Biological Extinction

Questions why species are becoming extinct, and how we can protect the natural world on which we all depend.

Introduction Partha Dasgupta and Peter Raven; Prologue. Extinction: what it means to us Martin Rees; 1. Extinction in deep time: lessons from the past? Neil Shubin; 2. Biodiversity and global change: from creator to victim Timothy Lenton; 3. The state of the world's biodiversity Stuart Pimm and Peter Raven; 4. Extinction threats to life in the ocean and opportunities for their amelioration Jenna Sullivan, Vanessa Constant and Jane Lubchenco; 5. Out of the soil: soil (dark matter biodiversity) and societal 'collapses' from Mesoamerica to the Mesopotamia and beyond Timothy Beach, Sheryl Luzzadder-Beach and Nicholas Dunning; 6. The Green Revolution and crop biodiversity Prabhu Pingali; 7. Population: the current state and future prospects John Bongaarts; 8. Game over? Drivers of biological extinction in Africa Calestous Juma; 9. Why we're in the sixth great extinction and what it means to humanity Partha Dasgupta and Paul Ehrlich; 10. The consequences of biodiversity loss for human well-being Charles Perrings and Ann Kinzig; 11. Terra incognita: in search of the disconnect Mathis Wackernagel; 12. How do we stem biodiversity loss? Gretchen Daily and Stephen Polasky; 13. Can smart villages help to stem biodiversity loss? Brian Heap, John Holmes and Bernie Jones; 14. The new design condition: planetary urbanism + resource scarcity + climate change John Hoal.