Sierra - Jessi Phillips
"Few experts have offered such an exuberant and optimistic plan for dealing with [climate change] as biologist Edward O. Wilson…The strength of his argument lies in his ability to elegantly unveil the bigger picture, and to define and examine what in our essential human nature has led us to this point…[W]e need Wilson’s reminder that we are not demigods, but are instead, as he puts it, ‘a biological species tied to this particular biological world.’"
The National - Matthew Price
"Wilson’s passion for the planet shines through on these pages. He looks at life in its broadest, grandest sweep…Wilson is a thinker in the tradition of Alexander von Humboldt."
Jeffrey Sachs
"If humankind finds a way to live in peace together, and in harmony with nature, Wilson will have played a unique role in that deliverance."
Stephen Greenblatt
"Edward O. Wilson possesses a rare, almost unique, combination of immense scientific knowledge and deep humane intelligence. Looking around him at the beloved natural world he has done so much to understand and taking the measure of the massive damage to it caused by human stupidity and greed, he has every reason to succumb to despair. But Half-Earth is not a bitter jeremiad. It is a brave expression of hope, a visionary blueprint for saving the planet."
Guardian - Robin McKie
"As an outline of our terrible ecological plight, it does a first-class job."
Oliver Sacks
"Wilson speaks with a humane eloquence which calls to us all."
Philadelphia Inquirer - Mike Weilbacher
"An audacious idea that might jump-start a lagging conversation about a burning issue…[I]f Half-Earth takes us any closer to sparking greater effort, it will cement Wilson’s already remarkable legacy."
Kirkus Reviews
2015-12-17
The noted naturalist and Pulitzer Prize-winning author again waxes eloquent on behalf of the biosphere. In this final volume of his trilogy, Wilson (The Meaning of Human Existence, 2014, etc.) opens with a compelling proposal on how to slow current species extinction rates: set aside half of the planet (noncontiguously) as wilderness preserves free from human encroachment, a measure that the author claims would stabilize more than 80 percent of species. After all, it's the spread of humanity that has accelerated rates of extinction by 1,000 times, and it is human activity that is the driving force of the mass extinction currently underway, a threat to biodiversity equal to the destructive power of the Chicxulub asteroid strike that wiped out 70 percent of species 65 million years ago. Wilson, the world's leading myrmecologist, who has described roughly 450 new ant species during his career, predicts that, under current conditions, one-quarter to one-half of currently surviving species will survive to the end of the century. If the rhetoric sounds familiar, it's because this is ground that Wilson has covered extensively in previous publications. In this latest version, the author speaks against a growing movement of Anthropocene extremists who hold that biodiversity should be judged according to its usefulness to humanity. Countering that it is humanity that now needs to act in the interests of the biosphere, Wilson delves into the plights of specific species, including rhinos, frogs, monarch butterflies, woodpeckers, and beetles. Though unquestionably well-versed in the nature of the problem, the author is fuzzy on the solution. In the final pages, he skirts the issue of how we're to set aside 50 percent of the planet, instead making speculations about technological innovation and intensive economic growth intrinsically altering the behavior of individuals and changing the world. Not so much a potent plan as another informed plea for humanity to act as stewards of the biosphere rather than owners.
