Sustaining Life: How Human Health Depends on Biodiversity [Hardcover]

Eric Chivian (Editor), Aaron Bernstein (Editor)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0195175093 | ISBN-13: 978-0195175097 | Publication Date: June 2, 2008 | Edition: Ill

The Earth's biodiversity-the rich variety of life on our planet-is disappearing at an alarming rate. And while many books have focused on the expected ecological consequences, or on the aesthetic, ethical, sociological, or economic dimensions of this loss, Sustaining Life is the first book to examine the full range of potential threats that diminishing biodiversity poses to human health.

Edited and written by Harvard Medical School physicians Eric Chivian and Aaron Bernstein, along with more than 100 leading scientists who contributed to writing and reviewing the book, Sustaining Life presents a comprehensive--and sobering--view of how human medicines, biomedical research, the emergence and spread of infectious diseases, and the production of food, both on land and in the oceans, depend on biodiversity. The book's ten chapters cover everything from what biodiversity is and how human activity threatens it to how we as individuals can help conserve the world's richly varied biota. Seven groups of organisms, some of the most endangered on Earth, provide detailed case studies to illustrate the contributions they have already made to human medicine, and those they are expected to make if we do not drive them to extinction. Drawing on the latest research, but written in language a general reader can easily follow, Sustaining Life argues that we can no longer see ourselves as separate from the natural world, nor assume that we will not be harmed by its alteration. Our health, as the authors so vividly show, depends on the health of other species and on the vitality of natural ecosystems.

With a foreword by E.O. Wilson and a prologue by Kofi Annan, and more than 200 poignant color illustrations, Sustaining Life contributes essential perspective to the debate over how humans affect biodiversity and a compelling demonstration of the human health costs. It is the winner of the Gerald L. Young Book Award in Human Ecology Best Sci-Tech Books of 2008 for Biology by Gregg Sapp of Library Journal

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Starred Review. In 1992, the Center for Health and the Global Environment at Harvard Medical School agreed to coordinate a massive, international scientific effort under the direction of Nobel Peace Prize-winning scientist and author Chivian (Critical Condition: Human Health and the Environment) to catalog "what was known about how other species contribute to human health." The result of that extraordinary collaboration, involving more than 100 contributors, is this thorough volume, an invaluable resource for policy makers and a fascinating exploration for general readers of their hyper-connected biosphere. Species diversity, it turns out, acts as a kind of insurance policy for humans, by buffering stresses to the environment. The "mosaic of ecosystems" provide "services" (food, timber, air and water purification, waste decomposition, climate regulation) necessary for life that, due to their complexity and scale, are almost impossible to substitute. Naturally, the system is robust but vulnerable: the vultures of southern Asia, for instance, are threatened with extinction because their natural diet-carrion-has been poisoned with medicine routinely prescribed for livestock and humans. Another "service" contributed by the ecosystem is the highly useful E. coli bacteria, used in biomedical research to develop new medications and provide insight into Alzheimer's and other diseases. This book represents a landmark addition to our understanding of our ecological heritage, and the importance of preserving it. 175 color illus.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist

A collaborative survey of biodiversity issues written and/or reviewed for accuracy by more than 100 scientists, this volume is motivated by its UN sponsors’ sense of the world populace’s indifference to the consequences of environmental degradation. Conceiving that implicating human health with the health of other species may enlist its concern, the authors collectively warn that present extinction rates are abnormally high. Seven categories of endangered species stand in as portents of the dire effects to ecosystems when extinction occurs. One chapter’s discussion about the pharmaceutical value of species in the wild warns of irreparable impairment of medical discovery whenever a species expires. Such unaccounted benefits of biodiversity amount to this volume’s major theme: the free “ecosystem services,” such as cleanliness and fecundity, furnished to watersheds and soils. Criticizing modern, industrial-scale marine fishing and agricultural practices, this volume holds forth organic farming as a viable alternative and offers readers an action list of things to do and organizations to join. Abundantly illustrated, this is a valuable, urgent resource suited to any general-interest library. --Gilbert Taylor

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 568 pages
• Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA; Ill edition (June 2, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0195175093
• ISBN-13: 978-0195175097
• Product Dimensions: 10.9 x 8.7 x 1.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #71,064 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

28 of 29 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Crucially important, October 17, 2008

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cachkn46 (Massachusetts, USA) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: Sustaining Life: How Human Health Depends on Biodiversity (Hardcover)

Wow! What a comprehensive piece of work. I believe "Sustaining Life" will prove to be one of the most important books of the 21st century.

