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| The Diversity of Life | 
| Author: Edward O. Wilson
Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
Category: Book
List Price: $14.95
Buy Used: $0.01
You Save: $14.94 (100%)
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Avg. Customer Rating:  36 reviews
Sales Rank: 1049750
Media: Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 448
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.7
Dimensions (in): 9.3 x 6 x 1
ISBN: 0393310477
Dewey Decimal Number: 333.95
EAN: 9780393310474
ASIN: 0393310477
Publication Date: October 1993
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Amazon.com Review
Humans, the Harvard University entomologist Edward O. Wilson has observed, have an innate--or at least extremely ancient--connection to the natural world, and our continued divorce from it has led to the loss of not only "a vast intellectual legacy born of intimacy" with nature, but also our very sanity. In The Diversity of Life, Wilson takes a sweeping view of our planet's natural richness, remarking on what on the surface seems a paradox: "almost all the species that ever lived are extinct, and yet more are alive today than at any time in the past." (Wilson's elegant explanation is a scientific education in itself.) This great variety of species is, of course, threatened by habitat destruction, global climate change, and a host of other forces, and Wilson revisits his oft-stated call for the protection of wilderness and undeveloped land, noting that "wilderness has virtue unto itself and needs no extraneous justification." We should, he continues, regard every species, "every scrap of biodiversity," as precious and irreplaceable, without attempting to quantify that regard with utilitarian measures such as "bio-economics." In short, Wilson offers with this book a simple, workable environmental ethic that extends the work of Aldo Leopold and other conservationists. A remarkably productive and influential scientist, Wilson is also a fine writer, and his survey of biodiversity makes for welcome and instructive reading. --Gregory McNamee
Product Description
The Pulitzer Prize-winning scientist and author reveals the diversity of life on the planet and the threat humankind poses to Earth's rich variety of ecosystems and their inhabitants. By the author of On Human Nature. Reprint. 75,000 first printing. NYT.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 31 more reviews...
 Great Book September 7, 2008
If you love the planet and want to understand your small place in the grand scheme of things this book is not for you. If you want to understand how we are all interdependent on the life around us, and how evolution has shaped the face of the earth, buy this book. Mr Wilson's writing is welcoming and the information is great.
The Diversity of Life January 10, 2007
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
This is an outstanding book. If you read this before you read Darwin's Origin of Species you'll get soooo much more from reading the latter. Anyway, the book encapsulates in easy to read prose much information that your mind can easily wrap itself around.
 Second time round January 4, 2007
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
When I received the book, it appeared that I had already an earlier edition in my bookcase. I did not regret my purchase, because the new version is updated/upgraded and E.O. Wilson is an excellent author and scientist on the subject of evolution.
 The Diversity of Life January 3, 2007
2 out of 6 found this review helpful
To begin with, I would like to say that this book was fairly good. The book started talking about early life on this planet, the various pioneering species of early Earth, etc. The book then goes into detail about the eolutionary paths of some of these pioneer species and of evolution in general, and of how the biodiversity on Earth has grown both in size and complexity. Towards the end, the book goes into the human influence on the environment; mostly the negative effects of human activity on theenvironment. I read this book for an AP Environmental Science class, and although this book is not the best, it had many colorful graphics and was fairly interesting and not dull like many of the books you are forced to read in school.
A Good Introduction to the Tapestry Of Life August 27, 2006
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
This is a very eye-opening book which shows how important the diversity of life forms is to all of us. It demonstrates how even when we think we are conserving nature by setting aside
small areas to remain undeveloped, we are still dooming many species of life to extinction. With the loss of some species, others are threated and in the end, all of us are threatened.
I would recommend this book to anyone who wants a large view picture of nature in this world and how it is all interelated.
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Wildlife, nature and the Environment
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