Why Big Fierce Animals Are Rare: An Ecologist's Perspective

Rating:
Summary: Poetic Justice
Review: Colinvaux did a grand synthesis of biology and evolution on earth with a little poetic license and a lot of literature backup. The arguments ring true, but I am not an ecologist. The point that adaptation and compromise are more suitable for survival than raw agression was a pleasant and reasonable message.
It was a pleasure to read about the effects of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere before polital mayhem overtook the subject. It was a revelation to read that there is 50 times as much CO2 in the ocean as in the air, and that the burning of all fossil fuels would only double the conc. to 0.06% in air, and that the oceans would eventually knock it down to 0.03% again. It was also refreshing for Colinvaux to write that no one knew what would happen overall during the rise. This was written when CO2 conc. was rising and global temp. was cooling in the 1970s.
Other books from Amazon.com that expose the nonsense on CO2 are Hot Talk, Cold Science and The Satanic Gases. Fragile Science tries to be neutral.

Rating:
Summary: Excellent presentation of ecological concepts
Review: Colinvaux presents complex ecological concepts in a way that makes them accessible to an interested general reader. While it would be nice to see an updated edition of this book, it is an excellent overview of the subject.

Rating:
Summary: seek ecology elsewhere
Review: The author does okay in the beginning when he sticks
to the physical principles underlying ecology. Unfor-
tunately, later chapters are tarnished when he mixes
unsubstantiated (and outmoded) opinion with fact.
Indeed, parts of the book are better suited to an edi-
torial than a work on science.
The world has moved light-years on in the twenty plus
years since this book was written. The publisher does
us a disservice by keeping it in print.