Inheritors of the Earth

Inheritors of the Earth is the best book on biodiversity and conservation I’ve read. That’s because Chris Thomas takes a balanced approach to the survival of the world’s species. He finds reasons for optimism, without ignoring the serious challenges ahead.

Why do I love this book? I discovered it on Shepherd.com and soon found it provided invaluable background for my novel in progress.

But most of all Chris’s writing is so engaging, passionate, and funny. His hands-on research has taken him to far corners of the world and, while his currency is scientific, his views are grounded in a philosophy… show more.

This book made me rethink many of my assumptions about biodiversity, extinction risk, and conservation. Telling stories from his travels and from research around the world, biologist Chris Thomas points out a paradox: While species are going extinct at an exceptionally high rate, the number of species in most Belgium or Vermont-sized areas of the world is rising.

Thomas is not denying the threats to species or the need to conserve biodiversity. Far from it. But he argues that conservation is often misguided and inherently unsustainable, trying to achieve a nonexistent ‘wild’ state and ignoring nature’s dynamism. He proposes a… show more.

Nature is in crisis. Species are dying at record rates, and it’s easy to feel panic and despair over our world’s future—not unlike the nuclear-age anxiety that Stanley Kubrik captured so well in Dr. Strangelove. But what if, Chris Thomas suggests, this isn’t the end? New species are also evolving at record rates, and bioengineering can accelerate that process. It’s possible we could use it to help foster a revolution of evolution. It’s hard to be an optimist in times like these, but Thomas inspires hope. All we need to do is accept that saving the world means embracing… show more.

We are all so primed to view environmental change as disastrous and undesired. But Chris Thomas helps us to separate the ecological wheat from the chaff. Ecological change is a normal part of the history of life on earth and our presence indeed causes species and ecosystems to reinvent themselves. But in doing so, they create ecological novelties that we could embrace, rather than fight.