From earliest times, human beings have noticed patterns in nature: night and day, tides and lunar cycles, the changing seasons, plant succession, and animal migration. While recognizing patterns conferred great survival advantage, we are now in danger from our own success in multiplying our numbers and altering those patterns for our own purposes.

It is imperative that we engage again with the patterns of nature, but this time, with awareness of our impact as a species. How will burgeoning human populations affect the health of ecosystems? Is loss of species simply a regrettable byproduct of human expansion? Or is the planet passing into a new epoch in just a few human generations?

Nature and Human Society presents a wide-ranging exploration of these and other fundamental questions about our relationship with the environment. This book features findings, insights, and informed speculations from key figures in the field: E.O. Wilson, Thomas Lovejoy, Peter H. Raven, Gretchen Daily, David Suzuki, Norman Myers, Paul Erlich, Michael Bean, and many others.

This volume explores the accelerated extinction of species and what we stand to lose?medicines, energy sources, crop pollination and pest control, the ability of water and soil to renew itself through biological processes, aesthetic and recreational benefits?and how these losses may be felt locally and acutely.

What are the specific threats to biodiversity? The book explores human population growth, the homogenization of biota as a result in tourism and trade, and other factors, including the social influences of law, religious belief, and public education.

Do we have the tools to protect biodiversity? The book looks at molecular genetics, satellite data, tools borrowed from medicine, and other scientific techniques to firm up our grasp of important processes in biology and earth science, including the "new" science of conservation biology.

Nature and Human Society helps us renew our understanding and appreciation for natural patterns, with surprising details about microorganisms, nematodes, and other overlooked forms of life: their numbers, pervasiveness, and importance to the health of the soil, water, and air and to a host of human endeavors.

This book will be of value to anyone who believes that the world's gross natural product is as important as the world's gross national product.

Table of Contents

Front Matter
Introduction
Part 1 Defining Biodiversity
Barriers to Perception: From a World of Interconnection to Fragmentation
The Creation of Biodiversity
The Dimensions of Life on Earth
The Sixth Extinction: How Large, Where, and When?
The Meaning of Biodiversity Loss
The Loss of Population Diversity and Why It Matters
Keeping a Finger on the Pulse of Marine Biodiversity: How Healthy Is It?
Countryside Biogeography and the Provision of Ecosystem Services
Part 2 Less Well-Known Individual Forms of Life
Microbial Diversity and the Biosphere
Biodiversity, Classification, and Numbers of Species of Protists
Estimating the Extent of Fungal Diversity in the Tropics
Nematodes: Pervading the Earth and Linking All Life
Global Diversity of Mites
Biodiversity of Terrestrial Invertebrates in Tropical Africa: Assessing the Needs and Plan of Action
Global Diversity of Insects: The Problems of Estimating Numbers
Part 3 The Role of the Group in Biodiversity
The World Beneath Our Feet: Soil Biodiversity and Ecosystem Functioning
Natural Investment in Diversity: The Role of Biological Communities in Soil
Part 4 Means to Measure Biodiversity
Conservation Biology and the Preservation of Biodiversity: An Assessment
Conservation Genetics: Applying Molecular Methods to Maximize the Conservation of Taxonomic and Genetic Diversity
Application of Geospatial Information for Identifying Priority Areas for Biodiversity Conservation
Hawaii Biological Survey: Museum Resources in Support of Conservation
Building the Next-Generation Biological-Information Infrastructure
Part 5 Threats to Sustainability
Nature Displaced: Human Population Trends and Projections and Their Meanings
Population Growth, Sustainable Development, and the Environment
Nonindigenous Species - A Global Threat to Biodiversity and Stability
Part 6 Infrastructure for Sustaining Biodiversity - Science
Science and the Public Trust in a Full World: Function and Dysfunction in Science and the Biosphere
The Response of the International Scientific Community to the Challenge of Biodiversity
The Millennium Seed Bank at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew
Charting the Biosphere: Building Global Capacity for Systematics Science
Science and Technology in the Convention on Biological Diversity
Ecology and the Knowledge Revolution
Part 7 Infrastructure for Sustaining Biodiversity - Society
Biodiversity: A World Bank Perspective
Creating Cultural Diversity: Tropical Forests Transformed
Endangered Plants, Vanishing Cultures: Ethnobotany and Conservation
Religion and Sustainability
Reaching the Public: The Challenge of Communicating Biodiversity
Center for Environmental Research and Conservation (CERC): A New Multi-Institutional Partnership to Prepare the Next Generation of Environmental Leaders
Natural Capitalism
Part 8 Infrastructure for Sustaining Biodiversity - Policy
Liking Science and Policy: A Research Agenda for Colombian Biodiversity
Sustainability and the Law: An Assessment of the Endangered Species Act
Government Policy and Sustainability of Biodiversity in Costa Rica
National Security, National Interest, and Sustainability
Biodiversity and Organizing for Sustainability in the United States Government
Part 9 Examples of Sustainability
How to Grow a Wildland: The Gardenification of Nature
Measures to Conserve Biodiversity in Sustainable Forestry: The Ro Cndor Project
Chemical Prospecting: The New Natural History
Conservation Medicine: An Emerging Field
How Countries with Limited Resources are Dealing with Biodiversity Problems
Biodiversity and Sustainable Human Development: The Costa Rican Agenda
The National Biodiversity Information System of Mexico
Community Involvement and Sustainability: The Malpai Borderlands Effort
Index

Nature and Human Society - sidottu, Englanti, 2000