The Dominant Animal: Human Evolution and the Environment (Hardcover)

~ Paul R. Ehrlich (Author), Anne H. Ehrlich (Author)
Key Phrases: global heating, foresight capability, dominant animal, The Dominant Animal, United States, Tackling Unanticipated Consequences (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Review

"This is a grand tour of the current state of ecological science, and a tour de force of observation, insight, and suggestion." (Bill McKibben author of The Bill McKibben Reader )

"No other scientific couple could produce a book of this brilliance on where we came from and where we''re going. The Ehrlichs, who have been at the cutting edge of the science, have interwoven evolutionary history and our environmental dilemma into a compelling and vital story." (John P. Holdren, Director, The Woods Hole Research Center and Teresa and John Heinz Professor of Environmental Policy, Harvard University )

"This is a brilliant and fascinating account of how we became the planet''s ruling species and now the major force determining the future of evolution. The Ehrlichs'' broad perspective and lucid prose bring fresh understanding to what''s going on in the world today. Everyone should read this book." (Peter H. Raven President, Missouri Botanical Garden )

"While the world suffers from natural disasters, inflated energy costs, and unsustainable consumption patterns, the Ehrlichs make hopeful suggestions for sustainability and reduced vulnerability." (Library Journal )

".The Dominant Animal tells the story of how mankind came to dominate nearly every inch of the earth. [It] spans the entire history of the world, weaving both cultural and biological evolution into the ambitious narrative. At its core are timely questions we would all do well to consider: Is it in our best interest to dominate Earth? Are we creating a future we want to live in?" (Plenty )

"[The Ehrlichs] argue clearly and convincingly ... this fascinating, inspiring book [deserves a] wide audience." (Publishers Weekly )

"Alpha male and female of contemporary science ... the Ehrlichs convey a message at once chilling and hopeful.. The big ideas and the tenor of The Dominant Animal are right on. The book rejects starry eyed insistence on new technology as humankind''s savior in favor of socially responsible, if admittedly difficult-to-enact, prescriptions." (Seed )

"No one has more authority to write on these matters than the husband-and-wife team of Stanford biologists Paul and Anne Ehrlich. For decades now they have been documenting and warning of humans'' effects on the environment. Their new book, The Dominant Animal, continues their chronicle of the damage we have done to our home.. This is an important book,with much information and some really stimulating ideas. We need to build on these ideas, because the world is in an environmental mess and things are not getting better." (Washington Post )

One of the essential books of 2008.... The Ehrlichs walk you through a basic course in evolution and genetics before moving into a cultural evolution and its devastating impact on ecosystems, worldwide. (Nuvo Weekly )

The Ehrlichs, in The Dominant Animal, cover an enormous amount of scientific ground in looking at both the big picture in terms of environmental dangers and challenges while also offering detailed explanations of how humans have evolved, both genetically and culturally, within our environment. The book relates precise science in easily understandable terms. (Palo Alto Weekly )

Covering a vast swathe of disciplines, from genetics, evolution and ecology to climatology, economics and global politics, the book almost reads like a primer for the concerned citizen.... This marvellous compendium should be required reading. (New Scientist )

In The Dominant Animal, the Ehrlichs step back and analyse the big picture, looking carefully at how humans have evolved to dominance and, in the process, are laying waste the planet. Their message is that our technological advances aren''t matched by how well we treat one another or the environment around us. (Vancouver Sun )

Imagine a UN Millennium Assessment of Human Behavior! This an important and sobering work. (Shift )

Is there an armchair scientist on your gift list? Then you can''t go wrong with The Dominant Animal: Human Evolution and the Environment by Paul R. Ehrlich and Anne H. Ehrlich. This fascinating book is not for a lightweight; it''s filled with hypotheses, insight and ideas for thinkers. This is a perfect gift for someone who loves to study culture, but will also be a great for anyone who''s trying to "go green" this year." (Eagle Tribune )

One of the "Best of 2008 Sci-Tech Books" (Library Journal )

"Buy this for your next seminar class.... or be inspired and make an undergraduate course out of it...Yes, you''ve read some of this before, but not all of it, and not told so well, or with such passion and humor." (Stuart Pimm Trends in Ecology and Evolution )

"This sparkling book is a great guide to what''s essential about humans, the world, and how they affect each other. Along the way, you''ll pick up delicious tidbits such as what Mussolini''s basic problem was, and why we are so sure that tiny sequoia seeds grow into 300-foot sequoia trees even though no one has ever seen it happen." (Jared Diamond, Professor of Geography at UCLA and author of prize-winning books such as Collapse and Guns, Germs, and Steel )

Product Description

Renowned Stanford scientists Paul R. Ehrlich and Anne H. Ehrlich believe that intelligently addressing today’s great environmental and social challenges requires a clear understanding of how we evolved and how we’re changing the planet. The Dominant Animal offers readers that knowledge, tracing the interplay between environmental change and genetic and cultural evolution since the dawn of humanity. Tackling the fundamental challenge of the human predicament, Paul and Anne Ehrlich offer a vivid and unique exploration of our origins, our evolution, and our future.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 440 pages
• Publisher: Island Press; 1 edition (June 30, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1597260967
• ISBN-13: 978-1597260961
• Product Dimensions: 9.4 x 6.7 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.7 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (20 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #103,844 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

23 of 32 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The most important book I've read this year, July 6, 2008

By	Lena R. (Maryland, USA) - See all my reviews

Paul and Anne Ehrlich's THE DOMINANT ANIMAL is not only the most sensible and up-to-date book I've read about sustainability; it's also well organized and well written, a true delight to read. As the bad news increasingly piles up -- mass extinctions on land and in the oceans, decreased availability of cheap energy, increased unemployment, floods and droughts leading to crop failures, polar ice caps melting, and famines, to mention only a few -- it becomes crucial that we quickly make informed and sensible choices. THE DOMINANT ANIMAL provides well researched and balanced pros and cons about the most important issues facing us today. I can only agree with the solutions the authors favor, from the unbridled consumption issue (my current line of work) to their analysis of nuclear energy, pp. 306-308 (pertinent to my past life as a physicist). Though the news are grim, I have great hope that if books such as this are widely read we'll be able save ourselves and our grandchildren from a very harsh future that is already encroaching on us.

