Description: Humans use 50 percent of the world's freshwater supply and consume 42 percent of its plant growth. We are liquidating animals and plants one hundred times faster than the natural rate of extinction. Such numbers should make it clear that our impact on the planet has been, and continues to be, extreme and detrimental. Yet even after decades of awareness of our environmental peril, there remains passionate disagreement over what the problems are and how they should be remedied.
Review Quotes: A dazzling tour d'horizon of the twenty-first century environment. The author informs us of the approaching fate of the natural world (including our own species) with uncommon scientific authority, style, and wit.--Edward O. Wilson "University Research Professor, Harvard University"