Edward Osborne Wilson, a biologist and author who pioneered research on biodiversity, insects, and human nature — and earned two Pulitzer Prizes in the process — died on December 26, 2021, in Burlington, Massachusetts, at the ripe old age of 92.
His basic insight was that our continued existence is inextricably linked to the continued existence of all species that call our planet home. Nevertheless, our current destructive path is resulting in mass extinctions of species and irreversible damage to our planet.
Half-Earth: Our Planet's Fight for Life proposes a feasible strategy for reclaiming our imperilled biosphere: dedicate half of the Earth's surface to nature.
To avert mass extinctions of species, including our own, he urged the humanity to act swiftly to preserve our planet's biodiversity, Edward O. Wilson writes in his most passionate book to date. Half-Earth argues that the problem we face is too large to be solved piecemeal and proposes a solution commensurate with the problem's magnitude: dedicate fully half of the Earth's surface to nature.
If we are to embark on such an audacious endeavour, we must first comprehend what the biosphere is, why it is critical to our survival, and the myriad threats it faces today. Wilson explains how, in a fraction of a second of geological time, our species became the architects and rulers of this epoch and outlines the consequences for all life, both ours and the natural world, far into the future.
Half-Earth paints an enormously moving and naturalistic portrait of what we are losing when we clip "twigs and eventually entire branches of life's family tree." In elegiac prose, Wilson documents the numerous ongoing extinctions, paying tribute to creatures large and small, not least of which are the two Sumatran rhinos he encounters in captivity. Half-Earth is unique in that it considers not only large animals and prominent plant species, but also the millions of invertebrate animals and microorganisms that, despite their obscurity, form the foundations of Earth's ecosystems.
He asserts emphatically that the biosphere does not belong to us and debunks numerous fallacious notions, including the notion that ongoing extinctions can be offset by the introduction of alien species into new ecosystems or that extinct species can be cloned back to life. This includes a critique of the "anthropocenists," a fashionable group of revisionist environmentalists who believe that engineering and technology alone can save the human species.
Wilson is not a doomsayer resigned to fatalism, despite the Earth's sorry state. Contrary to popular belief, he argues that we still have time to set aside half of the Earth and identifies specific locations where Earth's biodiversity can be reclaimed. Half-Earth, imbued with a profound Darwinian understanding of our planet's fragility, resonates with an urgency unlike few other books, but it also offers an attainable goal for the sake of all life.
He believed that the problems we ourselves have created using our technology cannot be solved by technology, however better or improved it may be.
Technological problems can only be solved with better technology, coupled with deeper moral and spiritual wisdom!
He used to remind his audience that “We are drowning in information, while starving for wisdom.”. Further he was clear in reminding us: “If all mankind were to disappear, the world would regenerate back to the rich state of equilibrium that existed ten thousand years ago.” Can we listen to his warning, draw sufficient wisdom for our survival? Can we learn to live with nature and not against nature. This is also the message of Pope Francis in his 'Laudato Si’ and 'Fratelli Tutti'.
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