Life Out of Bounds: Bioinvasion in a Borderless World (Worldwatch Environmental Alert) - Softcover

Bright, Chris

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0393318141 ISBN 13: 9780393318142

Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company, 1998

Synopsis

The first general-interest study of the global spread of alien, "exotic" organisms and how they are undermining the world's ecosystems and societies.

Worldwatch Institute researcher Chris Bright explains why conservation biologists are raising the alarm about a global threat to biodiversity that is unfolding largely unnoticed ― bioinvasion, the spread of alien, "exotic" organisms.

With the exception of a few spectacular invasions, like the zebra mussel's conquest of the Great Lakes, there has been little public recognition of the dangers posed by these invading species. But exotic species are injuring our biological wealth on virtually every level ― from the genetic (when exotics interbreed with native species) to the wholesale transformation of landscapes.

Life Out of Bounds shows that this "biological pollution" is now beginning to corrode the world's economies as well. But the policy responses, on both the national and international levels, have usually been weak and uncoordinated. This book outlines the current scientific research on the threat, the social and economic implications if these invasions are allowed to continue unchecked, and steps that can be taken to contain the spread of exotic species.

About this title

About the Author:

Chris Bright is a research associate at the Worldwatch Institute in Washington, D.C.

From Publishers Weekly:

Bioinvasion, or "the spread of exotics" as Bright terms it, causes both economic and ecological disasters. According to Bright, a research associate at Worldwatch, islands showcase the most dramatic effects of bioinvasion. Hawaii is "the extinction capital of the United States," a place whose unusually rich biota is becoming extinct at a rapid rate. That state's endemic species are now overrun by imported exotics: rats, owls, myna birds, mosquitoes, ants, pigs and goats. But not only islands are ravaged by bioinvasion. Conservative estimates, Bright says, place worldwide extinctions at "4,000 species a year, or about 11 per day." In his final chapter, "Remedies," Bright contends that we can exercise control over bioinvasion through more accessible information, treaties, laws and biotechnical efforts developed in labs (such as rendering a ship's bilge water free of organisms before dumping it). He stresses one remedy in particular?an ecologically literate society: "The only real hope against invasion is a public that values the creatures that belong where they are." Readers may find themselves alternately amazed and depressed by this thoroughly researched volume, an entry in the Worldwatch Environmental series.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About this edition

• Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
• Publication date: 1998
• ISBN 10: 0393318141
• ISBN 13: 9780393318142
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 292