Life in the Balance: Humanity and the Biodiversity Crisis

In Life in the Balance, Niles Eldredge argues that the Earth is confronting a disaster in the making—an ecological crisis that, if left unresolved, could ultimately lead to mass extinction on the scale of that which killed the dinosaurs sixty-five million years ago. Writing for general readers, he reviews compelling evidence for this "biodiversity crisis," showing that species are dying out at an unnaturally rapid rate. He demonstrates the importance of maintaining biodiversity, taking the ...