THE CREATION, AN APPEAL TO SAVE LIFE ON EARTH
By E.O. Wilson
W.W. Norton & Company, 2007
Category: Adult Non-fiction
I am reading a lot of non-fiction these days. It started out as an Earth Day thing … I had several environmentally-themed books I had been wanting to read, and Earth Day seemed a good reason to start in on them. And I haven’t been able to stop.
Anyhoo …
Edward O. Wilson has a simple idea. Instead of focusing on the differences between those of us who praise reason and those of us who praise religion, why not focus on that which we hold in common: a dependence on Earth’s biodiversity. Wilson argues that rallying around one inescapable truth—that we humans have a profound impact our environment—will not only breed respect and understanding, but also help to save life on earth.
I applaud Wilson’s idea and recommend his book to anyone interested in a naturalist’s view of the state of our planet. But there were other reasons the book fascinated me. It is chock full of information that shocked my sense of magnitude. For example, did you know that:
“It is mathematically possible to log-stack all the people on Earth into a single block of one cubic mile and lower them out of sight in a remote part of the Grand Canyon.”
Clearly I have underestimated the scale of the Grand Canyon. Or perhaps I have overestimated the pervasive-ness of humankind? Does this statement leave anyone else with their mouth hanging open?
I’ll leave you with a final quote from THE CREATION.
“The power of science comes not from scientists but from its method.”
Amen to that.