6 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars The Story of Evolution, Humankind, Environment, --All in One, September 24, 2008

By	Bruce M. Beehler - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

The Ehrlich's have produced a magistral review of everything the reader needs to know in order to properly understand what humankind is doing to the global environment. The background education offered on evolutionary biology, the evolution of culture, and the global environment, is breathtaking, and at times demanding of the reader. The most important part of the book is the last third, which tackles the current state of the earth and prospects and prescriptions for the future.This is an important book and deserves reading by decision-makers and informed citizens. I recommend it!

7 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Other Dominant Animals, October 20, 2008

By	Rob R. Dunn (Raleigh, NC USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I read this book several times. Each time I was surprised. The Dominant Animal begins by considering the ways in which humans influence the environment and the environment, modified by humans, shapes everything else. The book then parades through the delightful minds of Paul and Anne Ehrlich. In that parade one will see, more clearly presented than you will find anywhere else, the intertwined stories of human culture, evolution, and human actions toward and in the environment and how those have changed through time. In the parade one will find Darwin, Wallace, and the early history of evolution alongside traditional peoples living as hunter- gatherers in villages, sequoia trees and tangled banks.
The Ehrlichs' tone in the Dominant Animal is both friendly and approachable. Again and again the reader feels as though she has had something logical and intuitive revealed to her. Natural Selection, in the Ehrlichs' hands seems obvious, as does much else in the story of life and the human domination of it. It is easy to find oneself nodding again and again with what this book has to say. The surprise is what the clearly explained facts lead to; the train wreck of our current situation. Every time I read the book, I find myself forgetting what is coming and then there it is, in front of me, the other train.

It is clear early in the book that much is wrong in the world and that those problems have tremendous consequences. Yet this not a doomsday book. Most of the book is actually about the basics of ecology and evolution. There are chapters on evolution, culture, cultural evolution, the interactions between genes and the environment, and even how we perceive the world and how that perception influences our decisions. The book, in walking carefully through those basics all framed around the story of humans, would be very useful for an undergraduate biology course. Each chapter is, in and of itself, a kind of essay or perhaps more so a kind of Ehrlichian lecture; wide ranging, thought provoking and ultimately wound together into a strong thesis. The book binds these essays into a broader thesis about who we are and can be as humans. The Ehrlich's have looked further into the future than most scientists are willing to. They have at times been proven wrong, but more often they have just proven ahead of schedule. To read this book is to see what they are thinking now and, if history serves, to see what, for all of us, lays ahead.

After laying a clear foundation for understanding built on insights drawn from ecology, evolution, anthropology, economics and lifetimes spent talking with others of the ecological intelligentsia, the Ehrlichs turn to what remains before us. Natural selection favored beavers who built damns that improved their environments and improved their odds of surviving. Dammed ponds are, to beavers, a better environment than the one they found when they arrived. Humans, instead of dams, built cities and roads and global networks of communication and commerce. Instead of making our environment better for ourselves we have, in many ways, made it worse, less conducive to our own survival. Beavers dam ponds, but we've, in our way, damned ourselves. Reading this book will make clear the complex causes of this situation, why we've arrived at this point in history and where, if we are wise, we might go from here. This book is full of nuance and joy but also the ecological and evolutionary realities of our situation.

In reading this book I was reminded of another new book, The Superorganism by Burt Holldobler and Ed Wilson (I recently reviewed the book for Natural History Magazine). In The Superorganism, Holldobler and Wilson consider the simple rules that ultimately hold insect societies together. They are rules about communication and division of labor. They are rules that are reinforced because those colonies that do not work efficiently and effectively to produce new generations, fail to pass on their genes. The organization of The Dominant Animal is similar to The Superorganism. In both there are chapters about the evolution of societies, about the rise and fall of populations, and about how societies shape the environment around them. The difference between the stories of humans and those of insect societies is pointed out by Holldobler and Wilson who indicate that unlike ants, humans are conscious of what they are doing and make decisions about their fate. The Ehrlichs are perhaps less optimistic about humans ability to make the right decisions about their societies and the environments of which they are a part. Yet the last chapter of The Dominant Animal is, in part, a foundation for the kinds of rules and governance necessary to sustain human societies. If human societies really are more self-aware and self-determined than those of ants then the ideas laid out in the Ehrlichs' chapters "Saving our Natural Capital" and "Governance: Tackling Unanticipated Consequences" are what we should be paying attention to. Dysfunctional societies of ants are rare because those that were did not pass along their genes. Let's hope that we can choose to determine our fate rather than, like the ant colonies that didn't make it, letting selection decide.

Rob Dunn
Assistant Professor
Department of Biology, North Carolina State University