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Inheritors of the Earth : how nature is thriving in an age of extinction / Chris D. Thomas.

by Thomas, C. D.

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Public Affairs, 2017.

Extinction (Biology)

Nature -- Effect of human beings on.

Evolution (Biology)

9781610397278 (hc.)

viii, 300 pages : illustrations, maps ; 24 cm

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Part I. Opportunity. Prologue: Gains and losses ; Biogenesis -- Part II. New Pangea. Prelude ; Fall and rise ; Never had it so good ; Steaming ahead ; Pangea reunited -- Part III. Genesis six. Prelude ; Heirs to the world ; Evolution never gives up ; The Pangean archipelago ; Hybrid -- Part IV. Anthropocene Park. Prelude ; The new natural ; Noah's Earth -- Epilogue: One million years AD.

It is accepted wisdom today that human beings have irrevocably damaged the natural world. Yet what if this obscures a more hopeful truth? Ecologist and environmentalist Chris D. Thomas reveals how nature is fighting back. Many animals and plants actually benefit from our presence, raising biological diversity in most parts of the world and increasing the rate at which new species are formed, perhaps to the highest level in Earth's history. From Costa Rican tropical forests to the thoroughly transformed British landscape, nature is coping surprisingly well in the human epoch. Chris Thomas takes us on a round-the-world journey to meet the enterprising creatures that are thriving in the Anthropocene, from York's ochre-coloured comma butterfly to hybrid bison in North America, scarlet-beaked pukekos in New Zealand, and Asian palms forming thickets in the European Alps. He questions our irrational persecution of so-called 'invasive species', and shows us that we should not treat the Earth as a faded masterpiece that we need to restore. After all, if life can recover from the asteroid that killed off the dinosaurs, might it not be able to survive the onslaughts of a technological ape? Chris D. Thomas is a professor of conservation biology at the University of York, UK.

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