I lead a small, volunteer-run conservation organization. Our objective is to educate the public about our local fauna and flora, to get them outdoors and to inspire an appreciation for wildlife and an understanding of their habitat needs. We emphasize tolerance for wild animals which increasingly come into conflict with us, as our own population expands and development marches onward.

Early on in this work, however, it became evident to me that the average person does not see much intrinsic value to wildlife, nor believes that other species have any inherent right to occupy space on this planet. Instead, people want to know how they themselves might benefit, (beyond aesthetics and recreational opportunities), from protecting wildlife and their habitats. Why limit our own expansion for the benefit of wildlife? Why not shoot the coyote who took a lamb, the fisher that snatched a cat, the fox who snuck off with a chicken, or the groundhog who eats in a vegetable garden? Why spend money on protective fencing, guard animals, or land conservation? "What's in it for me?" they want to know.

So, I decided I needed to learn the answers to these questions: to learn more about how biodiversity benefits people. I found this book and read it cover to cover. It is full of detailed examples of what Nature does for us, why all species, from fungi to polar bears, are important for our own survival, how healthy ecosystems ensure clean water and clean air, how countless individual species provide for our food production and medical treatments, and how a loss of biodiversity has, time and again, resulted in outbreaks of human infectious disease. There are many concrete examples in this book that I can use in my own work with the public, to help them understand why tolerating wildlife and protecting habitat are important for their own existence, and that of their children and grand children to come. Exactly what I needed.

This book is well organized and beautifully put together with stunning photos. It is written well enough to be read cover to cover, and valuable as a resource to which I will frequently refer. It assumes no detailed scientific knowledge on the part of the reader, as many technical terms are defined. However, it is densely packed with information and would probably be a very challenging read for someone who lacks a strong science background.

I do have one criticism. The editors occasionally make reference to the destructive effects of human overpopulation, but seem satisfied to give the subject only brief mention and then to quickly turn away from it. Well, it is certainly safer to tiptoe around this extremely important taboo of a topic, but it felt to me to be a cop out. After all, they argue that we need to preserve the world's flora and fauna so that we can develop more and better treatments for human illnesses. But what is the result of all that resource intensive medical research and treatment if not reduced human mortality and increased human population?

Even with the current human population, it may not be possible for us to live sustainably enough to halt the current extinction crisis, while at the same time provide people with better medical care. The editors present a graph on p. 408 which shows that in order for people to live sustainably, based on the 2001 human population, each person's ecological footprint would have to be, on average, only slightly higher than that of the average African, tens of thousands of whom receive no medical care at all. In light of this, I was disappointed that the editors avoided direct discussion of the need to maintain our own population at a lower level, and neglected to include, in their otherwise very helpful chapter entitled "What Individuals Can Do to Help Conserve Biodiversity", a suggestion that couples consider having only one or two children.

Nonetheless, I still think this book is outstanding. No other book that I could find addresses so comprehensively how important other species are for our own continued existence. I am deeply grateful to Drs. Chivian and Bernstein for taking on the enormous task of putting together this magnificent volume.

19 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A must have for conservationists and general public (and cheap!!), June 24, 2008

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C. Silva (Santiago, Chile) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Sustaining Life: How Human Health Depends on Biodiversity (Hardcover)

First the more practical stuff. I think the book is very cheap, because I found for a much higher price somewhere else, but also because of its size and print quality (I expected something smaller). And it arrived very fast (I got super-fast shipping for free).
Now the book. I like that it has a lot of figures. I'm a scientist and usually have to read long, black and white papers, with only formal figures. Adding figures to text books is not cheap, but is makes is much more reader-friendly. Also, it is written in a non-scientific language so that anybody can read it, and it explains all necessary scientific terms. This might be a bit boring for those familiar with terminology, but I think its better that way, because this is NOT a scientific text book, it aims to reach wider audiences. thus, it has ''basic'' chapters on what biodiversity is and why is it threatened. Still, the book is essential for conservationists. It contains many hard data on why biological conservation is not just something we should promote because of aesthetic or recreational purposes but because of live and dead issues such as medical research and disease spreading. I would have liked though more than the seven groups of living organism that were reviewed in this book, for example fungi.
This book is somehow a mixture of scientific data with general environmental education. Something I will use for my work and also to share with my friends and (future) children.

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Inspiring, October 25, 2008

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Sally Clark (Massachusetts) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Sustaining Life: How Human Health Depends on Biodiversity (Hardcover)

Educational and intesting. Includes excellent discussion on biodiversity and ecosystems, and ties these into topics from medicines and human health to food and farming. Finally it closes with a discussion on what people can do. Clear explanations, good list of references and further reading.