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Diversity Of Life

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The author of "The Diversity of Life," Edward O. Wilson, is passionate and excited about his topic and writes poetically and effectively about the natural world. The first section of the book finds him in the rain forest of the Brazilian Amazon, pondering one of his favorite puzzles: why some species dominate and spread while others become rare. A huge storm arises, violent and destructive. But the life in the rainforest has adapted to these events of nature. If some species are destroyed, others rush in to fill the void because of the diversity of nature. Edward O. Wilson's intent in writing this book is to convince people that biodiversity and environmental concerns are of benefit to mankind, not only for reasons of preservation but for economic reasons. He shows how life can endlessly recreate itself, if allowed to do so.

As illustration of his thesis, the author discusses the island of Krakatau, near Sumatra, that was completely destroyed by a volcano in 1883. Tidal waves resulted, killing 40,000 people in Java and Sumatra. The rock and debris blew high in the air, and a residue of dust diffused around the world, producing bright red sunsets. A remnant of Krakatau remained at what had been the southern end of the island, totally barren. But, starting with a single spider, forms of life returned and took hold until, today, you would never guess the violent past of the island. Wilson uses this as a vivid illustration of how nature at its most violent doesn't destroy life.

The author emphasizes the importance of the tropical rain forest. It occupies only 6% of land surface but probably harbors more than half of the species on earth. Its abundant solar energy, evenness of climate and largeness of area account for this, and also enough evolutionary time. The smaller the species, the more abundant it is. The human species came on the scene late and, when they did, everything changed.

The author describes how the coming of man to different locales destroys many species. For instance, in the Hawaiian Islands, the Polynesians ate man of the birds until only a handful of species remain. In western North America, the earliest Americans, the Paleo Indians, caused the diversity of mammoths to collapse because they needed food and hunted the different species to extinction.

Some experts think climactic change accounts for a decline of a species, while others favor overkill by humans. The author sides with the latter group. Overkill, habitat destruction, and the introduction of exotic species that don't belong in an environment are all acts of man. Conservationists now know that entire habitats must be preserved to save particular species. The author lists and describes 18 ecosytems that deserve the immediate attention of conservationists. Global warming is also a threat to species, but human activity has increased extinction by many thousands of times than that which would occur without humans.

Biodiversity is a valuable resource (new sources of food, new cures for cancer may perhaps be found among diverse species). The new approach to environmentalism is to tr to draw more income from wildlands without killing them. What we try to save now in ecosystems isn't just individual species. The author lists plants and fungi that yield pharmaceutical products and also ones that are sources of new foods to show the importance of maintaining biodiversity. He goes on to make a list of animals that are not currently eaten that make good protein sources. Both conservation and economic growth can be served by preserving natural ecosystems.

The author concludes the book with suggestions for saving our biological resources. First, he suggests that surveys be taken of the world's flora and fauna. Next, create biological wealth by finding out what uses can be made of the species inventoried. Promote sustainable development. In very poor countries, help the people find ways to survive economically without plundering their environment. This will require education and social change. Finally, save what remains. Save as much biodiversity as possible and make the reserves as large as possible. Edward O. Wilson realizes that mankind is much more likely to follow its economic interests than it is to selflessly protect the environment. Therefore, he very cleverly appeals to this self-interest by making biodiversity appear to be of economic benefit.

In the Diversity of Life the world-famous biodiversity expert Edward O. Wilson outlines his many studies and theories on the current biological diversity of the world. Wilson identifies the crisis of the decling biodiversity and sites many reasons for it. Much of the book explores the differing patterns of evolution. From the fundamental unit that defines each species to an indepth analysis of adaptive radiation, Wilson discusses why life is the way that it is now. In the conclusion of the book Wilson explains the human impact on the environment. Outlining what should be done to perserve the world for future generations.
Overall The Diversity of Life is a well thought-out and throughly explained book. Even for those of us who are not ecological experts the book is easy to read and understand. The diagrams and specific examples throughout the book help explain each indiviidual topic. The reader is engaged into the world of ecology through Wilson's expainations of the world around us. The only slight problem with the book is the fact that Wilson overkills certain points with excessive examples that make the chapter redundant. Nevertheless, The Diversity of Life is a great book for anyone with any biological background or interest in the environment around them.

An incredibly full and rich book that seems to cover every aspect of nature - it poses great questions about diversity and human impact and uses countless examples and sound research. Really great - better if you have a science background as I (without such a background) was a little lost in some of the examples/descriptions. I ceratinly feel better for having read this book. Its a very important work.

This is an important book.
But first a warning: readers should have some basic biological knowledge and part of the book (with many examples and useful digressions) will only appeal to botanists/microbiologists.

