How much do we really know about the species that make up the natural world? In this fascinating book Ken Thompson explains what we do and don't understand about biodiversity. We know that most species remain undiscovered, and that biodiversity is gravely threatened - by overfishing, habitat loss, pollution and climate change. Life on Earth has previously experienced five episodes of mass extinction, and we are now in the middle of a sixth.
Do We Need Pandas? surveys the Earth's biodiversity, its origins and some of the threats it currently faces. It then asks how biodiversity loss will affect the human race. Will we even notice, and if we do, what will we notice? It asks what we should be doing to secure the survival not only of the species with which we share the planet, but of ourselves - and whether we need to be more concerned about ecosystems as a whole than about iconic species.
- ISBN10 130604037X
- ISBN13 9781306040372
- Publish Date 1 November 2013 (first published 14 September 2010)
- Publish Status Active
- Out of Print 28 October 2014
- Publish Country US
- Imprint Green Books
- Format eBook
- Pages 161
- Language English