United States
£ GBP
This short, provocative book by philosopher Bas Haring is explicitly not intended to deny disasters of downplay humanity's impact on nature. Haring addresses two questions: does biodiversity loss cause disaster, and is biodiversity loss (independent of possible consequences) a disaster by itself? The author argues there are various reasons to doubt both claims and that such claims are value judgements rather than sound science, putting the credibility of science at stake.
From the publisher's blurb:
"Evervone knows that species go extinct and biodiversity decreases, it seems obvious that this loss might have disastrous consequences. Maybe because of a cascading effect we will end up in a barren moonscape - and if that does not happen, we at the very least will remain dependent on biodiversity for food, health and well-being.
This publication tries to remove some fear, the author claims there are no reasons to believe that biodiversity loss will cause any kind of disaster. Nature is not like a machine that stalls if parts are being removed: a collapse of nature is not looming. And although specific are required for practicalities, this cannot be generalized to biodiversity overall. In this book Bas Haring argues that biodiversity loss is a pity, but not a disaster."
"After reading it, I suspect many people might still believe that biodiversity loss is a disaster, but at least they might now think a bit more about why they believe that."
– Kenneth Thompson, Emeritus, University of Sheffield
