Sparing Nature: The Conflict between Human Population Growth and Earth's Biodiversity / Edition 1

by Jeffrey K. McKee

Overview

Are humans too good at adapting to the earth’s natural environment? Every day, there is a net gain of more than 200,000 people on the planet—that’s 146 a minute. Has our explosive population growth led to the mass extinction of countless species in the earth’s plant and animal communities?

Jeffrey K. McKee contends yes. The more people there are, the more we push aside wild plants and animals. In Sparing Nature, he explores the cause-and-effect relationship between these two trends, demonstrating that nature is too sparing to accommodate both a richly diverse living world and a rapidly expanding number of people. The author probes the past to find that humans and their ancestors have had negative impacts on species biodiversity for nearly two million years, and that extinction rates have accelerated since the origins of agriculture. Today entire ecosystems are in peril due to the relentless growth of the human population. McKee gives a guided tour of the interconnections within the living world to reveal the meaning and value of biodiversity, making the maze of technical research and scientific debates accessible to the general reader. Because it is clear that conservation cannot be left to the whims of changing human priorities, McKee takes the unabashedly neo-Malthusian position that the most effective measure to save earth’s biodiversity is to slow the growth of human populations. By conscientiously becoming more responsible about our reproductive habits and our impact on other living beings, we can ensure that nature’s services will make our lives not only supportable, but also sustainable for this century and beyond.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780813535586
Publisher:	Rutgers University Press
Publication date:	01/31/2005
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	224
Product dimensions:	5.90(w) x 8.90(h) x 0.60(d)
Lexile:	1270L (what's this?)

About the Author

Jeffrey K. McKee is an associate professor in the department of anthropology as well as the department of evolution, ecology, and organismal biology at The Ohio State University. He is the author of The Riddled Chain: Chance, Coincidence, and Chaos in Human Evolution (Rutgers University Press) and coauthor of Understanding Human Evolution.

Table of Contents

Preface
Chapter 1 Sparing Nature
Chapter 2 The Scattered Seeds
Chapter 3 The Human Wedge
Chapter 4 Genesis of a Crisis
Chapter 5 Germs of Existence
Chapter 6 The Great Restrictive Law
Chapter 7 Good to the Last Drop
Chapter 8 Biodiversity in Action
Chapter 9 Epilogue: The Keystone Species with a Choice
Notes
Index

Editorial Reviews

Jeff McKee is bringing to Sparing Nature the same graceful writing style combined with the insights of a fine scientist that I found in The Riddled Chain. Furthermore, his timing is exquisite, since the close relationship of human population growth and the decay of biodiverisity has not been brought to popular audiences in far too long.

Bing Professor of Population Studies, Stanford University - Paul Ehrlich

Jeffrey McKee leads us on an engaging yet unblinking exploration of the shadow that looms, largely unconfronted, over efforts to save room and resources for the other creatures with whom we share the planet—the shadow of relentless human population growth. Even our best efforts to conserve biodiversity and step more lightly on the planet that sustains us are ultimately futile if we continue to add 200,000 people each day to the human population.

author of A Plague of Rats & Rubbervines - Yvonne Baskin

Jeff McKee is bringing to Sparing Nature the same graceful writing style combined with the insights of a fine scientist that I found in The Riddled Chain. Furthermore, his timing is exquisite, since the close relationship of human population growth and the decay of biodiverisity has not been brought to popular audiences in far too long.

From the Publisher