Dodging Extinction: Power, Food, Money, and the Future of Life on Earth

by Anthony D. Barnosky

Overview

Paleobiologist Anthony D. Barnosky weaves together evidence from the deep past and the present to alert us to the looming Sixth Mass Extinction and to offer a practical, hopeful plan for avoiding it. Writing from the front lines of extinction research, Barnosky tells the overarching story of geologic and evolutionary history and how it informs the way humans inhabit, exploit, and impact Earth today. He presents compelling evidence that unless we rethink how we generate the power we use to run our global ecosystem, where we get our food, and how we make our money, we will trigger what would be the sixth great extinction on Earth, with dire consequences.

Optimistic that we can change this ominous forecast if we act now, Barnosky provides clear-cut strategies to guide the planet away from global catastrophe. In many instances the necessary technology and know-how already exist and are being applied to crucial issues around human-caused climate change, feeding the world’s growing population, and exploiting natural resources. Deeply informed yet accessibly written, Dodging Extinction is nothing short of a guidebook for saving the planet.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780520292642
Publisher:	University of California Press
Publication date:	08/16/2016
Edition description:	First Edition
Pages:	256
Product dimensions:	5.80(w) x 8.70(h) x 0.70(d)

About the Author

Anthony D. Barnosky is a Professor in the Department of Integrative Biology, Curator in the Museum of Paleontology, and Research Paleoecologist in the Museum of Vertebrate Zoology at the University of California, Berkeley. He is the author of Heatstroke: Nature in an Age of Global Warming (Island Press) and editor of Biodiversity Response to Climate Change in the Middle Pleistocene (UC Press).

Table of Contents

Preface 
1. The Last Ones Standing 
2. It’s Not Too Late (Yet) 
3. A Perfect Storm 
4. Power 
5. Food 
6. Money 
7. Resuscitation 
8. Back from the Brink 
Acknowledgments 
Notes 
Index

Editorial Reviews

"A pragmatic approach to finding workable solutions to a looming crisis."

Kirkus Reviews

"Paleontologist Anthony Barnosky brings a sense of deep history to the present climate."

Conservation

"A rattling read and punchily packaged. Barnosky's prose is tight and accessible, and it lays the crisis on the line."

New Scientist

"Barnosky provides a long list of things we need to do to move to more efficient energy use."

Word & World

"Powerful and passionate prose. . . . Time may be short, but this is a message of hope for readers looking for a better future."

Publishers Weekly

"A superior synthesis of recent research from many scientific disciplines, this eloquent book could serve as a model for how scientists should write for nonspecialists about the critical environmental challenges of our time. An excellent companion to Elizabeth Kolbert’s The Sixth Extinction."

Library Journal

"Well-written and accessible . . . Barnosky provides an informed perspective of Earth’s past mass extinctions and the lessons that can be learned from them to understand the present crises . . . A must read for college students and a well-informed citizenry."

CHOICE

"Beautifully written. . . . A very learned book, but it's very approachable and fun. . . .  Anyone who is interested in the future of the planet or loves animals should check this one out ."—Best Science Books of 2014

Science Friday - Annalee Newitz

"Beautifully written. . . . A very learned book, but it's very approachable and fun. . . .  Anyone who is interested in the future of the planet or loves animals should check this one out ." -Annalee Newitz, The Best Science Books of 2014

Science Friday

"Well-written and accessible . . . Barnosky provides an informed perspective of Earth’s past mass extinctions and the lessons that can be learned from them to understand the present crises . . . A must read for college students and a well-informed citizenry."

CHOICE - C. A. McRoberts

"A rattling read and punchily packaged. Barnosky's prose is tight and accessible, and it lays the crisis on the line."

New Scientist

2014-07-30
A paleontologist warns that our planet may be on the verge of a "mass extinction—when more than 75% of the Earth's known species die off in a geological eye blink." This has occurred "five times in the 550 million years that diverse life has occupied Earth."Barnosky (Integrative Biology/Univ. of California; Heatstroke: Nature in an Age of Global Warming, 2008, etc.) offers an assessment of how we can avert such a disaster while providing a decent standard of living for the world's human population and protecting our fellow species. In support of his prediction of a looming catastrophic event, he notes that today, increasing numbers of species are threatened with extinction as their death rates exceed their birth rates. As the author writes, the sum of "vulnerable, endangered and critically endangered species is a whopping 20,614 species." In some instances, this is directly attributable to climate, but it is also due to the encroachment of humans. Barnosky examines recent evidence about the effects of global warming that supports his claim, including the calamitous results from Hurricane Sandy in 2012, when Arctic air moving south intensified the effects of the storm. The author emphasizes the need for a rapid shift to alternative energies. In his opinion, such a transformation can, and should, take place without jeopardizing "the high quality of life that billions of people now enjoy and billions more aspire to." Barnosky's goal is to significantly reduce global carbon emissions by 2050 using a variety of methods: carbon capture, protecting forests, soil conservation, a shift to wind and solar power, biofuels made from special grasses, electric cars and even advanced-design nuclear power generators. The author emphasizes that for such a program to succeed within 35 years, incentives must be offered entrepreneurs to encourage them to invest in green technologies. A pragmatic approach to finding workable solutions to a looming crisis.

Kirkus Reviews