E.O. Wilson Optimistic On The Future of Life
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| E.O. Wilson |
The natural world is dissolving around us.
Ecologically, environmentally, biologically, things are looking grim.
It is reassuring, then, to know that Dr. Edward O. Wilson, a native of Alabama and widely heralded as one of the greatest scientific minds of the 20th century, is optimistic.
That's according to an article in the The Idaho Mountain Express.
Wilson's latest book, The Future of Life, combines arguments from biology, economics, ethical philosophy and spirituality to address today's most pressing environmental issues.
The book opens with a letter to Henry David Thoreau, a man he sees as a forerunner in the conservation spirit. Informing Thoreau of the great changes that have taken place in the natural world since his death, Wilson writes:
"Half of the great tropical forests have been cleared. The last frontiers of the world are effectively gone. Species of plants and animals are disappearing a hundred or more times faster than before the coming of humanity, and as many as half may be gone by the end of this century. An Armageddon is approaching at the beginning of the third millennium. But it is not the cosmic war and fiery collapse of mankind foretold in sacred scripture. It is the wreckage of the planet by an exuberantly plentiful and ingenious humanity."