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Edward O. Wilson is the author of two Pulitzer Prize-winning books, On Human Nature (1978) and The Ants (1990, with Bert Hölldobler), as well as many other groundbreaking works, including Consilience, Naturalist, and Sociobiology. A recipient of many of the world’s leading prizes in science and conservation, he is currently Pellegrino University Research Professor and Honorary Curator in Entomology of the Museum of Comparative Zoology at Harvard University. He lives in Lexington, Massachusetts, with his wife, Renee. [Edit review] [Delete review]

1. In his prologue, Wilson addresses Henry David Thoreau, the nineteenth-century naturalist: “I came because of all your contemporaries you are the one I most need to understand” [pp. xi-xii]. If you have read Thoreau’s Walden, what do you think Thoreau would make of the present state of the earth as described in Wilson's The Future of Life? Why is it important to Wilson to make personal connections between himself and Darwin, Huxley, and Thoreau [see p. xii]? Why does Wilson begin his book with this homage to Thoreau? What specifically about Thoreau’s approach to life does Wilson wish people would begin to emulate?

2. Many organisms and ecosystems unfamiliar to nonscientists are described in these pages, particularly chapter 1, “To the Ends of Earth.” What is the effect of reading about extremophiles, radiation-resistant bacteria, the deeps of the Mariana Trench, the environment of the McMurdo Dry Valleys, and the bacteria... [More...] [Edit review] [Delete review]

One of the world’s most important scientists, Edward O. Wilson is also an abundantly talented writer who has twice won the Pulitzer Prize. In this, his most personal and timely book to date, he assesses the precarious state of our environment, examining the mass extinctions occurring in our time and the natural treasures we are about to lose forever. Yet, rather than eschewing doomsday prophesies, he spells out a specific plan to save our world while there is still time. His vision is a hopeful one, as economically sound as it is environmentally necessary. Eloquent, practical and wise, this book should be read and studied by anyone concerned with the fate of the natural world. [Edit review] [Delete review]

“Wilson, perhaps our greatest living scientist . . . offers the most powerful indictment yet of humanity as destroyer.” –San Francisco Chronicle Observer

“His book eloquently makes one thing clear: . . . we know what we do, and we have a choice.” –The New York Times Book Review

“The Future of Life makes it clear once again that Wilson is one of our most gifted science writers.” –The Washington Post

“[An] elegant manifesto. . . . [A] nuanced and evocative explanation of just why biodiversity matters.” –The New Yorker

“Wilson writes with a magisterial tone. . . . The Future of Life is the work of a man with deep convictions who is also utterly reasonable.” –Bill McKibben, The Boston Globe

“A critical report card for planet Earth, an urgent manifesto on global action, an eloquent plea . . . A literate,... [More...] [Edit review] [Delete review]

Chapter 1

TO THE ENDS OF EARTH

The totality of life, known as the biosphere to scientists and creation to theologians, is a membrane of organisms wrapped around Earth so thin it cannot be seen edgewise from a space shuttle, yet so internally complex that most species composing it remain undiscovered. The membrane is seamless. From Everest's peak to the floor of the Mariana Trench, creatures of one kind or another inhabit virtually every square inch of the planetary surface. They obey the fundamental principle of biological geography, that wherever there is liquid water, organic molecules, and an energy source, there is life. Given the near-universality of organic materials and energy of some kind or other, water is the deciding element on planet Earth. It may be no more than a transient film on grains of sand, it may never see sunlight, it may be boiling hot or supercooled, but there will be some kind of organism living in or upon it. Even if nothing alive is visible... [More...] [Edit review] [Delete review]