Wild Solutions: How Biodiversity is Money in the Bank - Hardcover

Beattie, Andrew; Ehrlich, Paul R.

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0300076363 ISBN 13: 9780300076363

Publisher: Yale University Press, 2001

Synopsis

In this fascinating and abundantly illustrated book, two eminent ecologists explain how the millions of species living on Earth?some microscopic, some obscure, many threatened?not only help keep us alive but also hold possibilities for previously unimagined products, medicines, and even industries. In an Afterword written especially for this edition, the authors consider the impact of two revolutions now taking place: the increasing rate at which we are discovering new species because of new technology available to us and the accelerating rate at which we are losing biological diversity. Also reviewed and summarized are many ?new” wild solutions, such as innovative approaches to the discovery of pharmaceuticals, the ?lotus effect,” the ever-growing importance of bacteria, molecular biomimetics, ecological restoration, and robotics.
?An easy read, generating a momentum of energy and excitement about the potential of the natural world to solve many of the problems that face us.”?E. J. Milner-Gulland, Nature
?Must-reading for everyone.”?Simon A. Levin, author of Fragile Dominion: Complexity and the Commons
?An engaging book clearly intended to impress upon a lay audience the practical value of biological diversity. . . . An outstanding work.”?Ecology
?A most stimulating read for all those budding science students from secondary through graduate schools.”?Science Books & Films

About this title

Review:

If there is an intelligence to the design of nature, an old question has it, then how could mosquitoes ever have come into being? Andrew Beattie and Paul Ehrlich have an answer: adult mosquitoes are an important source of food for birds, while their larvae are a major part of the diet of many species of fish. Moreover, mosquitoes pollinate some orchid species, and even their role in the spread of certain diseases appears to have a function in nature. Though it poses an annoyance and hazard, then, the mosquito has its place in the world, a world that is constantly impoverished by the destruction of species.

We humans, Beattie and Ehrlich suggest, are only beginning to understand that ecological health depends on the diversity of nature, a diversity that embraces mosquitoes. By way of illustration, they cite an experiment in which scientists created a sealed environment that was meant to approximate conditions in a self-supporting extraterrestrial colony--and that failed, in the end, because the scientists neglected to introduce easily overlooked but nonetheless critical microorganisms. "We are dependent in the short term," they write, "on many more kinds of organisms than it would seem at first glance." And, they add, humans directly benefit from the services that millions of species provide, whether appreciated or not. To remove those species, the authors argue, is akin to squandering a carefully built and irreplaceable fortune, "our biological wealth, our biological capital." Their thoughtful essay offers many reasons for curbing this spending spree. --Gregory McNamee

About the Author:

Andrew Beattie is director of the Commonwealth Key Centre for Biodiversity and Bioresources and Christine Turnbull is research associate, both at Macquarie University, Sidney, Australia. Paul R. Ehrlich is Bing Professor of Population Studies in the department of biological sciences at Stanford University.

About this edition

• Publisher: Yale University Press
• Publication date: 2001
• ISBN 10: 0300076363
• ISBN 13: 9780300076363
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 256
• Illustrator: Turnbull Christine