Prof. Wilson clearly demonstrates that the world's demographic explosion initiated a big extinction of all sort of biological species and that we have to stop this, for biodiversity is priceless.
Governments take the biological wealth of their country not serious enough. He states for instance that fewer than 3 percent of the flowering plants of the world have been examined for alkoloids and that many species are at risk.

Prof. Wilson illustrates very forcefully the impact of biodiversity by giving numerous examples from the medical, pharmaceutical, energy and agricultural field with colossal numbers in $ for actual applications.
To give one example: 'the rosy periwinkle of Madagascar produces two alkaloids that cure most victims of two of the deadliest of cancers, Hodgkin's disease and acute lymphocytic leukaemia. The income from the manufacture and sale of these two substances exceeds $ 180 million a year.' (p.271)

This is a very important book for the future of humanity. It cannot be underrated.

This book was good because it introduced new atmostpheres of the world and how different environments are structured. It analyzed the affects that an environment has on species. It also sets up hypothetical siuations that allow the read to think of "what ifs." Wilson gives examples that show thing from different perspectives, which is a positive aspect of the book. The only bad thing was that some of the book was ranting on. I felt that some things could have been said in a more consice way.

The Diversity of Life written by Edward O. Wilson is a very descriptively historical writing about biodiversity and the intergration of man and the changes that have evolved over time. The author is an entomologist and a Harvard professor making a lucid point with scientific explanation about the deterioration of the physicial enviornment and its effect upon man in the long term.

Wilson eloquently describes how species diversification was accomplished and how the loss of this diversification of biodiversity, would be an enormous loss to mankind. Wilson's major theme throughout the book is to save the the planet from man's development, loss of biodiversity and its effects, and the repair and reversal of the deliterious affects of the physical enviornment.

I found the book to have truth in the end result, but to accomplish this end, things would radically change in the short run. The book does open ones eyes to what is going on around us daily, things that if only looking with a keen eye would you notice. Wilson's engaging and nontechonical prose work through the subject matter and offers a fresh perspective. This book will give the reader broad views of evolution, but with enough specifics to illustrate the point.

The book has excellent illustrations, further developing the argument, making this a classical text as we read the last section, where the enviornmental ethic makes Wilson's point.

Do NOT be alarmed by the science in this book, as it is straight forward and easily understood, so the reader should make it through with no problem. Whether examining insects or a patch of grass, Wilson has mastered the science and brings it to the reader in understandable form.

Wilson tells you, about how today we are in the 5th great contraction of species as many are going extinct all around us. But so many of the animals are interconnected like a tower of cards - remove one and the system may collapse. Citing concrete examples, Wilson demonstrates how this can be true on the small, and large scale. The diversity of animals and plants is important to all life, but also for the benefits to man that have yet to be discovered.

Wilson begins with a discussion of what is a species (of plant or animal) and how they diversify. While this can be at times very academic and dry, it forms the basis necessary for further discussion and exmaples. He shows how life migrates to the far reaches of the earth and how a "dead" island rarely stays dead for long. If anything, this gives the glimer of hope in his otherwise dire message - life has a way of surviving and growing - it may not be pretty, but it usually works. But that doesn't mean we can ignore the threats to our planet's life. For while many may not give a care about there being hundreds of species of ants (in fact they may want to reach for the RAID), nature cares, and each one has it's place and roll in the system. For many of us, our only exposure to animals may be in the back yard, or in a zoo, but there is so much more out there, and Wilson tries to show you this.

It's far too late to call this a wake up call. But suffice it to be another kick in the pants for fear of our future.

The Diversity Of Life is a very interesting book. The author, Edward O. Wilson, discusses many different aspects of diversity in the world. He gives many examples from microbacteria to the wather around the world. Wilson argues against destruction of rainforests and proposes more scientists to discover more species in the world. And Wilson talks about how without human destruction in nature, nature can recover from destruction on her own. Wilson wants to save all organisms on Earth and wants to perserve nature as it should be.

Although this book was well written, with sophisticated language, it was quite dry. It greatly resembled a biology textbook, which causes the reader to lose interest. A lot of imagery and vivid description was used, to help depict the theme of the novel. The book explores the many diverse organisms prevalent in the world, as well as the ones that were presend throughout the course of history. Wilson starts his adventure off in the Amazon River Basin, where he encounters many not widely known species. He explains throughout the novel, the importance of the diversity of life, as well as how nataural disasters do not neccesarily harm diversity. This book is recommended to those who enjoy biology, and would like to explore the theories and examples of biological concepts.

We were required to read this book by our Environmental Science teacher. After reading the first chapter, we were entranced by this stunning literary masterpiece. Throughout the book, Wilson discusses major topics such as evolution, biodynamics, and human impact on the environment. This is a must have in any scientific reader's library. We enjoyed the pretty photographs also.