Half-Earth: Our Planet's Fight for Life

Summary

Half-Earth proposes an achievable plan to save our imperiled biosphere: devote half the surface of the Earth to nature.

Edward O. Wilson, Pulitzer Prize winner and world-renowned biologist, states that in order to stave off the mass extinction of species, including our own, we must move swiftly to preserve the biodiversity of our planet.

In elegiac prose, Wilson documents the many ongoing extinctions that are imminent, paying tribute to creatures great and small, not the least of them the two Sumatran rhinos whom he encountered in captivity. Uniquely, Half-Earth considers not only the large animals and star species of plants but also the millions of invertebrate animals and microorganisms that, despite being overlooked, form the foundations of Earth's ecosystems.

In this visionary blueprint for saving the planet, Half-Earth argues that the situation facing us is too large to be solved piecemeal and proposes a solution commensurate with the magnitude of the problem: dedicate fully half the surface of the Earth to nature. Identifying actual regions of the planet that can still be reclaimed―such as the California redwood forest, the Amazon River basin, and grasslands of the Serengeti, among others―Wilson puts aside the prevailing pessimism of our times .