position, that we are entering a "bottleneck" crunch between what the earth can provide and what humanity demands, is neither new nor controversial, but well argued here. Indeed, the Earth is a closed system, with a limited resource availability; and once those resources are overburdened or exhausted, people start dying. Already some 60,000 people die every day while members of the so-called "First World" glut this limited bounty. Without a doubt, it will only get worse as the population rises. The first chapter was a bit of a bore to me. I found it a little academic and a bit overly-specialized for my tastes. That said, chapters two, three and four ("The Bottleneck," "Nature's Last Stand," and "The Planetary Killer" respectively) easily make the book worth purchasing. I also found chapter six, which dicusses the hypothesis of "biophilia," fascinating. Biophilia - or what Wilson believes to be humanity's innate love and need for nature - is one of those hypotheses's we all suspected deep down but never had the scientific evidence to prove. However, after discussing the evolution of humanity and running through some interesting physchological cases, the theory seems rather plausible. While reading the chapter, I began to wonder if alternating feelings of anxiety and ennui were not related to some disconnection from nature. After all, I do feel best when hiking in the woods. In the end, I decided to give this book four stars instead of five because of the last chapter. Although titled "The Solution," it really didn't leave me feeling jazzed our prospects, if only because the the entire discussion was limited to conservation initiatives as proposed by big organizations, like the World Wildlife Fund. Outside of this approche, Wilson seems to have no experience, although he does at least awknowledge the need for activism on the last page. Upon finishing the book, I felt the extreme desire to do something, but was left feeling small and helpless. Perhaps if he had included contact information for one of those activist groups. Moreover, Wilson completely downplays the risks and over-exaggerates the gains of genetically engineered (GM) foods; one particular flaw I can't overlook in a book. He didn't even mention the Cautionary Principle (see Suzuki's FROM NAKED APE TO SUPERSPECIES), which is absolutely fundamental to this issue. For a more thorough and discussion of the GM issue, check out Moore's AGAINST THE GRAIN or John Robbins THE FOOD REVOLUTION. The one thing that Wilson does do well: he highlights and juxtiposes the position of biological conservationists and economists with suberb clarity. Without a doubt, between these two persectives lies the only possible road to salvation for humanity. Will we dig, extract and burn up the rest of the planet, or learn to think and act in compliance the principle of cyclical perpetuity? For a more nuanced discussion of this, I would recommend NATURAL CAPITALISM. All in all, well worth the read.
Rating:
Summary: A Better Planet For All
Review: Edward O. Wilson's latest work, "The Future of Life", is an eye-opening presentation of the history of human interference with nature, as well as our present and future responsibility to correct the damage we have inflicted on Earth's biodiversity. Through human expansion, we have brought Nature to her knees. All of us, whether by design or ignorance, are responsible for Earth's present condition. Wilson demonstrates in "The Future of Life" that he is aware of this. Instead of spending precious time (or pages) laying blame at the door of a few, he offers commonsense solutions to improve the health of the planet and provide for the humans living upon her. Refreshingly, this book didn't make me think "what's the use, the Earth is too far gone." Dr. Wilson makes it plain that we can make Earth a better planet for all- human, animal & plant.
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